Talking about modern technology and its diversity is very interesting especially when we want to talk about the development of computer technology which is something quite recent that took place mainly in the West. Man has made use of this development to improve his machines and sophisticated instruments, as well as manufacturing them. In addition the computer has been also used extensively in industry and mining or even well drilling. Moreover it has been made use of in medicine and guiding planes, missiles and spaceships.
Naturally modern computers are compared by their memory capacity, speed of performing operations and retrieving them. The better and more efficient they are the smaller in size they become.
It is common knowledge that computers are becoming smaller and smaller and better and better in their performance. They began as gigantic machines containing many cylinders, switches, wheels and bells. In addition, computers had to use big cards to save information or move them. Such cards are still used today in church organs or in merry-go-rounds and other children's games. The famous English mathematician, Charles Babbage, has designed this complicated machine in 1823. Then in 1836 he designed an even more complicated one. But he could not build any of them, since technology was not advanced enough to build all of its components. Then as a result of the dire need for a census for the population of the United States, one of the American statisticians, Herman Hollerrith, invented an electrical machine instead of a mechanical one like its predecessor. This computer was designed in 1890 and developed in 1900. With the help of this machine the census which was supposed to take 10 years was accomplished in a year and a half. Mr. Hollerrith then went on to found a new computer company that later came to be known as "International Business Machines" (IBM). This company became, as we all know the biggest and the most famous computer producing company.
In 1925 it produced the first electronic computer that was designed by the American scientist Vannervar Bush.
In 1937 Howard Aiken of Harvard University designed, in collaboration with (IBM), the first super computer of that time that could for example multiply an 11 digit number by itself. This computer was called Mark 1.
Then came the age of vacuum tubes which was first developed by the American scientist Le De Forest in 1906. The first of these gigantic compu-ters that contained 19000 tubes was made in the University of Pennsylvania. It weighed 30 tons and needed a surface area of about 15000 square feet. On the other hand this gigantic computer (ENIAC) that was designed by the American scientists J.P. Eckert and W. Mauckly worked just like a modern computer, but it needed too much electrical power to operate the vacuum tubes. This computer was built in 1955, but it was abandoned in 1957, notwithstanding the fact that it needed 20 years of planning and execution. For in 1957 a new invention was reached, and there was no longer a need for a machine the size of a refrigerator. The age of the transistor has begun.
The first designs of the transistor were drawn by the American scientist Frank Rockett, and they proved to be more efficient than the vacuum tubes and very much less in size (about 0.01% of the tube). Moreover, the size of the computers was gradually reduced to the extent that they were 100,000 times smaller between 1948 and 1970. And computers with memory capability of 286 byte in an area of 0.25 Inch containing 1244 transistors were made. This is a very important and decisive revolutionary step when compared with the previous one (ENIAC) that was made of tubes.
This evolution paved the way for an even greater one: The age of microchips or tiny sandy pieces of silicon that work as transistors has started. While the seventies could be considered the age of small computers the eighties were truly the age of home computers just as the fifties were the age of television. In addition, the cost of production of these electronic microchips was greatly reduced to become comparable to the price of sand it is made of, and the number of chips became as abundant as the numbers of sand particles and pebbles that exist in the whole world filling all its deserts; thus adding another grace to the graces of the desert.
The microchips have replaced the transistors. The transistor revolution followed by the microchips revolution made it possible to put the radios and televisions in our pockets or in the car or plane seats.
This is also the case of the computer. Having once occupied a huge building of 15 thousand square feet (19 thousand tubes) weighing 30 tons and having a capacity of only 15 thousand bytes as in the case of the (ENIAC) computers mentioned above, they changed into modern small computers that can be put in a pocket with a memory capability of 100 million bytes or 100 Megabytes. Owning a personal computer of a memory less than 100 MB has become a common feature of everyday life: children and teenagers use these computers at home to play and have fun.
This incredible pace of progress has culminated in the production of the connection machine. This new computer which was invented as recently as 1987, and of which only five computers have so far been made is different in that the connection between its various units is multidimensional and not binary as it used to be.
It is composed of a cube whose side is 1.5 meters in length. It contains as many as 65536 computers; each with a memory of 4KB. Thus the total capacity of this computer is 286MB. Although this feature is amazing, it is merely accumulative. The real revolutionary aspect of these computers is not its big memory but the way it connects with its other sub-computers, which is very much similar to the way our brain cells communicate.
Computers have developed in a very fast manner, and they are still expected to develop further in an even faster pace whether in size, efficiency or memory. But what is the language the computer speaks?
Language of Communication
The computer does not understand the language of humans. It of course does not understand English or Arabic or any other human language. Moreover, man can not communicate with computers, nor can they communicate with one another except by a special language called machine language or Binary language. This language is a very simple one and does not exceed two letters or two digits: -0- and -1-. Meaning either to perform a certain task or to stop doing it (the on-off con-cept). It is a language similar to the Morse code or the Indian drumbeats.
The Binary language consists of a special code of seven digits, each is either a -0- or -1-. For example, the computer does not understand the letter "A" except as (0000001). Similarly the letter "K" is (0001011), the letter "Z" is (0011010), the number "4" is (0110100), the "?" is (01111110) and so on.
