"Before computers existed, people performed massive calculations by hand where error, repetition, and standardization shaped the outcome. We tracked comets, mapped nations, and solved problems of scale. That legacy of manual calculation shapes how we live today; our modern algorithms and the shaping of predictive models. DAVID ALAN GRIER: I'm David Alan Grier. I am currently a writer and author on issues of technology and industry and things of that sort. In the past, I have been a computer programmer, a professor, a software engineer,"
"The Industrial Revolution is about systematizing production. And it's about producing goods of uniform quality, if not uniform design, at the lowest possible cost for the largest possible market. If you want a date that's easy to remember and just nails things down, you go with 1776. And that's useful for my purpose as a writer, because that's also the year that Adam Smith's "The Wealth of Nations" is published."
Before computers existed, people performed massive hand calculations, with error, repetition, and standardization shaping outcomes. Human calculators tracked comets, mapped nations, and solved problems of scale. The practices of manual computation created conventions and workflows that inform contemporary algorithm design and the shaping of predictive models. Computing aligns with the Industrial Revolution through the systematization of production, division of labor, and specialization of tasks to produce uniform, low-cost goods for large markets. The year 1776 and Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations capture early descriptions of industrial processes and the push for uniform products, influencing industries such as cotton and pottery.
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