Abstract
This paper examines the innovative ideas and inventions that shaped and defined the evolution of early computing from 1833 to 1945. It documents the contribution of automatic digital computing by Charles Babbage in 1833; logician George Boole's concept of digital computer circuit design in the 1850s; Herman Hollerith's punch cards of the 1890s; Alan Turing's conceptual computing of the 1930s; and Vannevar Bush's 1945 vision of modern computing and 'Memex', the theoretical precursor of hypertext. Guided by actor-network theory and diffusion of innovation theory, this paper concludes that innovations are influenced by needs and effects of the age, the power of the printed word and the evolutionary process of diffusion are inevitable aspects of adoption and diffusion of new technologies, and 'lead users' and dominant technological designs shape media technologies.
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