👉 The earliest computing traces back to the mechanical calculators developed in the 17th and 18th centuries, like Blaise Pascal's Pascaline and Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine in the 19th century. These devices were designed to automate arithmetic operations, but they were complex and not widely used due to their size and cost. However, the conceptual foundation for modern computing was laid in the mid-20th century with the invention of electronic computers. The ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer), developed in the 1940s, was one of the first general-purpose electronic computers, capable of performing complex calculations at unprecedented speeds. This marked the beginning of what would eventually evolve into the digital age and modern computing technology.
