Month: August 2010 (Page 6 of 6)

The “future.” That mysterious place once written about in fantastic science fiction novels and portrayed in films like “2001: A Space Odyssey,” is here. Amazingly, much of the predictions made by prescient science fiction authors like Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke and Aldous Huxley have come to pass. No, we don’t fly around above traffic with personal jetpacks, and so far none of us has a Jetson’s-style personal wardrobe-changing machine at home, but an amazing number of the events predicted in decades past have become commonplace. We rely on computer technology and instant communications more and more.

Years ago ideas of the future were discussed in hushed tones, as people whispered things like, ”Someday, each of us will have our own computer in our house! It will think for us and do our bidding!!” It all seemed quite mind-blowing and strange. Now that day has arrived. How has technology changed us?

Personal computers became a force in the marketplace about three decades ago. The first computers were large and cumbersome, but with rapidly developing technology, computers quickly became smaller, faster and much more efficient. They shrank in size but increased in capability.

At the same time, cell phone technology was rapidly developing. Back in the 80s (the dawn of time), the first cell phones were clumsy and expensive, but as cell phones and cell phone plans became generally affordable, phones morphed into the super efficient little communication tools used today.

The Internet came along. Things sped up. Computers turned into phones and phones turned into computers. The Internet linked computers to phones and connected us even more.

Today “the office” is almost a concept. It’s the computer you have in your pocket that you walk around with everywhere. In a sense, the personal computer is now our workplace, our identity and even an extension of our brain. The futurists, apparently, were on to something.