Future Uses of Computers in History (2024)

Introduction

This section is more speculative than the previous two. Thegoal of thisportion of the document is to look at the future uses of computersin thediscipline of History. It will also attempt to assess how thecomputer willchange historical research, both advantageously and detrimentally. Currently,there is no way to ensure that specific technologies will still berelevant, orif new ones will not appear in the future. In the following pages,an attemptwill be made to project what the uses of the computer will be,based on thecurrent uses and limitations previouslydiscussed.

• Communications;
• Publication of information;
• Historical Reconstruction;
• Information gathering;
• The continuation of the current uses, updated and adapted withthe changesin technology.

There are also areas where the computer will be used for morepopulistapplications, they are:

• In schools to introduce students to the discipline;
• In an environment which will allow the participation ofnon-academics inacademic discussions.

Communications:

Communications will remain an integral part of historical research.As more ofthe world gets on line, the use of E-mail will increase. As thetechnologicalsophistication develops, there may develop conferences based on amoresophisticated version of the "talk" feature included in most E-mailpackagestoday. Alternatly, variations of the application of MUDs could befacilitateconferencing. This would increase accessibility of historians toarchivalsources which are geographically distant. At McMaster, there isalready a videoconference system between other Universities in the province. Itis reasonableto expect this means of communication to develop. Such an advancewould haveseveral uses, it would make communication through computers morepersonal, andwould make conferences more accessible to a greater portion of theacademicworld. Instead of sending only one representative of a university,wholedepartments could participate in the exchange of ideas. Theseadvances couldchange the nature of historical research by encouraging historiansof the samefield to communicate with one another.

Publication of Information

The impact of computers on the publication of information regardinghistoricalresearch is the most difficult change to assess. At one extreme isthe opinionthat technologies such as the World Wide Web are beneficial becausethey allowfor the publication of information which may not have been includedin historicaljournals. Electronic journals are beneficial because they mayattract areadership which is not used to haveing access to academic journalsregardinghistory. At the same time they may be detrimental because they arenot availablein print format. This is exclusive in itself because many readersmay not haveaccess to these ideas. Of greater concern is the fact that thesejournals, andnewsgroups are only recorded through data. Future historians mayfind theirresearch limited because as a society we are not keeping electronicinformationfor long periods of time. What will happen to these electronicjournals and discussiongroups when they become outdated? Current historians have theluxury of reading,the original sources in order to get a sense of contemporaryopinion. Thedependence on electronic information may change this for futuregenerations ofhistorians.

There are already several examples of electronic journals focusingon historicalresearch. This tendancy will be extended based on the examples of History ReviewsOnline and Chronicon

Historical Reconstruction:

Currently, historians reconstruct ancient civilisations by usingmax models andmannequins. The development of virtual reality and computeranimation technologywill change this form of historical reconstruction to a reliance oncomputers. Although these developments will most likely be embraced for morepopulist formsof historical interpretation, it does have practical applicationsin the academicworld. Architectural and art historians could use this technologyin order tocreate models for study or to include in lectures andpresentations. Militaryhistorians could apply it to reenactments of famous battles or toillustratetactical manoeuvres from a certain viewpoint. The application ofvirtual realityto historical research will add another dimension to the narrativeelement ofhistory. This technology may not be adopted immediately byacademics because ofthe association between virtual reality and video games. Giventime, theacademic community will move to incorporate this technology forscholarlypursuits.

Information Gathering:

As libraries become more automated, there will be a greatertendency to createdatabases which can be searched. Presently, the McMasterLibraries' cataloguesare accessible through the internet. This trend will continue,with a greaterintegration of resources as more archives become automated.

Continued use of Today's uses:

Although there may be upgrades of today's technology, the need fortheapplication of contemporary technology to the discipline willremain in thefuture.

More Populist applications for use of thecomputer:

The greatest impact of computers to the non-academic area of usesof history, isto make history more accessible to the general public. Applicationof virtualreality technology in the primary and secondary school historyclass rooms mayhelp interest more people in history. Complaints by students thathistory is dryand irrelevant to their daily lives could be altered by encouragingtheir activeparticipation in learning by incorporating new technologies intothe classroomenvironment.

For people who are finished school or more advanced secondarystudents,electronic periodicals and newsgroups may provide them withexposure to advancedhistorical research and allow them to participate in a dialogueabout eventswhich they would not be provided with otherwise. There are severalhistoricaldiscussion groups on e-mail which can be accessed by any member ofthe generalpublic. For a list of these groups, click here

Conclusion:

When discussing the various applications of computers andinformation technologyto the discipline of history, one caveat remains. This warning isthat with theexplosion of publishing and information about History, many of itwill be lost. Currently, there are servers such as Yahoo, which serve as centralized locations for where to find information;however, there is no guarantee thatYahoo is a comprehensive list of all the sources of electronicinformation. This may severely limithistorical research in the future. The factor which may preventthis from becoming a reality is thathistorians tend prefer to work firsthand with documents and primaryresources. As a result, there maybe an aversion to the use of electronic information for historicalresearch.

Another potential problem arising from the electronic means ofhistoricalresearch is that World Wide Web and Gopher texts are regularlyupdated. When theinformation is removed from the public domain, be it erased or juststored ondisk, it is no longer accessible to the general public. As aresult, much of theinformation historians of the future may find interesting will beinaccessibleand may compromise all areas of history.