Having trouble keeping up with the latest technology? Just look back at the changes in computers over the years.
—Grand monstrosities: My first introduction to computers came in college when an engineering friend took me to a huge building that housed an enormous mainframe computer. I’ll bet my phone has more power today than that contraption.
—IBM Cards: As a reservist trainee in an Army supply terminal, I worked with a big machine sorting the paper into slots for some very simple application like listing names alphabetically.
—Desktop computers. In the 1980s. I remember a K-Pro in which you had to type a full command at the bottom of the screen just to insert a word. In one job we were allowed to take a baseball bat to our clunky Q-office-powered computers when they were replaced by personal computers.
Computer networks: When I worked at The Associated Press in Washington, our computers often crashed when there was a power failure in New York.
—Dial-up online services. America Online, Prodigy and CompuServe allowed you to connect on the Internet. But they were terribly s-l-o-w! You tied up the family’s phone line for hours.
—Search engines. Yahoo classified everything by category but soon it learned: People don’t all think alike. Google seemed like the kind, simple service to help the world until it became a greedy monopoly.
—Smart phones: Who would have thought you could take a photo or see a movie with a phone you could put in your pocket?
—Social media: You can stay friends forever with people you left behind years ago. You can also fight with them over politics and live to regret what you said.
—Artificial Intelligence: All of the world’s information is at your fingertips. How tall is the Eiffel tower? Who won the 1933 World Series? That is, when it’s not wrong.
What’s next? Brains interconnected over thousands of miles? Computers that can repair themselves? How about one you don’t have to plug in? Wait and see!
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