When viewed through a political lens, the act of defining terms in
natural language arguably transforms knowledge into values. This unique
volume explores how corporate, military, academic, and professional
values shaped efforts to define computer terminology and establish an
information engineering profession as a precursor to what would become
computer science.
As the Cold War heated up, U.S. federal agencies increasingly funded
university researchers and labs to develop technologies, like the
computer, that would ensure that the U.S. maintained economic prosperity
and military dominance over the Soviet Union. At the same time, private
corporations saw opportunities for partnering with university labs and
military agencies to generate profits as they strengthened their
business positions in civilian sectors. They needed a common vocabulary
and principles of streamlined communication to underpin the technology
development that would ensure national prosperity and military
dominance.
- investigates how language standardization contributed to the
professionalization of computer science as separate from mathematics,
electrical engineering, and physics
- examines traditions of language standardization in earlier eras of
rapid technology development around electricity and radio
- highlights the importance of the analogy of "the computer is like a
human" to early explanations of computer design and logic
- traces design and development of electronic computers within political
and economic contexts
- foregrounds the importance of human relationships in decisions about
computer design
This in-depth humanistic study argues for the importance of natural
language in shaping what people come to think of as possible and
impossible relationships between computers and humans. The work is a key
reference in the history of technology and serves as a source textbook
on the human-level history of computing. In addition, it addresses those
with interests in sociolinguistic questions around technology studies,
as well as technology development at the nexus of politics, business,
and human relations.
