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antipaucity

fighting the lack of good ideas

computers were made for americans

Posted on 5 November 20075 November 2007 By antipaucity No Comments on computers were made for americans

Or at least, they were built for people who speak English.

Evidence for my claim: the first electronic computers were built during WWII by the British and Americans for code breaking; the first programming languages were designed, written, and implemented by Americans and British; the transistor, which led to the IC, was developed by Americans; the integrated circuit was designed by Americans; the Internet project was funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA); Tim Berners-Lee was born and raised in England, and invented the World Wide Web.

Most programming languages are written from left-to-right. Interfaces are designed to be read and processed from left-to-right.

I wonder how different computers and interfaces would appear if they had been originated in a non-English-speaking country, or non-Western culture?

Would they seem more intuitive to us, or less? Would they be easier to use, or less? Would countries like China be leading the world in technology, with the US being some kind of feeder economy if computers had been invented elsewhere?

What do you think might be different if computers hadn’t been invented for Americans?

commentary, insights, technical

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