Computing In The Early 21st Century
This has nothing to do with the article I am posting, but I just wanted to thank you all for the increase in readership. As you know I do not advertise and the only way this can happen is by word of mouth. Thanks again.
There are big changes coming in computing. Many of our advances in different fields have come from scientists and engineers who have observed nature. There are many creatures in nature that have abilities far beyond our own and if we could learn from these creatures how to apply these abilities to ourselves we could actually produce a race of humans far more capable than we are today. Sometimes these abilities are obvious, such as ability of some birds to see far better than we do, but other times they are not so obvious. For example if we examine the workings of our own bodies we will find our brains are far superior to any computer in their capability. Scientists are finding out using DNA for storage of data would be a big plus. There are many other aspects of the human body which are being studied and now nanostructures are being constructed using scaffolding made of DNA. New methods are being used to apply these techniques to computer construction and many scientists feel it will not be long before these new computers will come into being. If you think parts inside of computers are small now wait until these new techniques are used. We are heading towards microscopic chips.
The other day I came across an old memory card. It was about four times the length of a standard one today, three times the thickness and about three times the width. It sported the fact it was able to hold 256 Kilobytes or 256,000 bytes. When you compare this card to a micro card it is almost laughable, especially when you realize micro cards have a new format which allows them to hold 200 GB, a gigabyte is 1,000 megabytes, a megabyte is 1,000 kilobytes, lastly a kilobyte is 1024 bytes. That is incredibly more than the capacity of the old card I found coming from a memory card the size of a fingernail. There is a problem with using genetic material in computers and it is genetic material is not a very good conductor of electricity. Scientists are already striving to correct this problem and I’ve seen experts in the field claiming this new method of constructing computers could increase their speed by a thousand times.
I think one of the problems we have right now is computers have reached a point where they are sufficient for almost any use the average person would have for them. Taking this a step further, cell phones have become so powerful many people use them in place of a computer and of course in place of the family camera. When you think about it, our cell phones are equivalent to what used to be called a supercomputer. This has the effect of slowing down the release of new a chips. A new survey which was released last week shows more people are using devices other than desktop or laptop computers to connect to the Internet. One of the disadvantages to using a smaller device is it is not suitable for everyone, but it is suitable for the majority of people. If some sort of laser projection keyboard can be developed which is comfortable to use, cell phones and small tablets may become a viable option for word processing. There are already one or two of these devices being developed, but they are just not good enough at this point in time.
One of the areas where we seem to be making incredible leaps is the transfer of data. You probably think I am talking about sending data point A to point B using the most efficient method. What I am really talking about is putting data directly into our brains. A device has already been developed which is known as a simulator and it can feed information directly into a person’s brain and it is said it can teach them new skills. When I hear things like this it makes me wonder if side effects will develop from this procedure. They may not develop immediately and could even take years to show themselves if there are any. Of course we will be told there are no side effects, because the military will probably want to use this procedure immediately. Think about it, you could send strategic information right into a commander’s brain and completely bypass his computer. Taking it a step further you could send all the relevant information an attack team might need right into their brains. This will probably be too important to the military to pass up. This may sound absurd, but can you imagine an enemy hacking this information somehow and feeding it into their own brains at the same time? This might lead to some sort of poison pill inserted into the data to prevent this from happening. Maybe the information would be construed in such a manner that if it didn’t go to the correct person the receiver would be rendered unconscious or brain-dead. There is a caveat to this and that is scientists claim learning will not be immediate, but will be much faster than it is now if we used this system.
Many people claim vacuum tubes were superior to semiconductor chips except for the fact they would burn out much quicker. Audiophiles prefer tube amplifiers and turntables with records on them to other systems and claim this is the only way to get the true sound of the performance. Scientists have been able to develop new material which acts like a vacuum tube. It creates a semiconductor-free device which can operate at much faster speeds, greater wavelengths and can handle power far greater than any semiconductor we have today. This is bound to have an impact on the performance of our home computers, cell phones and tablets. It is amazing to me how computers have gotten much more powerful while becoming cheaper. I guess I shouldn’t just shouldn’t say computers I should say all electronics.
In the early days of computing many of us were far more excited about computers than most people are today. The reason for this was the quick release of new models and the competition by many different companies using their own operating systems. One of the highlights of computing was when the Amiga computer hit the market. In its day it was one of the most advanced computers in the world as far as home computers go. It was able to do something which computers don’t even do today and that was create Windows of different resolutions on your desktop simultaneously. Today computers are a lot more mundane and the vast majority use Microsoft Windows with Apple and Linux systems coming in next in popularity. There are really no vast differences between any of the machines and this is a shame. The excitement of the old days seems to be gone forever.
