The Secret Life of Computers - by Babbage - The Chip Letter

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The Secret Life of Computers<br>A brilliant and fun exposition of the development of computer technology

Babbage<br>Jun 22, 2026

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A defining moment in the Keynote that launched the original iPhone was when Steve Jobs revealed that it would combine an iPod, a phone and an ‘internet communications device’.

I don’t think even Steve Jobs, though, envisaged the range of tasks (and devices) that the iPhone would absorb. Our ‘pocket supercomputers’ have taken on roles big and small; email machines, movie players, instant messengers, games consoles, GPS devices, step counters and so on and so on.<br>By now we are all thoroughly used to the idea of computing being a general purpose technology and that we should expect the range of tasks that we can use computers for to expand all the time; most recently we are finding more and more uses for Large Language Models, with the computer taking on roles that would have seemed like science fiction only a handful of years ago.<br>It didn’t start out that way though. If we go back far enough individual computers were often designed and then for one role only. There were dedicated word-processors like the IBM 6580 Displaywriter System, an Intel 8086 based computer bundled with IBM’s own word processing software.

IBM Displaywriter -By Wikidevnl - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=44936969<br>Even when, like the original IBM PC, the machine was a general purpose computer, many machines were destined to only ever run Wordstar, Wordperfect or (later on) Word loaded from a floppy or a 5MB Hard Disk.<br>As computers have become more capable though, they have also become more complex. The operation of, what were previously simple single-function devices, has become obscured beneath decades of cutting edge hardware and software engineering.<br>Which brings us to the TV programme “The Secret Life of the Word Processor”.

The programme was first broadcast in 1993 as an episode in the final season of the series ‘The Secret Life of Machines’ and was shown on Channel 4 in the UK and PBS in the US.<br>In each episode in the series presenter and creator Tim Hunkin takes the viewer though a highly engaging and educational tour of the history and inner workings of the technology behind a range of familiar ‘machines’. The whole series is delightful; ‘Secret Lives’ revealed include those of the Vacuum Cleaner, Engine, Elevator and more. The series gets an IMDB rating of 9.3; watch one episode and you’ll want to watch them all.<br>Each programme boils the key technology in each machine down to its core principles and explains its working using hands-on demonstrations. The exposition demystifies the hidden engineering that powers each device in a way that is highly relatable. I’d go so far as to say that Tim Hunkin is one of the great science presenters, which makes it more than a little sad that he found making these programmes so stressful that he decided to stop making television completely when the series was complete.<br>Each episode combines these demonstrations with the story of how the technology developed accompanied by Hunkin’s quirky cartoons and sense of humour. They are a lot of fun!<br>In 2026 the series is also fascinating for the perspective it gives on technology from the vantage point of the early 1990s, often very different from how we see that technology today. Hunkin has now posted remastered versions of each episode on YouTube and he’s added a series of short addendums filmed much more recently that share some background on how the programs were made and briefly update the story of the technology.

The Secret Life of the Word Processor could really have been titled The Secret Life of the Computer as somehow Hunkin manages to squeeze into 30 minutes a reasonably full exposition of the development of the modern computer, along with a few segments on the development of the computer printer.<br>A small number of highlights:<br>The Ferranti Pegasus Computer from 1956, which was still working up to 2014 making it one of oldest working computers in the world:

A Zilog Z80 microprocessor with attached lights to demonstrate - slowed down - signals entering and leaving the package:

A ‘human’ implementation of the ink-jet printer:

A spectacular and fiery end to a ‘human’ figure made of computers:

As Hunkin explains the inner workings of the (general purpose) computer, so why title the program as being about just the ‘Word Processor’?<br>As an aside the term ‘word processor’ itself feels to me like something of an anachronism today. A tiny number of proprietary applications so dominate the market today that we much more often talk about using ‘Word’ or ‘Docs’ than a ‘Word Processor’.<br>Hunkin himself explains this choice in his addendum for this episode:<br>I’d only just bought my first personal computer. At the time there was enormous amount of hype about them but generally people...