From Networks of Computers to Network Computers

In a documentary released in 1990, Steve Jobs tells a story that he would return to repeatedly over the course of his career: <blockquote> I think one of the things that really separates us from the high primates is that we’re tool builders. I read a study that measured the efficiency of locomotion for various species on the planet. The condor used the least energy to move a kilometer — and humans came in with a rather unimpressive showing, about a third of the way down the list. It was not too proud a showing for the crown of creation. So, that didn’t look so good. But, then somebody at Scientific American had the insight to test the efficiency of locomotion for a man on a bicycle. And, a man on a bicycle, a human on a bicycle, blew the condor away, completely off the top of the charts. And that’s what a computer is to me. What a computer is to me is it’s the most remarkable tool that we’ve ever come up with, and it’s the equivalent of a bicycle for our minds.¹ </blockquote> Conceptualizing computers in this way offers a beneficial reminder that they are ultimately tools, no matter how advanced their capabilities may be: At the most basic level, a computer is a machine used to process data. While beginning at this level of analysis might initially seem overly simplistic, doing so makes it possible to offer an account of how computers and associated tools (i.e., Information Technology) have evolved, in terms that make clear what the next stages in that evolutionary process are likely to be. <a href="https://medium.com/block-science/from-networks-of-computers-to-network-computers-and-beyond-26d6d70c6471">Website</a>

From Networks of Computers to Network Computers — and Beyond