Computer

Computer may seem a rather humdrum word these days. It describes a class of mechanical devices which are able to act on inputs and produce outputs. However, upon closer consideration, this definition is surprisingly all-encompassing. An iMac is certainly a computer, but mobile phones, MP3 players, microwaves, refrigerators, and the brain itself are all computers. Going in to this project, I knew the basic definition of a modern day computer, i.e. Turing completeness, where a computer is able to create any output based on a finite series of inputs, and I had a vague idea of the definition it had before. A computer was not always a computer. Its original meaning was a mathematically employed person, and that hints at a multitude of meanings hid beneath the surface which I am interested in.