Steve Huffman, Guest Editor
Editing an issue of The Edge titled “The Future of
Computing” is a frightening task. In my mind echo the futuristic
visions of true giants of the computing industry:
“I think there is a world market for about five computers.”
Thomas J. Watson, Chairman of IBM, 1943.
“There is no reason for anyone to have a computer in
their home.”
Kenneth Olson, President of Digital Equipment, 1977.
“640K ought to be enough for anybody.” Bill
Gates, CEO of Microsoft, 1981.
It is therefore with some trepidation that I introduce this issue
devoted to emerging technologies that may have profound effects
on the future of computing.
The six articles in this issue explore two distinct areas of
the future of computing: new computational devices and new computing
paradigms. Five of the six articles touch on both areas, illustrating
the co-evolutionary nature of computing devices and the computing
paradigms that are developed to exploit them.
“Toward Molecular-Scale Computers,
Computation as a Property of Matter, and Matter as Software,”
by James Ellenbogen, discusses recent advances in the development
of nanoelectronic computers whose computational circuits are constructed
by arranging individual molecules, thereby reducing their size
by orders of magnitude over conventional semiconductor processors.
However, the mechanism underlying the computation is still based
on controlling the flow of electrons to represent discrete binary
states (‘1’s and ‘0’s). “Quantum
Information Science: The Undiscovered Country,” by Gerald
Gilbert, describes how computation can be based on the almost
incomprehensible superposition of quantum states, which allows
a property such as electron spin to occupy simultaneously both
of its possible states. "Pushing
the Frontier of Science: Quantum Cryptography Research at MITRE,"
also by Gilbert, focuses on efforts to exploit the properties
of quantum mechanics to allow separated parties to carry out unconditionally
secret communications in "unbreakable" code.
While molecular electronics and quantum computing exploit fundamental
physical properties to produce new methods for performing computations,
the remaining three articles in this issue explore the use of
biological and social metaphors to inspire new computing paradigms.
“Lessons From Biology: Silicon Neuron
Processing,” by David Colella, focuses on processing
architectures derived from biological neurons—producing a
computing model that emulates biological processes on a microscale.
“Evolutionary Computation: Evolving
Novel Solutions for Complex Problems,” by Lashon Booker,
describes an emerging computing paradigm that draws upon the macroscale
biological process of evolution. Finally, “The
Future for Intelligent Simulation Models,” by Gary Klein,
explores the application to simulation of agent computation, a
computational model that uses the social metaphor of adaptive
and interacting agents.
The full implications for the future of computing of the technologies
discussed in this issue will unfold over time. However, those
technologies, along with other emerging technologies, depart so
significantly from our traditional forms of computation that it
is already clear that “the future isn’t what it used
to be.”
For more information, please contact
guest editor Steve Huffman using the employee directory.
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January 2002
Volume 6
Number 1 The Future of Computing Issue
Quantum Information Science: The Undiscovered
Country
Toward Molecular-Scale Computers, Computation
as a Property of Matter, and Matter as Software
Evolutionary Computation: Evolving Novel
Solutions for Complex Problems
Lessons From Biology: Silicon Neuron Processing
The Future for Intelligent Simulation Models
Pushing the Frontier of Science: Quantum
Cryptography Research at MITRE
Download a PDF of this issue [1MB]
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