The document provides an overview of the history of information technology through four stages: pre-mechanical age, mechanical age, electromechanical age, and electronic age. Some key developments include the invention of writing systems in 3000 BC, the printing press in 1450, Charles Babbage inventing the difference engine and analytical engine in the 1820s-1830s laying the foundation for modern computers, Samuel Morse inventing the telegraph in 1835, and Konrad Zuse building the first programmable computer called the Z3 in 1941. The document traces the evolution of information storage, processing, and communication technologies over thousands of years.

1. President Ramon Magsaysay State University Computer Engineering Department
Living in the
Information Technology
Era

2. Lesson 1
Introduction to Living in the IT Era

3. By: Froilan G. Cantillo
Living in the IT Era
Introduction to living in the IT Era
Information
• Information is facts provided or learned about something or
someone.
• Information is knowledge acquired from another.
• Information is knowledge you can convey to others.
• Knowledge gained through study, communication, research,
instruction.
Methods for transfer of information
• Image
• Text
• Sound
• Video
Technology
• From Greek word “technologies” in other form “techne” means
art, skill, or craft “logia” means study generally, technology makes
better.
• Technology is applications of scientific knowledge to solve
problem or perform a specific function.
Examples
• The simplest form of technology is the development and use of
basic tools.
• Invention of the wheel helped humans to travel.
Information Technology
• Use of computers to store, retrieve, transmit, and manipulate
data or information.
• Information technology involving the development, maintenance,
and use of computer systems, software, and networks for the
processing and distribution of data.
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4. By: Froilan G. Cantillo
Living in the IT Era
History of Information Technology
Four Stages of Information Technology Development:
• Pre-Mechanical Age
• Mechanical Age
• Electromechanical Age
• Electronic Age
PRE-MECHANICAL AGE: 3000 B.C. - 1450 A.D.
1. Writing and Alphabets-communication.
• Petroglyph - First humans communicated only through
speaking and picture drawings.
• 3000 B.C., the Sumerians in Mesopotamia (what is today
southern Iraq) devised cuniform.
• The Greeks later adopted the Phoenician alphabet and
added vowels; the Romans gave the letters Latin names to
create the alphabet we use today.
2. Paper and Pens--input technologies.
• Sumerians' input technology was a stylus that could scratch
marks in wet clay.
• About 2600 B.C., the Egyptians write on the papyrus plant.
• Around 100 A.D., the Chinese made paper from rags, on
which modern-day papermaking is based.
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5. By: Froilan G. Cantillo
Living in the IT Era
History of Information Technology
3. Books and Libraries: Permanent Storage Devices.
• Religious leaders in Mesopotamia kept the earliest "books"
• The Egyptians kept scrolls.
• Around 600 B.C., the Greeks began to fold sheets of papyrus
vertically into leaves and bind them together.
4. The First Numbering Systems.
• Egyptian System:
o The numbers 1-9 as vertical lines, the number 10 as a
U or circle, the number 100 as a coiled rope, and the
number 1,000 as a lotus blossom.
• The first numbering systems like those in use today were
invented between 100 and 200 A.D. by Hindus in India who
created a nine-digit numbering system.
• Around 875 A.D., the concept of zero was developed.
5. The First Calculators: The Abacus.
• One of the very first information processors.
MECHANICAL AGE: 1450 – 1840
1. The First Information Explosion.
• Johann Gutenberg – Invented the movable metal-type
printing process in 1450.
• The development of book indexes and the widespread use
of page numbers.
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6. By: Froilan G. Cantillo
Living in the IT Era
History of Information Technology
2. Calculating Machine
• Wilhelm Schickard invented the first mechanical calculator in
1623 that can work with six digits and can carries digits
across columns.
3. Pascaline
• The Pascaline. Invented by Blaise Pascal (1642) (made of
clock gears and levers) that could solve mathematical
problems like addition and subtraction.
4. Babbage's Engines
• Charles Babbage – invented the difference engine (1821)
and analytical engine (1832). Father of modern computer.
ELETROMECHANICAL AGE: 1840 – 1940
1. Morse Code: 1835
• Samuel Morse – conceived of his version of an
Electromagnetic Telegraph (Dots and Dashes)
2. Telephone and Radio: 1876
• Alexander Graham Bell – developed the first working
telephone.
3. Comptograph: 1885
• Dorr Felt – invented first adding and subtracting calculator.
• Comptograph containing a built-in printer.
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7. By: Froilan G. Cantillo
Living in the IT Era
History of Information Technology
4. Punch Card: 1890
• Piece of stiff paper that contains digital information
represented by the presence or absence of holes in
predefined positions.
ELECTRONIC AGE: 1941 – PRESENT
1. Z3: 1941
• Konrad Zuse – Built the first programmable computer
called Z3.
2. Mark I: 1942
• John von Neumann – Build the first stored program
computer.
• 8 feet tall, 51 feet long, 2 feet thick, weighed 5 tons, used
about 750,000 parts, 500 miles of wires.
3. ABC Computer: 1942
• John Atanasoff and Clifford Berry.
• Completed the first all-electronic computer called ABC or
Atanasoff-Berry Computer.
• Foundation for advances in electronic digital computers.
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