John Jordan is a freelance writer from Chatham and co-owns a Bed and Breakfast at the family farm.	The Dark Side

 

I read the other day that the fellow who invented the integrated circuit passed away. I never thought much of it at the time but then a few major setbacks came my way in the interim and his passing took on new meaning. You will note I am not mentioning his name because frankly, I can't remember it and I bet you don't know his name either but has he ever changed our lives. I think sometimes for the worse.

Please, just put this article down if you don't want to know what kind of dinosaur I am. I want to relate to you just what the integrated circuit and subsequent miniaturizations of anything we use that lets electrons do the walking and work.

Well, first of all, I started out at age 5 just after the log cabin and 1 was looking at this big box with a picture coming out of it. Took two minutes for it to warm up if you remembered to feed the mice but with some patience, sure enough the Lone Ranger came riding through the canyon each Saturday to entertain us. In black and white, of course. Still no integrated circuits used here, just tubes and other glowing articles to control those electrons.

In my teens, NEC and RCA got together and said, "You know colour TV would attract even more audience and would help sell more expensive TVs." Did I mention that first black and white model sold for $500? And you could buy a decent used car at the time for about $1,500.

So back to the early 60's when NEC called up this Shakespearean actor and former World War II vintage news caster from up there in Canada to take on the paternal role of the boss of this big Nevada ranch called the Ponderosa. Lome Greene as Pa Cartwright and Bonanza sold a bunch of TVs for RCA but as far as I know, no integrated circuits just yet. Even had to get up to change the channel. That was my job.

Just about the same time as that early colour TV, someone came along and said folks are getting lazy and the men out there need something to soothe their testosterone production. "Let's invent the 'clicker'," said they. It indeed was a clicker, one that sent out harmonic signals to tell a motor inside the TV set to roll the channels. Still, no integrated circuits. It wasn't until the late 60's when the modern day circuitry was added to make this device small enough to lose down the sofa cushion.

In fairness, I must mention we did have Japanese transistor radios to listen to. That really was our first exposure to integrated circuits.

And integrated circuits were being used in the space program. In fact, I don't think those rockets would have ever gotten off the ground if it wasn't for integrated circuits.

And with the space program, came computers but those early Univacs and their offspring on Planet Earth were not big into integrated circuits, yet. Instead, these awesome machines were housed in huge climate controlled rooms with men in white coats walking around keeping them running. I recall handing punch cards with a program that probably added 2 plus 2 through a window to the white coated operator to run on the behemoth.

Well, let's move along in this dull career and see when I first used an integrated circuit at work. In the news room of the early 70's, we banged out stories on manual Underwoods and the noise of the typewriters and the teletype machine was deafening. Didn't help that we newsies had two or three radio monitors blaring plus the police radio. Note, I said radio, not scanner.

And the tape machines we used were just one step up from the transcription recorder that still sat in the corner collecting dust. These tape machines did have integrated circuits and they did allow us to actually record something without having to load up a truck with all the old sound equipment.

Fast forward to the 80's when the police radio turned into a scanner with modern circuitry in it, when we had really lightweight tape recorders that fit in your hand, and the manual typewriters were slowly being replaced by electric ones which had early word processing features.

Still no PC type computers in sight.

But by the time the mid-Eighties rolled around, there were getting to be personal computers that actually had a business application and I became a willing slave to these machines at work.

The next 20 years is too recent history. Most of us have had personal experience with all the applications of integrated circuits.

We are all reliant on this integrated circuit technology; farmers with their GPS steered tractors, office buildings filled with computers, automobiles controlled by the programming running through integrated circuits, the home maker who touches the keypad of the washing machine to tell it what to do, you name it, integrated circuits are everywhere.

But two recent events hit me between the eyes and told me, "enough is enough".

Where I work now, at my real job, we had a problem with getting the heavy duty electrons to flow down some archaic buried cable across the campus. In short, the cable crapped out and we were in the dark. So was the computer screen, the fax machine, the copier, the list goes on. All the office type employees were up the creek without a proverbial paddle. So we went home, sat on the verandah and no work got done.

I bet with the help of a car battery and an old Underwood, I know I could at least have done the radio broadcast. Didn't happen, though. Neither did the e-mail or the other computer created messages get out to the public. People couldn't even shout at me on the telephone because it went dead.

And the second thing just occurred today. Our person who does everything around the office said, "Help! We need a typewriter down here to turn out some student cards. Anyone seen a typewriter?" The office was quiet. No one could remember the last time we saw one. It was scary, I tell you. Now, where is one of those manual Underwoods when you need one?