Down The Rabbit Hole with the History of Computers

⏰ 7 minute read

"The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way, and then dipped suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice had not a moment to think about stopping herself before she found herself falling down a very deep well." - Lewis Carroll

The expression to go down the rabbit hole comes from the story of Alice in Wonderland, written by Lewis Carroll. Several children's animation movies have been made based on this story, so it is well-known. But what does it mean, to fall into a rabbit hole?

Over much of the 20th century, rabbit hole has been used to characterize bizarre and irrational experiences. It’s especially used to reference magical, challenging, and even dangerous places or positions.

The general meaning implies that you are going though some kind of labyrinth, a place where everyday logic is altered, moreover, a nonsensical world. One of which once you have entered, it's very difficult to get out.

In this day and age, sometimes when we say we fell down the rabbit hole what we mean is that we got interested in something, to the point of distraction, even obsession. This is promoted by the Internet and the Web. It's very easy to start jumping from one link to another, following the trail of our online exploration of that topic that interests us.

History of computers

I happen to like computers, and technology in general. You could call me a techie, although I also have an interest in philosophy and history. So I enjoy not only knowing how things work, but also why. In general, if you know the history of a certain topic or field of study, you will have a better grasp of the origin of things. You will get to understand why things are the way they are today.

So, in order to better understand today's computers, I had to do some research in computer history. This turned out to be a far more fascinating subject that I had expected. And I have to say, I did indeed fall into the proverbial rabbit hole that I described before. The history of computers' rabbit hole. Filled with anecdotes and curious facts.

I got particularly interested in the history of computers during the 1970s and the 1980s, because those two were the decades when, apparently, things really took off.

Unix

The most important operating system that was developed during the '70s and '80s was, without a doubt, Unix. This system greatly influenced most of the software that we use today, especially whenever we connect to the Internet. For instance, our smartphones use software that descends from Unix. Also, every time we use the Cloud (for example, when we use Google Docs or Apple's iCloud) we are actually using remote computers that operate on a variant of Unix. So I wanted to understand the origins of this system.

After doing some research, I decided to read the book Unix: a History and a Memoir, by Brian Kernighan, which is very well-written, by the way. I definitely recommend it, to anyone interested in these matters. Anyways, while I was reading it, I payed close attention to the software tools and programming languages than the author mentions. I started day-dreaming about some of these things. Became a little obsessed about them, wanting to know more and more.

Soon I had the urge to experiment with this primitive, original system. I wanted to use it, not only read about it.

Although you can use some of the Unix commands by opening a computer terminal app on a modern machine, I wanted to have an experience as close as possible to the original thing.

Seattle's Living Computers Museum

So... it turns out that there is a computer museum in Seattle that has a lot of old, historic, vintage computers. The good thing about this museum in particular is that they have restored these old computers back to a working condition. So you can actually use those computers and get to feel how it was to work with them, back in those days. When computing resources were scarce and machines were big and expensive.

Having access to one of these big machines was a rare privilege, back in the days. The pioneers of the history of computing (like Ken Thompson, the programmer who invented Unix) were lucky. They were in the right place at the right time. You had to work for one of this big institutions or corporations (like Bell Labs) in order to experiment with the early computers.

So, not only did you have to be intelligent enough to understand how to use one of these early machines (the first user interfaces were command-line only: no icons, no mouse, no point and click). You also had to be lucky enough to be close to one of them. And be allowed to use it.

But, we computer hobbyists have a second chance. This museum in Seattle lets you connect and use some of these vintage machines over the Internet! You are allowed to use the actual hardware and software. This is not a simulation. It's the real thing.

Connecting to the PDP-11

Needless to say, as soon as I learned this, I went to the museum's website. I browsed the ancient computer's catalog, looking for a miracle. Did they have by any chance an old computer running Unix?

Not only one. They had many!

I was so happy, that I couldn't believe it. So I chose the oldest one, a PDP-11. Here's a picture of that computer.

I e-mailed the museum staff, and after a few days they replied with instructions on how to connect to most of the computers of the museum. The PDP-11, running Research Unix V7, was among them.

After connecting to the museum though a terminal, I got this screen:

And then, after pressing [1] for the Unix System sub-menu:

Finally, I chose [a] and was able to connect to the old PDP-11! I played with it, and tried several of the original Unix commands that I had read about. It was very exciting and educational.

Every few days, I still connect remotely to this computer museum and try some commands and programs on the other computers, as well. Sometimes of course, you have to search online for the old computer manuals as well, in order to know how to use them. But that's part of the fun. And if you are into computer history, you really learn a lot by doing that.

Conclusion

I fell into the rabbit hole, in a good way. As I became interested in the history of computers, that lead me to Unix and that in turn made me read a new book. I became fascinated with the computer history pioneers (now I know the name and personal history of several of them: they are my heroes). That in turn led me to discover the computer history museum in Seattle, and because of that I ended up accessing vintage computers remotely, which made me feel like a hacker. Cool, uh?

If you are familiar with Unix systems, you can connect to the Seattle Living Computers Museum by opening a terminal and typing ssh menu@tty.livingcomputers.org. If you are using Windows, you will need to download the PuTTY application first, which is free.

(C) May 11, 2020 by Alejandro Moliné.

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