David Alan Grier

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David Alan Grier

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David Alan Grier, PhD, is a professor, writer, author, and speaker on issues of technology, society, and organizations. He is the author of several books including When Computers Were Human, which chronicles the 200-year history of how human computers performed calculations by hand. Grier is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE).

Everything Videos
Bald man wearing glasses and a dark suit jacket sits against a plain white background, looking slightly to the side with a neutral expression.
25mins
The Big Think Interview
The computing revolution that secretly began in 1776
"In the process of mapping the heavens, it doesn't take long to realize the data problem they generated."
David Alan Grier
A man in a black suit sits on a chair in front of a white backdrop in a modern brick-walled room with large windows and minimal furnishings.
1hr 23mins
Full Interview
How the Industrial Revolution invented modern computing
"The process of systematizing, correcting errors, finding approximations, and making them work as civil systems that was what really drove me to start looking at human calculation and what was the foundation that it laid for the modern computer age."
David Alan Grier
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