George Strawn

Moore's Law at Fifty

In 1965, Gordon Moore predicted that the number of transistors on a chip would double every year for the next 10 years. Moores law is still in effect today, with more than a billion transistors able to fit on a chip as of 2010. This article revisits Moores law and the rise of microelectronics.

Masterminds of the Arpanet

The Internet began with the Arpanet, which celebrates its 45th birthday this year. The Arpanet came out of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which was created in 1958 and, through its Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO), has been a major source of support for IT research and development. Early IPTO directors envisioned interconnected computers, and three masterminds in particular led the effort to achieve this vision: Larry Roberts, Bob Kahn, and Vint Cerf.

Masterminds of Artificial Intelligence: Marvin Minsky and Seymour Papert

Marvin Minsky and Seymour Papert had closely joined careers at MIT in artificial intelligence and other fields. This article highlights some of their contributions.

Relational Databases: Codd, Stonebraker, and Ellison

In 1970, an article by Edgar F. Codd determined the primary direction of high-level database languages for the next 40 years. The authors give an overview of the relational model for database systems, then highlight three of the masterminds who created and developed it: Codd, Michael Stonebraker, and Larry Ellison.

Claude Shannon: Mastermind of Information Theory

Claude Shannon helped create the digital IT revolution by contributing to both digital computing and digital communications. Learn about Shannons contributions to digital circuit theory and information theory and the connection he initiated between information and physics.

Grace Hopper: Compilers and Cobol

This sketch of Grace Murray Hopper, the first famous female computer scientist, focuses on her early programming days, creation of the first compiler, leadership in creating the Cobol language, and latter-day speaking career. It also highlights the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing conference, which, since 1994, has brought together an increasing number of women (and now men) to address the disappointing gender imbalance in IT professions.

The Father of Supercomputing: Seymour Cray

Seymour Cray is universally known as the father of supercomputing. This article describes some of Crays many contributions to supercomputing as he worked in five different corporate environments from 1951 until his death.

IT and Future Unemployment: Part 2

There are several possible relationships between long-term, automation-caused unemployment and short-term, offshoring-caused unemployment. The author describes some of these relationships, examines the connection between unemployment and the presidential election of 2016, and looks at two recent interviews that express concern about automation-caused unemployment and discuss a remedy for it.

IT, Unemployment, and Ideology

The author reviews Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow, by historian Yuval Harari. He examines Hararis speculation about long-term consequences of automation that go beyond unemployment to ideology. In particular, Harari suggest that one potential ideology of the future is dataism, in which we trust technology with more and more of our decisions.

IT and 21st Century Employment

The author examines a US National Academies study that looks at employment in the 21st century, and what automation and other technological advances might mean for workers in the future.