Stanford Stories XXII - Museum of Computer History

“It never rains in California …”, well at least most of the time. This weekend actually featured two rainy days, which is why I did not go cycling. Instead, I decided to visit the Museum of Computer History in Mountain View - one of the birthplaces of the Silicon Valley.

The Computer History Museum is a unique and fascinating destination that showcases the evolution of computing across the last 500 years, from the earliest mechanical calculators, punch card tabulators, the first personal computers to the most advanced supercomputers. The museum also has an extensive collection of original software, hardware, and documentation from many of the most significant computer companies and organizations of the 20th century. For all connoisseur of scientific computing, the CHM also has a special project on the history of FORTRAN ;)

Together with an old friend from NYU, we spent nearly 3h in the permanent exhibition on the history of computing, but did not have nearly enough time to see everything. Unfortunately, on the day of our visit there were no live demonstrations showcasing any of the “old” mechanical or mainframe computers. Definitely, a reason to come back another time.

The visit once more showed me what incredible progress in terms of computing mankind has achieved in the last 70 years since the invention of the transistor. Hoping that this trend somehow continues and that we will witness new revolutions in computing (I am looking at you quantum computer ;), it is hard to imagine what the Computer History Museum will look like in 40 years from now. Who knows, maybe I will be re-visiting the museum in 2063 and think about my time here in the Silicon Valley.