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As you already know from reading the biography of Turing, he created a model for a machine able to solve any calculation called the Turing Machine, which was an amazing step forward into the future. Indeed, this machine is considered to be the DNA of modern computers as it gave some ideas about what computation (the action of mathematical calculation) was and what it would mean to have a program (a set of instructions for a computer to perform some task). Furthermore, the Turing Machine concept can be be used to model anything a digital computer can do and operates exactly like modern computers do now, but the fact that modern computers now use binary. In this sense, Alan Turing owns the title of father of computing.

Computers, introduced by Turing, now play a very important role in the lives of about everybody on this planet. Indeed, they have grown to be very useful to mankind and are now totally embedded in our society, and many people depend on them. Computers, even though we may not realize the impact of them, were a total revolution, making them very useful tools. Indeed, they help in many fields, if not all.

First of all, computers are extremely useful for business. Indeed, they allow for a person to be able to keep track very easily of money and accounts(using excel sheets to calculate instantaneously for example). As well, computers have made making graphs or pie charts extremely easy, which are used profusely whenever you need to present statistics (or the results of our inquest on Alan Turing). Finally, business organization use online marketing, which was developed thanks to the invention of computers, to advertise and make what they sell accessible from any part of the world. For example, a business like amazon, whose CEO is nowadays the richest person on earth could not have been developed without the introducing of computers in our daily lives.

Computers are also extremely practical in everyday life and omnipresent even though we are not aware of it. Indeed, the transaction whenever you purchase something at a store using your credit card, is actually processed through computer technology. The computer processes customer information fed to it through the credit card, detects the transaction and finally pays the bill by taking off the amount of whatever purchased item from the card. As well, thanks to computer technology, which operate ATM machines, anyone is able to very easily withdraw any amount of cash he/she requires, which would have been much longer if these machines were led by humans. Furthermore, computers have allowed for you to purchase anything online, therefore not needing to physically be in the store to buy an item: in a few clicks, you can get whatever you want delivered on your doorstep a few hours after your order and the only requirement for that is having an internet connection and a credit card. In a way, computers allowed for humans not to waste time into “useless” things like going to a shop to buy new clothes. In the same way, you are no longer required to go to a station to buy a train or plane ticket as you can buy it online at any time thanks to the advent of computer technology. Life with computers became easier and enjoyable.

Computers are embedded in our lives even though we do not see them physically. For instance, they are extremely present in the transport sector as vehicles, trains, airplanes (more than half of the flight is in automatic pilot) and even traffic lights are controlled by computers.

As well, computers have allowed the world of entertainment industry to evolve greatly, introducing special effects in movies for example. Indeed, movies like Star Wars, Matrix, Harry Potter or Jurassic park would not have existed without the intervention of computers to make these movies more realistic. Some movies like Toy Story and Wall-E are even made entirely by computers. As well as impacting the cinematic world, computers have allowed for video games to become more and more realistic, introducing 3d graphics for example. Finally, the arrival of computers in our daily lives allowed for music editing to become better and better.

The educational field had also been greatly impacted by computers on two fronts. First of all, they help students, from middle school to university with a lot of assignments and presentations. For instance, if you were given a project on a planet, you could use the internet to search for information in case you do not know everything about it. A few days later, if you had to present this research or write an essay about it, you would use Powerpoint or a word-processing device. In this sense, computers are extremely involved in student life as they make it easier to modify their work and to keep it, syncronizing it to a hard disc for example in order to keep class notes for an exam. To revise for this exam, one can also go on one of the many websites or videos that exist to help with revisions.

On the other hand, teachers tend to use computers a lot as well. They use them to keep track of grades or to prepare notes and presentation for their future classes.

Computing has also given way to a new era of learning: e-learning, with the rise of MOOC(Massive Open Online Course) for instance, which have allowed people from all around the world to have access to knowledge.

Computers have also greatly impacted the medical field. Indeed, they help in hospitals and even in little pharmacies, where doctors and nurses use them to keep track of a patient’s medication. As well, in big hospitals, computers are used as a database to keep track of information on every patient, which is crucial if for example a patient were allergic to one type of medication. Computers allow for big infrastructures like hospitals to save space as they have a storage that takes-up none and allows them to keep a colossal amount of information (like medical bills and equipments) in a very safe way. Computing takes-up an important space in our lives as there are now many laws put into place in order to protect one’s data and private information.

As well, scientists use computers for research on many diseases such as STD’s and cancers. As a matter of fact, many cures wouldn’t have been found if it wasn’t for computers.

Computers, medically speaking, have also been proven be better doctors than humans. Indeed, whenever a human needs to diagnose an illness like a cancer for example, there are at times medical mistakes, which over time have caused many deaths due to undetected illnesses. A computer can be given the symptoms of a patient and, according to a specific algorithm, detect illnesses and give a more accurate diagnosis than a doctor. Therefore, computers are extremely useful in the medical field as they allow for less medical mistakes. Computers take-up more and more space in the medical area, especially in surgery even though, we have not yet found a way for them to totally replace humans.

Finally, computers have had a huge impact in the area of space exploration. They indeed, help in designing the right kinds of equipments and ships used nowadays for most exploration, which large organizations like NASA need. In space, small human errors or miscalculations can create serious problems. Therefore, computers provide faster and more accurate handling of data, in order to plan a mission and analyse parameters during it. Without them, effective missions would be impossible. These computers, for example, have allowed for explorations such as life on Mars to be conclusive. As well, computers, which are initially giant calculators, help solve complex mathematics like determining the angle from which rockets should be launched, which is a difficult thing to calculate. It is indeed crucial for these calculations to be extremely accurate and a mistake cannot be allowed as it could lead up to crashing a rocket, which is why computers help hugely as they allow to solve complex calculations instantaneously and accurately when a human being would take more time and possibly be mistaken.

Overall, computers serve as efficient data storage system and incomparable information processors. They can store, organize, and manage huge amounts of data. Apart from this, what makes computers unique and irreplacable is their incomparable speed, which saves human time and effort in calculations for instance. Therefore, they are an integral part of our lives and it is barely imaginable to picture a world without computer technology; they are embedded in our culture. Computers of course have an impact on more fields than the ones exposed and, very simply, don’t you think that the fact that you are reading a typed-up article from an online website on a computer speaks a lot about how this technology affects our lives? All in all, computers, introduced by Alan Turing after WWII meant progress for a whole society, a revolution of Western culture. Some say that they take away man power, which may be true but it stays undeniable that computers did make the impossible possible and the first example of this was winning WWII.