A Comparison between the DNA, "the Computer of Allah" and the Modern Computer
One particle of DNA, (which cannot be seen by the naked eye, and which at the same time constitutes the real structure of the genes that are responsible for all inherited characteristics of all creatures) could contain 8000 bits of information, that is, it can contain all the information in 8 pages of the Encyclopedia Britannica. This means that a small bacteria whose volume does not exceed 2 microns, and whose weight is 6x10-13 grams has a gene particle that can contain 1012 bits of information. May Allah be blessed for his creation of such a microscopic creature that could not be seen unless a powerful electronic microscope is used, yet it has a memory more powerful than the most modern and most powerful computers. It has a memory capacity of 10,000 million or 10 million megabytes.
This is more powerful than the computer of the future which has not been designed yet. But it is expected to control all the computers of the world and run all the sources of energy in this world. This super gigantic computer is reduced to the least important and most minute creature on earth. Although its size is negligible compared to the super computer (with a ratio of one to billions) it is more powerful than any future computer. This is the big difference between man's technology and that of Allah Who did not create His computer towards the end of this century, but a long time ago (3900 million years) when bacteria appeared on earth, and with such an efficiency man has neither been even close to, nor would he be able to be close to in the future.
One Bacterium containing the computer of life (DNA) could contain 100 volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica or any similar major source of information.
The Weight of the Information Carried by the Computer of Life
As for the weight of these huge informations that a bacterium could hold, it does not exceed one billionth of a billion of one gram. Even if we add up the weight of all the bits of information in the human's brain that are estimated to be more than billions of billions of information, their weight does not exceed one of a millionth of a gram.
Moreover, if all the information that are stored in all the genes of all living creations including bacteria, virus, insects, birds, animals... etc in all times - about a thousand million kinds, many of which are extinct - they will not fill more than a tea spoon, leaving a lot of space for all the information that man has filled in books and computers.
Praised be Allah Who has created the computer of life with such precision and sophistication especially in the way information is stored: All the information that are embodied in all his creations from the beginning of life on earth till now could be stored in a teaspoon. Thus we might be able to understand the way the angels write about each human being, and I say might, because our minds are even not sophisticated enough to understand it fully.
These angels are the ones who will write in the famous book that man will refer to when he holds it in his right hand "May Allah bestow His Mercy on us and lead us to be of His pious servants".
The Holy Quran says about them: "Then he that will be given his record in his right hand will say: Ah, here read my record". [Al-Haqat: 19]. As to those who will deliver their book in their left hand they will say: "Ah, would that record has not been given to me" [Al Haqat: 25] Man, therefore, is bound to feel astonished and amazed by this book that keeps record of all his deeds and says: "Ah, woe to us. What a book is this, it leaves out nothing small or great but takes account thereof" [The Cave: 49].
Furthermore, the angels might decide to keep the information of the man they keep a record of in a part of one of his cells, for example, a bone or a tooth cell, so that it will be stored until the day of Judgement, when it will be displayed by the All-Mighty Creator and bear witness on his actions: "That day shall We seal on their mouths. But their hands will speak to us, and their feet bear witness to all they did" [36:65]. This Ayat could well mean that the hands and the feet would uncover the information stored in them. And then the man will be told: "Read your own record, sufficient is thy soul this day to make an account against you". [17:14].
Such may be the books that Allah referred to in the Holy Quran when He said: "And all things we preserved on record" [22:70]. He also says in al-Hajj Surah: "Knowst thou that Allah knows all that in Heaven and Earth? Indeed it is all in a record" [22:70]. And also in the Ants Surah: "Nor is there aught of the unseen in Heaven or Earth but in clear records" [27:75].
In addition, there are the books that guide all living creatures, through the information stored in the genes. It is worth mentioning in this respect, that they are programmed in such a way that they would give each creature all the information it needs, as to how and what to eat, reproduce communicate . . .etc. They even carry the map they need for migration (As in the case of birds). But the cells that carry these informations could be in the brain, but they might as well be anywhere in the body. God is the only one Who knows.
The Structure of the DNA
The structure of the central computer or what is called the DNA is so complicated and sophisticated that it could not be matched by the most advanced current or future computers. It consists of two spiral strands having the shape of a twisted ladder that could not be climbed because it is a virtual endless maze.
But supposing we were to climb this ladder, we will find that it has the same styles in all creatures. It is made of four building blocks of four aminoacids, resembling a huge puzzle whose every piece cannot be installed but in its appropriate place. And since every piece of the ladder is always matched with another specific piece of the four acids, therefore the computer of life is far more complicated than that of the modern computer, since it communicates through four letters of its building blocks and not merely two like the computer.
But while the scientists believe that the building blocks are arranged at random, we tend not to agree with them because they are created by Allah Who has perfected everything He created. These building blocks or puzzle pieces are connected to each other at one end only, the other is connected to the Raibose or the phosphorus material that acts like the cement that holds the structure together.
The spiral ladder has a huge length that might sometimes reach thousands of miles, if we compare it to the size of the cell, which is also incredible, if we bear in mind that the whole cell is so small it can not be seen by the naked eye. If we attach the entire DNA in the human cells together, their length will reach 50 million miles. Such a length could take us to the moon and bring us back more than hundred times. As to how could such a tiny cell hold such a big length, it is a big secret that enables these ladders to be twisted and have a spiral shape that could even resemble the way a thread turns round a histone.
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