The main stages of the development of technical facilities and information resources

In the development of modern mankind, a wide variety of changes in the information sphere are constantly arising, and some can be called a real revolution. At the same time, many people do not even know the main stages of the development of technical means and information resources.

What were these revolutions?

The first revolution can be called the appearance of writing, as it allowed people to accumulate and further disseminate the knowledge they gained. Stages of the development of technical means and information resources originate in writing, since without it it would be impossible to achieve anything that is known to us today.

The second revolution occurred already in the middle of the 16th century and is typography. People have a need to be able to provide mass-accessible knowledge, and not just keep them in one way or another. Literacy has become an increasingly broad phenomenon that has begun to embrace the broad masses of people. There was also a significant acceleration in the growth of technological and scientific progress, which ultimately led to an industrial breakthrough, which also made a significant contribution to the development stages of technical facilities and information resources. Books completely crossed national borders, which ultimately led to the start of the formation of universal civilization.

The third revolution is the significant progress of specialized means of communication. Such stages of the development of technical means and information resources, such as the emergence of a telephone, radio and telegraph, made it possible to transfer the information as quickly as possible to any distance, and as a result, they were used almost everywhere.

The fourth revolution is the emergence of personal computers and microprocessors. With the passage of time, full-fledged computer telecommunications were formed, which had a significant impact on search and information storage systems. The main stages in the development of technical means and information resources provoked significant changes in the development of modern society, as a result of which it began to be called "information".

What is the Information Society?

It is a society in which the majority of employed people in their work is associated with the storage, production, processing and subsequent implementation of various information, including knowledge as its highest form. Information today is an object of universal consumption, and modern society provides any entity with full access to any data sources. Over time, more and more new criteria for assessing the level of development of society, such as the number of connections to the Internet, computers, stationary and mobile phones, and many others are beginning to appear.

How is it different?

It is worth noting several main differences that the information society received after the main stages of the development of technical facilities and information resources have passed:

• Significantly increased the role of knowledge, as well as relevant technologies in life;
• The number of people whose work is directly connected with information technology, communications, and the production of related services and products has increased, and their share in the gross domestic product of developed countries has also increased;
• The so-called informatization of society is increasing due to the fact that computers, telephones, as well as electronic and traditional mass media are beginning to be used more and more widely;
• A global information space has emerged , through which access to various resources is ensured, effective interaction has emerged, and the needs of modern society for various services and products are fully satisfied;
• The information economy, e-democracy, digital markets, business and social networks are gradually developing.

The very concept of "information society" was developed in the 80's. The telecommunications revolution dates back to the mid-1970s and gradually merges with the computer, which, in fact, began much earlier and also proceeded in several stages.

How was the computer revolution?

The development of technical facilities and information resources in the field of computer technologies has its origin already in the 30s of the last century, and this stage is usually called the "zero cycle". Its beginning consists in the development of the first electronic computers, in which instead of the standard mechanical parts, specialized electronic lamps began to be used.

The second stage is the creation of the first personal computers, in which integrated circuits were used , as well as their further mass production.

Telecommunication revolution

It is difficult to say which stages of development of technical facilities and information resources have made the most significant impact, but a separate place is given to the telecommunications revolution that occurred after the advent of satellite and fiber-optic technologies.

The symbiosis of computer and telecommunication technologies has created a huge number of new services and goods on the market, and today they are one of the key sectors of the economy of the predominant majority of developed countries. Many consider it necessary to constantly import various consumer goods, and instead take out various information products, on which sales and earn national wealth.

To date, the cost of information technology is an order of magnitude higher than that of consumer goods, thanks to which developed countries have achieved such a high standard of living. Many today do not understand that the degree of political leadership in the modern world largely depends on what the main stages of the development of technical means and information resources have passed this or that state and how actively it uses specialized technologies.

What did the technology combine?

Due to the fact that the telecommunications and computer revolution merged, networks of huge scales, including global ones, began to be formed. With the help of such information networks, a much faster search, transmission and processing of any desired data is provided.

Under the information resources in this case, information is provided that is fixed on a certain material carrier and then stored in specialized systems, such as various banks, funds, archives and libraries. The owner of the information resource is one person or a certain group of persons, a company, a region, a city, a country or even the whole world. Such a resource is a product of the activity of the most qualified part of modern society.

What is the difference?

There is one significant difference between information and other resources - all other resources completely disappear after their use, while this is unlimited and can be used an infinite number of times or, if necessary, copied without any restrictions. Moreover, such resources can increase, because the use of data is rarely absolutely passive and, in most cases, leads to the appearance of additional information.

What are they like?

Stages of the development of technical means and information resources in history gave rise to two types of such data sources - state and non-state. Depending on the access category, the data itself is divided into open and restricted access. In turn, the last category is divided into information with state secrets and just confidential data.

What led to the development?

Many of today do not know about what are the stages of development of technical facilities and information resources. History shows that certain inventions of science had an extremely strong influence on its improvement and the general development of civilization. In particular, this refers to the development of a wheel, a steam engine, the discovery of electricity, atomic energy, and many others. The processes of significant changes in the nature of production, which led to various discoveries in the field of science, are called the scientific and technological revolution.

Stages

After the computer equipment appeared in the second half of the last century, it became the most important factor of such a revolution. Thus, we can note three main stages:

• The creation of the first computer in 1945. For almost 30 years computers have been used by very few people, and they were mostly found only in production and science.
• The appearance of personal computers in the 70's. PCs have become very and very widely used not only in the production and scientific fields, but also in maintenance, education and everyday life. Thus, over time, computers have become such a subject of everyday life, as well as standard household appliances like television sets or tape recorders.
• The emergence of the Internet - a global computer network. After the appearance of the "World Wide Web," the computer, which is placed on a small desk, for each person has become a window into an immense information world. With this stage, such concepts as "cyberspace" or "world information space" began to appear. It was after the advent of the Internet that people began to think about the fact that the history of civilization led us to the stage of "information-oriented society".

Many people say that there are four stages in the development of technical facilities and information resources, but this applies to a greater extent to the formation of modern computer technology.

How did the computer technology develop?

The computer is the main instrument of computerization. As mentioned above, there are 4 stages of development of technical facilities and information resources related directly to computer technology:

• Manual. This stage was based on the use of fingers and toes. Account management by transferring various items and groupings is the predecessor of the account on the abacus - the most developed ancient calculating device. As an analog of this tool, you can bring bills that are used by some people to this day.
• Computing devices and devices. Such adaptations appeared due to the significant development of mechanics in the 17th century, as a result of which a mechanical method of calculation appeared. Thus, a mechanical counting machine appeared, Pascal invented the eight-digit model of a counting summarizing machine, while Leibniz formed the first so-called calculator, with which it was possible to perform all four operations in the arithmetic domain.
• Electromechanical. This stage is the least lengthy, as it lasted for 60 years, from the appearance of the first electromechanical machine and ending with the formation of the first counting and analytical complexes containing in their structure a sorting machine, tabulator and manual perforator. In particular, the latest products were used to process the results of the population census in various countries, including Russia.
• Electronic. It is connected with the advent of an electronic computer called ENIAC in 1945. In the history of the further development of computers, it is customary to single out several generations at once, each of which has its own unique characteristics and distinctive features.

Thus, each separate stage made its own contribution to the development of modern information technologies and the formation of a society that we know today.