In today's world, computers are ubiquitous. You are listening to this

podcast right now on some sort of computing device. However, before computers were

machines, the word computer was given to people. Computers were people who computed.

In fact in the early days of NASA the space program relied upon these human computers

to do most of their calculations, most of whom were women.

Learn more about NASA's human computers and the role they played in the development of space

flight on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. The first use of the term computer actually dates back to the early 17th century.

The first known written reference to the word

computer was actually in 1613. And a computer was nothing more than a person who

computes in the same way that a baker is someone who bakes and a cleaner is someone

who cleans.

The first computers were primarily tasked with calculating the orbits of planets.

Many mathematicians during the Renaissance would actually call themselves computers as frequently as they would mathematicians.

Being a computer was often an introductory position that somebody would take before becoming a full-blown scientist.

Computers helped calculate the position of Halli's success. would take before becoming a full-blown scientist.

Computers help calculate the position of Halley's comet

and were later used in the late 18th and early 19th centuries

by the British Navy to help determine navigational tables for ships.

At this point, the job of computer was

primarily reserved for men. There were only a few women who were employed as computers

at this time, women like Mary Edwards who was employed by the British Board of

Longitude.

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