It may have been big, slow and lacking in much memory but almost seven decades on we have a lot to thank the creators of Australia’s first programmable computing machine.

A new fiber computer contains eight devices that work together as a single computing entity, and scientists want to weave ...

Millions of workers are becoming obsolete as machines keep getting more powerful, cheaper and easier to use.

In the Industrial Revolution, new technologies displaced manual jobs while also creating demands for new skills. Will smart machines replace knowledge work–and create demand for a new kind of ...

Then, in the mid-20th century, machines began to take on the bulk of computing work, and the definition of “computer” changed. A computer was no longer just a human reckoner.

A very simple pre-computer example is the loom that formed the basis of the later Toyota company: The machine could detect when a tread had broken and would stop the weaving process. Simple yet smart: ...