The term computer, in use from the early 17th century (the first known written reference dates from 1613), meant "one who computes": a person performing mathematical calculations, before computer became commercially available - wikipedia 
Alan Turing described the "human computer" as someone who is: > supposed to be following fixed rules; he has no authority to deviate from them in any detail.
Teams of people, often women from the late nineteenth century onwards, were used to undertake long and often tedious calculations; the work was divided so that this could be done in parallel. The same calculations were frequently performed independently by separate teams to check the correctness of the results.
NACA High Speed Flight Station "Computer Room" (1949) - wikimedia
Since the end of the 20th century, the term "human computer" has also been applied to individuals with prodigious powers of Mental calculation, also known as mental calculators.
# Wartime computing and electronics
Human computers played integral roles in the World War II war effort in the United States, and at Bletchley Park in the UK. Because of the depletion of the male labor force due to the Conscription in the United States, many computers during World War II were women, frequently with degrees in mathematics.
> Note: My Aunt was at Bletchley Park, working as a human computer. I only found this out after she died. I guess being a cyborg runs in the family.
# Human-assisted computation
Human calculator is a term to describe a person with a prodigious ability in some area of mental calculation (such as adding, subtracting, multiplying or dividing large numbers).
# Origins in sciences
Astronomers in Renaissance times used that term about as often as they called themselves "mathematicians" for their principal work of calculating the Ephemeris. They often hired a "computer" to assist them. For some men, such as Johannes Kepler, assisting a scientist in computation was a temporary position until they moved on to greater advancements - wikipedia
Computing became more organized when the Frenchman Alexis Claude Clairaut (1713–1765) divided the computation to determine the time of the return of Halley's Comet with two colleagues, Joseph Lalande and Nicole-Reine Lepaute.
The computers working on the ''The Nautical Almanac'' for the British Admiralty included William Wales (astronomer), Israel Lyons and Richard Dunthorne.
Women were generally excluded, with some exceptions such as Mary Edwards (human computer) who worked from the 1780s to 1815 as one of thirty-five computers for the British ''The Nautical Almanac'' used for navigation at sea. The United States also worked on their own version of a nautical almanac in the 1840s, with Maria Mitchell being one of the best-known computers on the staff.
Other innovations in human computing included the work done by a group of boys who worked in the Octagon Room of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich for Astronomer Royal, George Biddell Airy.
Other innovations in human computing included the work done by a group of boys who worked in the Octagon Room of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich for Astronomer Royal, George Biddell Airy.
Women were increasingly involved in computing after 1865.
In the 1870s, the United States Signal Corps (United States Army) created a new way of organizing human computing to track weather patterns.
In the late nineteenth century Edward Charles Pickering organized the "Harvard Computers". Elizabeth Langdon Williams was involved in calculations in the search for a new planet, Pluto, at the Lowell Observatory.
In 1893, Francis Galton created the Committee for Conducting Statistical Inquiries into the Measurable Characteristics of Plants and Animals which reported to the Royal Society.
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