1960

The 1960s transformed our relationship with machines. Between two blocs glaring at each other in an undeclared war, computing carved out a path that exceeded mere military concerns. The shock caused by Sputnik in 1957 still echoed through the corridors of Washington. The creation of DARPA in 1958 was America’s response: a think tank that would revolutionize our relationship with technology.

America then invested colossal sums in research. MIT, Stanford, Berkeley—these names became synonymous with innovation. In their laboratories, young men in white shirts and narrow ties imagined the future. The American government, worried about the rising Soviet power, spared no expense to maintain its technological edge.

Companies began equipping themselves with these enormous machines at dizzying prices. Banks, insurance companies, and heavy industries sought to tame the growing flood of data overwhelming their accounting departments. These first computers, true electronic cathedrals, transformed work organization. Punched cards gradually replaced handwritten ledgers.

AT&T modernized its network with electronic switching. This technical change, hardly spectacular for the general public, constituted the first building block of future computer networks, a colossal edifice. Bell Labs engineers conducted the first digital transmission experiments.

The youth of the 1960s viewed the world differently. University campuses bubbled with new ideas. For these students, the computer was not merely a military or accounting tool. They saw it as a means of expression, a tool for freedom. This alternative vision of computing germinated in the minds of future microcomputer pioneers.

The space race stimulated innovation. How could a man be sent to the Moon without powerful computers? NASA demanded reliable computers capable of withstanding extreme conditions. Embedded computing was born from this constraint. Later, these advances were adapted to civilian needs. The Apollo program thus gave birth to innovations that subsequently extended beyond the space domain.

Europe, scarred by war, tried to keep pace. In France, Charles de Gaulle launched the Plan Calcul in 1966, dreaming of technological independence. The Compagnie Internationale pour l’Informatique was to embody this French ambition. The United Kingdom capitalized on the legacy of Alan Turing and the Bletchley Park computers. Germany, focused on its industrial reconstruction, automated its factories.

On the other side of the world, Japan awakened. Fujitsu and NEC, names unknown in the West, developed their first computers. The Land of the Rising Sun initiated its future dominance in electronics.

In 1964, IBM changed the rules of the game with its System/360. This family of mutually compatible computers created a de facto standard. Gone were the days when each machine spoke a different language. This standardization accelerated the adoption of computing in medium-sized companies. The software market found fertile ground to develop.

MIT bubbled with ideas. The Compatible Time-Sharing System allowed multiple people to use the same computer simultaneously, a concept that heralded interactive computing. At Xerox PARC, researchers invented the graphical interfaces that would later make computers accessible to everyone.

These technological transformations worried unions, who feared massive job losses. These questions were already being asked, so current with artificial intelligence. Society discovered that a technological revolution always brings social upheavals.

The computer fascinated the general public. Television showed these mysterious machines with blinking lights. The computer in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, HAL 9000, embodied both the promise and threat of artificial intelligence. Computing entered the collective imagination.

The late 1960s saw the birth of a new concern: personal data protection. The computerization of administrations raised unprecedented questions about privacy. The first legal texts framing these issues began to appear.

The 1960s thus saw computers leave laboratories to enter the real world. This decade defined the contours of our relationship with machines. The technical, economic, and cultural choices of this period continue to influence our digital present. In American universities of the 1960s, the history of the 21^st century was being written. Computers weighed several tons and cost the equivalent of 4,000,000 euros today. Nowadays, everyone carries in their pocket a machine infinitely more powerful.