March 6, 1983： Grace Hopper—She taught computers to talk

60 Minutes Rewind Captain Hopper is a whiz at mathematics, some would say a genius. One of that small band of brothers and sisters who ushered in the computer revolution. In World War II, at age 37, she left her professor's job at Vassar to serve as a lieutenant in the Navy Reserve. She was sent to Harvard to help program the very first computer. It had the unglamorous name of Mark I, and as far as we've progressed since this vacuum tube monster, Captain Hopper says we ain't seen nothing yet. You talk a lot about the computer revolution. I thought we're in it and it's over. No, we're only at the beginning. We've been through the preliminaries. Well, what's it going to be like? We've got the Model T. Just the Model T? That's where we are now. She's up many mornings before five for the ride to Washington's National Airport. 200 days a year, she lectures to computer scientists at military bases. She's also in demand on college campuses and among businessmen. The Navy is proud to show her off, one of theirs who was in at the beginning. She is more than just a superb mathematical talent. It was Grace Hopper who helped teach the machines a language, stop them from speaking in undecipherable numbers, enable them to speak in English or French or German or whatever language you choose. The first computer Grace Hopper worked on could do three calculations a second. Today's computers can do thousands a second, millions a second, sped along by tiny silicon chips, educated grains of sand. And billions and trillions of calculations a second are not too far off. How do you explain that kind of speed? They started talking about circuits that acted in nanoseconds, billionths of a second. Well, I didn't know what a billion was. I don't think most of those men downtown know what a billion is either. And if you don't know what a billion is, how on earth do you know what a billionth is? I fussed and fumed. Finally, one morning in total desperation, I called over to the engineering building and I said, please cut off a nanosecond and send it over to me. And I brought you some today. Now what I wanted when I asked for a nanosecond was, I wanted a piece of wire which would represent the maximum distance that electricity could travel in a billionth of a second. Now, of course, it wouldn't really be through wire, be out in space, the velocity of light. So if you start with the velocity of light and use your friendly computer, you'll discover that a nanosecond is 11.8 inches long, the maximum limiting distance that electricity can travel in a billionth of a second. Finally, at the end of about a week, I called back and said, I need something to compare this to. Could I please have a microsecond? I've only got one microsecond, so I can't give you each one. Here's a microsecond. 984 feet. Grace Hopper is at the center of a revolution that is changing life as we know it. It tells the Navy how many tons of baked beans it has on hand. It targets its missiles. A revolution that can free human hands and that can solve, at least on paper, human problems in seconds where it used to take years. At 76, she is in a chain of command that runs from the commander in chief, to the secretary of defense, to the secretary of the Navy, across to the lone woman whose picture is the only one in black and white, because she's still looking for a good color photo of herself. If you'd gone into private industry, you'd probably be a very rich person. I've already received the highest award I'll ever receive, no matter how long I live, no matter how many more jobs I may have. And that has been the privilege and the responsibility of serving very proudly in the United States Navy. Are you glad it was the Navy, not the Army or the Air Force? Well, it had to be the Navy, because my great-grandfather was a rear admiral. Besides which, I like blue.