Ever since man started reasoning he realized work is hard. After giving it some thought he developed tools to help him with hunting, cooking, building and so on. The first tools were simple ones and didn't help a lot. But our ancestors did not give up.

As man's tools started developing, so did his dreams. Man started dreaming about automating mundane tasks, about improving communication and about free porn that's several mouse clicks away. Man started dreaming about computers and the internet; even the earliest cave drawings show plans for rudimentary computational devices and attempts at devising instructions for these devices - what we would now call programs.

The first attempts at writing instructions and programs were crude. Archeological evidence shows hand signs being used for memorizing and storing the earliest programs, thousands of years ago (see picture). A complex set of instructions was devised and the technique started showing some promise. Smoke signals were used for transmitting sets of instructions between different users.

The major problem with this kind of approach, which was only later realized, is that it didn't automate anything.

A human operator was still needed to store, decode and then execute hand sign instructions. Later developments attempted to use improved devices for storing instructions. Such devices included various forms of written language, tally sticks, groups of stones or sets of rope knots.

Knots helped with storing instructions for sowing, growing and harvesting crops for instance. Other knot sequences were used for astronomical and astrological purposes.

A major advantage of this approach was the possibility of storing much larger programs. Another important breakthrough was the possibility to easily transfer sets of instructions from one user to another with no data loss.

With all these advances, such systems didn't automate anything either. While they were useful for storing instructions and data, a human user still had to decode and then execute instructions. There had to be better ways.