week2

Many years ago,there are few computers in architectural offices.Architects have

been confronted with an advancing tide of electronic equipment and software 

applications.We are now past these initial reactions of enthusiasm or concern.

The crucial role played by digital technology should not how ever lead to the pitfall

of narrow technological determinism.The other chapters of this book deal primarily

with what is happening today.

In order to fully appreciate the scope of the various issues i have mentioned so far,

digital architecture must be replaced in at least two contexts.Digital architecture cannot 

be separated from the changes that affect the way we plan.

Although they open new and enthralling possibilities,the reshaping of our experience

of the word,the increasing importance given to the individual,and the accent put on 

events are also synonymous with disquieting perspectives.

In this debate,historians tend to occupy a middle grounds .While refusing to separate 

the present from the past,they are moderately interested by perspectives so broad

that they tend to dilute problems of origin and development.

Information has no social relevance unless circulated and shared.At the  beginning

of the twentieth century,new media,the radio,also played a fundamental role in the 

reorganization of the industrial society around information production and exchange.

The invention of the computer during the Second World War appears as the next step

in the quest for massive data processing machines that and already given birth to tabulators

Mathematical logic and symbolic computation correspond to another lineage leading 

to the invention of modern computing.