ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the changing nature of the information technologies (IT) and discusses direct and indirect implications of their increasing significance. It outlines the evolution of IT, emphasizing how the miniaturization of computer hardware and the development of more and more generalized and user-friendly software have merged with communications and digital network technologies. The chapter shows how IT is entering space as infrastructure and changing behaviour in work and production through the marketplace. The crucial insight that led to the development of the digital computer was the notion that numbers could be represented in their most elemental ‘binary’ form as 0s and 1s, and that this representation could be associated quite unambiguously with signals flowing across an electrical network. Simulation using computers paralleled these developments, but as the computer revolution broadened and gathered pace, the number of distinct applications mushroomed and diversified.
