I was reading a book from the early 1900's, and it referenced using computers to calculate some complex algorithms. Threw me for a loop, and I finally realized the author was talking about people. Apparently it was a thing to send long computations to a room/building full of people and get the answer back.

The word "computer" to describe a person who does computations dates back into the 1600s, and is exactly where we got the current word.

Up to around 1940, the vast majority of the world's computers were people, and there were legions of them across all areas of government and industry.

There were around 250 total automated computers in 1955, around 20,000 in 1965, so I doubt human computers were outnumberd until the 1970s/1980s at best.

The first job of my father, after finishing his university studies, three quarters of century ago, when there were only a handful of electronic computers in the entire world, was as a "computer" at an astronomical observatory.

With the revenue secured by that job, he decided that he can afford to marry my mother.

I wonder if the “programmers” could be much sloppier back then. “Find the eigenvalues? Which ones? You know, the ones we always want!”

Are we talking about the book "Souls in the Great Machine" or real history?!

> I finally realized the author was talking about people. Apparently it was a thing to send long computations to a room/building full of people and get the answer back.

s/people/women/g

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/history-human-...