henretta8e

Quiz for Thinking Like a Historian: Personal Computing: A Technological Revolution

Question

1. What did the publication of Moore’s law in 1965 suggest about the role computers might play in the United States by the late twentieth century?

Computers would continue to be large, expensive, specialized, and relatively rare.

Computers would become increasingly powerful, but not necessarily more common.

The growth of computers’ power would make them a necessity for every American business.

Computers’ increasing power and decreasing price would make them omnipresent by 2000.

Correct. The answer is b. Moore’s law suggested that computers would become increasingly powerful and less expensive. It did not predict, however, that such changes would make computers into a common and even necessary device for most people.

Incorrect. The answer is b. Moore’s law suggested that computers would become increasingly powerful and less expensive. It did not predict, however, that such changes would make computers into a common and even necessary device for most people.

Question

2. A historian examining the evidence presented in this collection of sources would be most likely to come to which of the following conclusions?

Americans understood as early as the 1960s that computers would soon monitor many everyday transactions.

Even in the mid-1980s, most Americans still misunderstood computers, believing that they were threatening and dangerous.

Even as they became increasingly familiar with computers and their uses, many Americans feared the new technology’s power.

Not until the twenty-first century did Americans let go of their anxieties and reservations and embrace computers fully.

Correct. The answer is c. These sources do not suggest that most Americans still found computers threatening and dangerous by the 1980s, but they do indicate that Americans still felt anxiety at that time about computers’ potential power.

Incorrect. The answer is c. These sources do not suggest that most Americans still found computers threatening and dangerous by the 1980s, but they do indicate that Americans still felt anxiety at that time about computers’ potential power.

Question

3. In the excerpt from the book, World of Tomorrow: School, Work, and Play (source 3), Neil Ardley anticipated the development of

the personal computer.

the Internet.

virtual reality.

the smartphone.

Correct. The answer is b. In this excerpt, written in 1981 when computers were already in use, Neil Ardley wrote that in the future people would be able to go to their computers to view information in electric libraries that stored information on every subject in computer memory banks, anticipating the development of the Internet.

Incorrect. The answer is b. In this excerpt, written in 1981 when computers were already in use, Neil Ardley wrote that in the future people would be able to go to their computers to view information in electric libraries that stored information on every subject in computer memory banks, anticipating the development of the Internet.

Question

4. For which of the following reasons would a historian view the interview with Steve Jobs (source 5) as a more useful source about Americans’ understanding of computers in the mid-1980s than the scene from Terminator (source 4)?

Jobs was a leader of and legitimate expert on the emerging computer industry.

Jobs was a genius, whereas the people who made Terminator were not geniuses.

Terminator was created as entertainment, whereas Jobs was not aiming to entertain.

Terminator was created to make a profit, whereas Jobs was not motivated by profits.

Correct. The answer is a. Historians must always consider the purpose and perspective of their sources as they use them to glean information about the past. A historian would regard the Steve Jobs interview as a more useful source about Americans’ understanding of computers in the mid-1980s because Jobs was a leader of and legitimate expert on the emerging computer industry, and not simply a storyteller.

Incorrect. The answer is a. Historians must always consider the purpose and perspective of their sources as they use them to glean information about the past. A historian would regard the Steve Jobs interview as a more useful source about Americans’ understanding of computers in the mid-1980s because Jobs was a leader of and legitimate expert on the emerging computer industry, and not simply a storyteller.