Week  3 of the course covered a wide array of topics. Among them were the Second World War, the Cold War and the military industrial complex. HIST 390 comes in through the history of computing. The weapons and weapons systems created by the superpowers during these conflicts required a vast amount of funding and research allocated towards the development of advanced computing.

Things like ballistic trajectories for shells, rockets, and missiles needed complex engineering advanced by analog, and later digital computers. The resulting progress in computing was essential for the technology we have today. It’s incredible to think how much of the technology we regularly use today originated during this time period. Following the Second World War the leap in technology was mind boggling.