Artifical Intelligences and Singularity

chapter_09

Chapter 9 The

Future of Computers

Pasquale Sorrentino/photolibrary

The final stop in our journey toward computer literacy is the future. We are not going to try to imagine what computers will be like in 50 years. Instead, we are going to look at the near-term future (with one exception at the end of the book) and the computer technologies that are emerging right now. We can get a glimpse of this future by looking at some of the trends that are occurring before our eyes. In this chapter, we will explore topics such as mobile computing, artificial intelligence, and something called cloud computing.

Comstock/Thinkstock Even looking at the near–term future is a difficult task. Bill Gates, the founder of The internet has often been Microsoft, did this for the computer industry in 1995 when he published The Road called an information highway Ahead. In this book, he pointed out famous historical examples of experts who leading us into the future. clearly got the future wrong. There was the professor in 1878 who thought that electric lighting was a gimmick. Then there was the U.S. Patent Commissioner who in 1899 was convinced that every significant invention had already been invented (Gates, 1996). In the middle of the 20th century, many people believed that every family in the 21st century would have a helicopter or at least a personal jet pack. We will try to do a little better job with our predictions in this chapter. Let's take a look at the next road ahead.

OBJECTIVES FOR CHAPTER 9

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1.

Appreciate some emerging computer trends Evaluate tablets and touch screens

6.

Illustrate the importance of computer simulation

2.

7.

Explore some areas where computer simulation is used in daily life Explain the concept of cloud computing Learn why Google is interested in clouds

3. 4.

Speculate on the importance of the...