Perhaps the most far-reaching impact on society by technology has been that of the digital computer. Developed in the late 1930s and early 1940s, and little more than a piece of office equipment until the early 1980s, no other technological device - bar the television or the telephone - has delivered greater or faster change to people in the street.
Like many important technical discoveries made during this century, the military was involved from the very earliest days in the development of the computer. The Colossus was built in England and was switched on in 1943. ENIAC, the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer was built at the University of Pennsylvania in 1945. Both were designed to serve the war effort as devices to decipher the military codes devised by the Germans. The first electronic digital computer, however, was built by a theoretical physicist, Dr John V. Atanasoff, at Iowa State College without military involvement between 1937 and 1942. It was developed to test ways to store data and create electronic logic circuits and so was purely a research device. ENIAC was the most advanced of the three and was the first general-purpose digital computer. It was 2.5 metres high and 24 metres long but did not have the power of a modern, £10, hand-held calculator. There have been many advances along the way that defined the computer's development. The first transistors were put together in 1947 at Bell Laboratories by John Burdeen, Walter H. Brattain and William B. Shockley. These were the rudimentary semi-conductors used to control electrical signals, which over time developed into silicon transistors, integrated circuits and ultimately the microchips we know today. Microchips are ubiquitous. They have travelled beyond computers to our washing machines, televisions, cars, toys and burglar alarms. They control every move a modern satellite makes, are used to control communications such as telephones, mobile phones and pagers and are fundamental to anything electronic we use today. This technology is heavily integrated into military products and the military is a significant funder of computer research, but the private sector is the major developer of this technology, and market forces dictate where it goes next.
This technology is fundamental to the way our lives are structured. Modern medical devices could not operate without electronics. Our communications are made available by them. Many of us have computers and access to the Internet which allows us to travel through a virtual world and make electronic visits with others around our wired world.
How much of this is necessary and how much is driven by the artificial creation of demand? While modern office and hospital equipment must depend on this technology, computers are a discretionary spend for most people. It is clear, however, that it would be very difficult to wean a computer-mad world off the consumer products which use integrated circuits.
One may question, however, where it will all end - if at all - and where is it taking us. Comparisons could be drawn with the sterile world of 1984, where electronics enabled Big Brother to watch over his citizenry.