Ask HN: I was invited to speak at a computer museum. What should I tell them?
4 comments
Illustrate an example of how programming a machine was revolutionary, such as the Jacquard loom or the Hollerith machine.
People have direct experience of the impact of computers in their everyday lives; working on documents, playing videogames, using smartphones, etc. What the general public doesn't usually see is the behind the scenes infrastructure (it's nothing short of astonishing that I can ask Youtube for a video posted 15 years ago and have it come up with no perceptible delay) as well as scientific and engineering megaprojects that use, to laypeople, unimaginable amounts of computing power to improve their lives (e.g. supercomputing in weather forecasting) or push back the boundaries of human knowledge (e.g. data processing at the LHC, SETI@Home, Folding@Home). Capturing the public's imagination with the wondrousness of these human achievements is one of the things I would think that a computer museum should want to do.
Pick an example where one computing pioneer finding a solution to a `problem' resulted in some major advancement for humanity. The book `Fire In The Valley' (The Making of The Personal Computer) might provide many clues.
I would stress the mindset of learning from the past to prepare for the future. Examples would be the cracking of the Nazi enigma code with the help of the first computer, stuxnet computer virus to sabotage Iran’s uranium enrichment centrifuges, and the COVID pandemic and remote learning forcing parents every where to become their child’s IT help desk.
I have some ideas for my address already, but I'm looking for more input. What would you guys talk about if you were given the opportunity to speak to an audience of museum staff, educators and policymakers?