Sala de Destaques
Sala de Destaques, 25 Oct 2011 to 20 Feb 2012
Punched cards, hard discs, memory cards, floppy discs and various computer models are some of the pieces in this exhibition that document important stages in the recent history of computer technology.
In reality, a computer doesn’t think in the sense of creating ideas or new things. A computer just follows the paths that it has been programmed to follow, and this is done by humans. Even when it ‘learns’, the computer follows the instructions it receives.
The computer uses – yes, it uses – a capacity for calculations and combinations of operations, which has steadily increased over the years. It associates these with others and off it goes, calculation by calculation, to the result.
For the time being, at least, only humans are capable of lateral thinking, and computers might serve as an incentive for us to develop this marvellous and stimulating ability even further.
What is presented here are a few moments of this growing complexity.
Here we take the opportunity to remember the unavoidable Steve Jobs, who, along with others of his generation, opened the doors to this New World in which we live.
