Computer Language & Terms

[alive_miracles]

Hiya, I'm trying to discover more about the language of computers (coding, etc) as well as the terminology around what makes a computer. I plan to write a story from the perspective of a computer. This device will be a metaphor for being neurodivergent (autism, adhd, ocd, etc) and a state of anarchism.

[1.]

Do any of you know any historical figures, events, or devices that would be relevant to this subject?

[2.]

Any specific words related to computers/coding language that would be a good idea to think of/implement?

[3.]

Know of any websites or people I could get in contact with to help understand and possibly apply accurate knowledge to my story?

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I agree with the other comment that this is very open ended. I'm curious to hear more details.

[1] Computer history is a fascinating and complex topic. To be extremely general, first mathematicians like Ada Lovelace toyed around with different niche ways of doing math (i.e. binary and boolean logic) and they thought about using newly discovered electricity to crunch big numbers. Then Alan Turing came up with a theoretical model known as the Turing machine to describe how any computer works at a low level, he also invented the first digital computer to help crack the enigma code in WW2. In the 60s-90s there was a boom of technology, the computer was refined into what we'd recognize today, standards were ironed out, and the internet was born. One big name from this age was Linus Torvalds, inventor of linux. You can think of linux like a competitor to windows. Then we get into the modern age where everyone gets online and buys computers and you should hopefully know all the major milestones from here.

[2] To understand a computer you must think in levels of abstraction. You can't worry about how efficiently your hardware is running while trying to troubleshoot a YouTube video. I'd say the main layers are hardware, firmware (which includes you operating system), software, and networking. All of these systems work together to bring this message from me to you. I agree taking an introduction to software development course online would be helpful.

[3] On top of learning the basics of coding from w3 schools or geeks for geeks (python is an easy language to learn) I'd recommend lurking on computer/coding focused subreddits. There's a ton and you'll see the lingo in context.

[alive_miracles]

Thanks for the advice and bits of history! Truthfully I wanna make story about a computer that was designed to be a friend. And perhaps even a therapist. And it realize with all these updates and support it gives to its creator, turning it back to itself. I was gonna do it divided into possible short stories. The anarchism part would be related to forced to be tool that isn't just a therapist but also collect people's information and sell it. However the computer begins to challenge that with its therapist/friendly functions vs capitalist functions. It's still in the works.

[(Anonymous)]

I think the easiest way to represent those competing priorities (helping it's patient vs selling their data) is to look at most computer sci-fi stories and invert the whole "kill SOME people to protect all people" logic (see 2001: a space odyssey, I, robot, etc.)

[(Anonymous)]

I have no mouth and I must scream is a very dark story that covers a robot talking about itself and grappling with dumb given rules.

[alive_miracles]

AHAH yes what a unit AM is! Angrii computer!

[alive_miracles]

Those are all good examples. I have seen a few of them but I definitely wanna study them more and their approaches.