Posts tagged “computing”

We're terrible at predicting phase changes. We can iterate but not invent, which is why sci-fi spaceships have telephone wires. Like Babbage, we're already living in the future we can't quite see. Ubiquitous powerful computation will make today's smartphones look as primitive as hand-calculated logarithm tables.

I describe the five stages of computing expertise, from wide-eyed wonder at your first machine to intentionally pouring Coke into the disk drive. How accurate is it?