Friday, May 9, 2008

A SHORT HISTORY OF COUNTING

FROM BINARY TO BINARY

FADE UP ON BARREN LANDSCAPE WITH SUN RISING IN BACKGROUND.
CAVEMAN IN FUR CLOTHING IS SEEN IN MIDDLE DISTANCE.

ANNCR

In the beginning, we didn't need
computers. What we needed was
a square meal, some shoes and
rock music.

SLOW ZOOM IN TO MS OF CAVEMAN. HE HOLDS A LARGE BONE IN ONE
HAND, NOTHING IN THE OTHER.

In those days, we had only
two numbers:...

CUT TO ECU OF HAND WITH BONE

..."some..."

CUT TO ECU OF EMPTY HAND

...or "none."

CUT TO MS SHOWING BOTH HANDS

Either we had something, or
we didn't.

CAVEMAN THROWS AWAY BONE. PAN WITH HIM AS HE WALKS
AWAY.

And we never had enough of
anything to have to count it.

CAVEMAN COMES TO A CLUB LEANING AGAINST A ROCK (TREE? FIRE
HYDRANT?), PICKS IT UP AND PUTS IT ON SHOULDER.

Your average caveman could only
carry one club around at a time.
Maybe not even that after the invention
of rock music...

ANOTHER CAVEMAN CROSSES IN FRONT OF FIRST CAVEMAN, HOLDING MEDIUM
SIZED ROCK ON SHOULDER (LIKE LARGE RADIO) AND MOVING BODY AS IF
HE HEARS MUSIC.

So you either had one...

MS CAVEMAN, CLUB ON SHOULDER, LOOKING PROUDLY INTO CAMERA

or you didn't...

QUICK PAN TO SECOND CAVEMAN, LOOKING ENVIOUSLY AT CLUB


And if you turned your back on
anything for very long...

CAVEMAN TAKES CLUB OFF SHOULDER, BENDS DOWN AND LEANS IT AGAINST
TREE

somebody else had it...


PAN TO GROUND BEHIND CAVEMAN. CLUB IS THERE, LEANING AGAINST
TREE. HAND COMES INTO FRAME AND GRABS OBJECT.

...and you had none.

PAN & TILT TO CAVEMAN AS HE TURNS, REGISTERS SURPRISE AND DISMAY,
THEN TURNS TO FACE CAMERA RESIGNEDLY.



CROSSFADE TO SCENE OF GRASSLAND. SAME CAVEMAN, WITH SHEPHERD'S
STAFF, AMID FLOCK OF SHEEP.


But one day, one of us had
to learn to count.



CUT TO NIGHT SCENE. SHEPHERD SLEEPING UNDER TREE, STILL
SURROUNDED BY SHEEP.


If you don't know how many
sheep you have, you're
never sure that someone hasn't
stolen a few overnight.

FADE TO SHEPHERD WAKING AT SUNRISE, WITH THREE SHEEP AROUND.

So, we invented counting...
using our fingers.

ECU CAVEMAN'S FINGERS AS HE COUNTS TO THREE, POINTING WITH INDEX
FINGER OF OTHER HAND.

But as soon as we made a fist...

ECU FIST

...we forgot how many sheep we had.


PULL BACK TO MS OF CAVEMAN WITH FIST, SCRATCHING HEAD WITH OTHER
HAND.

Besides, if we had more than ten
sheep, we still couldn't count them.

MS OF CAVEMAN, ON BACK AMID FLOCK OF SHEEP, COUNTING TOES.

All right, maybe we could count
twenty sheep.

CROSSFADE TO CAVEMAN, AMONG SHEEP, COUNTING PEBBLES INTO PIECE OF
LEATHER AND PICKING UP THIS POUCH.

So the first counting device
probably was a bag of
pebbles, one for each sheep.
This led to the first practical
joke...

CROSSFADE TO SHEPHERD ASLEEP ON HILLSIDE, SURROUNDED BY SHEEP.
HAND ENTERS FRAME, TAKES BAG OF PEBBLES, ADDS A FEW, AND RETURNS
BAG TO CAVEMAN.


CROSSFADE TO CAVEMAN AWAKENING AT SUNRISE. HE LOOKS AT BAG OF
PEBBLES, THEN LOOKS AT FLOCK OF SHEEP AND LOOKS ALARMED.

FADE OUT ON LS OF CAVEMAN RUNNING OFF INTO DISTANCE, LOOKING FOR
"MISSING" SHEEP.


FADE UP ON CAVEMAN IN TOGA WRITING "MCDLXXVI" ON SLATE.

Eventually, we invented writing,
and we could keep track of our
numbers without the bag of pebbles.

ROMAN WRITES "TIMES MCMLXXV" ON SLATE AND LOOKS PUZZLED.

But then came arithmetic...


CROSSFADE TO CAVEMEN IN ARAB BURNOOSE POINTING TO A BLACKBOARD
WITH "632" ON IT, AND "ONES" UNDER THE "2," "TENS" UNDER THE "3,"
AND "HUNDREDS" UNDER THE SIX.

And some new numbers.

ARAB BRINGS A "0" TO BOARD, MOVES THE "6" LEFTWARDS, SO IT IS
OVER AN ENTRY "THOUSANDS," AND PUTS THE "0" OVER THE "HUNDREDS"
LABEL.

After we invented counting,
writing and mathematics,
we could start inventing the
computer.

CUT TO MS OF CAVEMAN IN CHINESE COSTUME, HOLDING ABACUS

The Chinese invented the abacus,
probably the first machine for
doing mathematics.


RAPID CUTS TO NAPIER'S BONES, PASCAL'S CALCULATOR, BABBAGE'S
DIFFERENCE ENGINE AND THEN ANALYTICAL ENGINE, THE SLIDE RULE,
HOLLERITH CARDS, JACQUARD LOOM, HARVARD MARK I COMPUTER, ENIAC,
AN EARLY IBM, THE CRAY-1.

The pace of invention picked
up considerably and is still
accelerating today. Computers
are not only getting faster
and more powerful, they're
also getting smaller.

RAPID CUTS FROM EARLY IBM TO DEC MINICOMPUTER, TRS-80 DESKTOP
SYSTEM, APPLE II, OSBORNE OR KAYPRO, RADIO SHACK MODEL 100 OR
EQUIVALENT, AND SMALL POCKET COMPUTER.

Computers can't get much smaller,
because we still have to...

CAVEMAN'S HAND APPROACHES POCKET COMPUTER KEYBOARD

work them with our fingers.

PULL BACK TO MS OF CAVEMAN HOLDING POCKET COMPUTER IN ONE HAND
AND PRESSING KEYS WITH OTHER.

And...not only are we back to counting
on our fingers...but did you know
that computers actually count with
only our original two numbers..."some"
...and "none"?

CROSSFADE TO REPEAT OF MS OF CAVEMAN WITH BONE IN ONE HAND AND
OTHER HAND EMPTY.

But that's another story.

FADE OUT ON CAVEMAN THROWING AWAY BONE AND WALKING AWAY.

No comments:

Other places to hang out...