Computers began their lives, in essence, as a massive collection of logic gates constructed with whatever materials were possible. The concept of automated machines doing computations isn't recent, by any means. There were, however, limits to what was able to be envisioned due to what was too impossible to even be considered impossible (yes, I said that correctly).
Due to limitations on processing power, interfaces to computers were limited. Text was easy enough to store and sufficiently high-level to constitute a means of human-computer interaction. Let's forget punch cards for a while and skip to the age of terminals and keyboards. Commands could be typed easily and parsed by a computer with fairly small overhead. As power increased, the ability to display information increased. Enter the age of the GUI... windows, mice, and streaming media.
So what's next? Well, it seems that the computer has been striving all this time to be less like a computer and more like a virtual/simulated environment. It's fairly ironic that it takes a lot of computing power to appear more 'natural' (i.e. less like a computer). So now forms of interaction are possible which were once dreamed of, or even further ago in once-ness beyond the reach of dreams. Computers are able to use cameras to see, microphones to hear, touch to interact, and plenty of raw processing power to fit data into disparate forms and present it stunningly.
Sooner than we'd think, interaction with a computer by anything as inconvenient as a keyboard and mouse will seem, at best, quaint, but basically absurd. Intelligent agents will make interaction with a computer as intuitive and seamless as interacting with your own desk, file cabinet, or even secretary. With advancements in machine learning, the line between user and programmer will further blur, and the computer will be more like a pet or extension of the self than a frustratingly stupid machine. Relatively computers will be shown how to do something rather than directed/programmed.
Traditional filesystems will be a thing of the past as users interact with their data as they would in the real world. Digital photos will be like a box of photos. Drawing and designing will be as if on paper. And more. Much more.
Computer science is one of the sexier fields of inquiry. We're the universal modelers and architects. Hurray for progress ;-)
I like how you mentioned that we may interact with our computers the same as we would a secretary. It reminds me of the talk of computers using artificial intelligence being able to do anything humans do at some point. Have you heard much about the debate?
www.progressiveu.org/blog/americangirlinchina
Rest in peace
yourfuneralguy
http://www.lowercostfuneral.com/rbrianblog
Internet Guru's, tech addicts and the like have thrown away the keyboard and the mouse
already.
Rest in Peace
Check out RoboCup. It's a program whose goal is to have fully autonomous, humanoid robots that can beat the World Cup Soccer Champions by the year 2050.
That's right, robots similar to Sunny, from I, Robot in just over 40 years.
-- quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
The artificial intelligence debate has been going on for a while, and I'm not entirely convinced of which side I fall on. Maybe my out would be that a machine will never be 'human'... but that's just because it's not human, it's a machine. However, I don't think that it's inconceivable to have a machine that's indistinguishable from a human. It'd be able to talk, learn, show preferences, etc. So far, the Holy Grail would be to produce a 'computer' with the processing power of the human brain.
The human brain is significantly different from any current computer architecture. Once we begin constructing better models of the brain, we'll enter a time when we'll have created something more complex than ourselves. Whether it's biologically-based or not, it is probably best viewed as a type of existence... or some form of intelligence. It wouldn't be human, exactly, but it would be a valid entity. Hope we're ready :-)
There are actually programming algorithms already in the works that simulate the way life works. It's called genetic programming. It's a fascinating subject, but can be hard to fully wrap your head around.
-- quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Right, it's a piece of the puzzle. But we're still limited by raw processing power (partly as a consequence of the hardware architecture). These concepts are nothing new, but the implementation is getting closer to being possible. I remember reading an article about researchers building a virtual mouse brain... but it took 4,096 processors to simulate 1/2 of the brain... and it ran at 1/10 the normal speed. So, we've got the concepts, but we're held back by computing power. And that's just for a mouse.
Genetic programming is great, as you can engineer artificial life-like systems that 'evolve' solutions to problems and designs. That's what's great about computer science: stealing all of these models from the other sciences and implementing them for new purposes.
I read an article once, wish I could find some more on it, about revolutionizing computers through using electron spin. Instead of binary, then, we'd be using hexadecimal (base 16, for those that may read this and don't know), resulting in infinitely more processing power than what we can currently achieve. From what I remember, it basically works like one of those lights with the dial that can control the brightness, instead of a regular light switch.
Combine that with genetic programming, and we're well on our way to having the computing power.
Keep in mind, too, that what's impossible today will be child's play within five years.
-- quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
I think that we will be able to create computers to be nearly human. However, where I think they differ is of a spiritual nature. Would robots be able to have a conciousness of humanity and our purpose? I've been to a presentation by Kenny Felder, a man with a unique viewpoint of this issue. Here's a link to some info, but you can find more on the web.
http://www.selfknowledge.org/events/robot.htm
www.progressiveu.org/blog/americangirlinchina
Well written tehn, one of the most insightful blogs Ive read in awhile. Thanks, gave you a five...
:?!)
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"One of the things that draws writers to writing, is that they can get things right that they got wrong in real life, by writing about them"
~ Tobias Wolffe