【Sea and River Night Talks】Copy and paste – something we use every day. Do you know how it came about?
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“The inventor of “copy and paste” has passed away; how many obstacles did she manage to overcome? Perhaps the name Evelyn Berezin is still unfamiliar to many people. Perhaps upon seeing this woman’s photo, everyone will also be momentarily unsure who she is. But when the topic of “copying and pasting” comes up, even your younger siblings who are in elementary school become excited and tell you in pure English, “Study hard, you idiot!”
And the woman in the picture, Evelyn Berezin, is the inventor of the “copy and paste” function. On December 8 not long ago, she passed away in New York, United States, due to lymphoma at the age of 93. When it comes to the origin of the “copy and paste” function, we need to go back as far as 1969. That year, she invented the “Data Secretary,” which was the first computerized word processor in human history. It was on this 40-inch tall (about one meter), slow, and noisy word processor that humans carried out the world’s first operations of editing, deleting, cutting, and pasting text. In other words, the “copy and paste” function we are talking about was officially introduced from this moment onward.
When people master “Ctrl+C” and “Ctrl+V”, the world changes as a result (an exaggeration, but not illegal).
In the United States alone, according to statistics from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, around 6% of the population there worked as secretaries or typists in the late 1960s; their job involved typing repeatedly and entering the same documents on a daily basis. The work is dull and unfulfilling, with no prospects for advancement, and it is a notable feature of this profession that women have difficulty progressing. Of course, the invention of the typewriter brought help and hope to such professions. The significance of this invention for the world goes without saying, of course. Evelyn Berezin herself was hailed as the “savior of journalists and secretaries” for this invention. And today, countless writers, programmers, as well as students who have assignments to submit tomorrow, have found redemption through it. In fact, even without Evelyn Berezin, humanity might not have discovered that its essence is that of a repeater.
In short, it’s just as the British writer Gwyn Heddley said. “Without Berezin, there would be no Bill Gates or Steve Jobs, nor would the Internet, word processing software, or spreadsheets have existed. In the 21st century, we will no longer be able to enjoy all the conveniences brought by electronic technology. ” In short, perhaps dying is the process of life being cut from the world and pasted into heaven. Feiteng (ID-feiteng) wishes Ms. Berezin all the best on her journey ahead. Editor: Xin Wu, Shi* Sheng, Yang Kaiwen; Proofreader: Guo Liqin
In the 1960s, clerks, secretaries, and other office workers often had to create multiple copies of the same content. But the office equipment at that time could only print one document at a time; if there was an error in a document, it was necessary to start over from the beginning. Devices like these seem utterly inhumane when viewed today. Evelyn used to work at Underwood Typewriter Company, which was the largest typewriter company in the United States at that time, and later joined the computer software development company Teleregister.