There are more discoveries happening right now that are changing our world faster than our present understanding of how to use these discoveries.
Why change is good.
I remember reading of the times before the calculator was invented. They had slide rules for making calculations, and that gave us radio, TV, and even got us to the moon [ or at least close to it.]
Then the transistor was invented and that started to change things. Creating tiny switching elements in concert with a programmable nature to perform repetitive tasks extremely fast. Well that just changed everything back then.
Practically overnight, factories that made bulky parts went out of business. At that time LEAN was the word in businesses that made things. Everything that was taken from raw materials to finished goods had to become more refined, and at a faster pace than the time before the Semiconductor was created.
A computer in my home… You must be crazy!
There was a time when you mentioned the word computer, the thought that was brought to mind was this huge conglomeration of cabinets and webs of cables, both power and data, running through an entire room. So when someone said I’d like to have a computer in my house, that’s what people thought.
“Buddy you must be nuts to want to have a computer in their house!”
And that’s how it was for a long time. However just as business had to get lean and mean. So did the computer. Lighter, Faster, with more capabilities added onto and into it. Totally driven by the business to win big by being better or faster to the market with the newest offering to the masses and their dollars.
A computer that fit in the PALM of your hand.
After a while throught the ever increasing tide of “NEW” computers and accessories, upgrades and options packages that I was so full of computer stuff that I had to say, I don’t need anymore right now.
The only thing I lamented about this progress was the fact that there was no handheld computer that was affordable. Then the PALM portable computing platform arrived. Small, Efficient, got the job done.
It had the one saving grace that made its name the name we use for all handheld devices … PALM Pilot or PALM, and that was the LiON or Lithium ION batteries we use today. It had at least 6 hours of usable time or more from a single charging. With its auto off – easy / fast on feature, the batteries seemed like they would go on forever.
Sadly PALM fell out of grace, having hit their peek and collapsed under its own hubris by trying to improve upon Perfection.
Where do we go from here?
After a little trip down microprocessor lane, we come to the point where we are now [as of the time of this article] that computers are taking another turn into the deeper waters of processing and computing. They are entering the unknow waters of Quantum Mechanics.
As a species on this planet, we are the only ones who have yet learned to manipulate matter at its atomic scale, yet we have only the faintest idea of how all of the baryonic matter in the universe really works deep inside its core. So far we have investigated, made a few breakthrough’s. Like coming up with a theory about how something could work and if two or more separate parties come up with the same result. Then we publish the findings and say to the researchers, “what can you do with it now?”
The Discovery of using large scale groups of atoms that ACT as a Single QUBIT is pretty impressive. Once a processing and memory array are created using these new building blocks, a different way of processing and storing all the information in our world will transform how we live and interact with the world. In fact the world will be so new that all generations from that point on will never know a world that wasn’t monitored by atomic scale processors…
