By Jade Cox/ reporter

Networking is necessary to run TCC, and even the most remote places can retrieve it, the NW computer science department chair said Sept. 30.

In 50 Years of Computer Science, Steve Smiley said TCC relies on technology.

“We heavily depend on computer networking with how many students TCC currently has,” he said. “It would be impossible to keep TCC functioning without it.”

Smiley used a timeline ranging from old computers such as ENIAC used for purely military purposes in 1947 to the new computers now available to individual homes.

When TCC first opened in 1965, typewriters were the only “computer” available to students, Smiley said. Now, laptops and handheld devices are everywhere.

Computers will grow smaller, 3-D printing eventually will work for medical use and gaming will delve deeper into virtual reality, Smiley said.

“My own son and daughter are dependent on this,” he said as he showed a picture of an iPhone.

Smiley said that in the future computers might be able to tell if a person is sad and could put on someone’s favorite music and dim the lights.

Computers are not smart, Smiley said. They just do what we tell them to do.

“My dog will go around the pool to get a stick and bring it back,” he said. “But a computer dog would go through the pool and through a 3-year-old child playing in the yard to bring the stick back.”

NW student Percilla Haggerty said she found this speech insightful. She said she could not believe video games had virtual reality and had never heard of the oculus rift, a virtual reality device that brings gaming to the 3-D world.

“I liked this speech a lot,” she said. “It made me realize how much I should pay more attention to how our technology is changing.”

The event was part of the ongoing series celebrating TCC’s 50th anniversary.