Computers As We Don't Know Them

Christof Teuscher, LANL
 

The advancement of computers in the past few decades has caught many by surprise. No matter where you go today, there are computers that you either recognize as such or that are hidden and invisible to your eye. Did you know that modern cars contain up to 100 small computers? For example, your car’s airbags are controlled by several computers and a few tens of sensors, which determine a passenger’s weight, the size, the angle, and the force of a possible impact, and then decide by means of complex algorithms and to the millisecond if and when to deploy each available airbag.
 
Computers are machines. That was particularly obvious some 50 years ago, when they made a lot of noise, occupied entire rooms, weighted tons, and worked very unreliably. Thanks to an astounding progress in the miniaturization of electronics, your cell phone can now do more calculations per second than early supercomputers and the tiny electronic chip in your credit card has more memory than the first personal computers. As a matter of fact, computers have changed much more rapidly than most other technologies, such as cars and airplanes. Why is that the case and how will this technological (r)evolution continue? What will computers look like in 20 years? How and where will they be used? Will computers be implanted in your body? Will computers allow you to expand your brain power? Will machines become more intelligent than humans and take over the world? There is strictly no reason to believe that machines will dominate us, but it’s an obvious fact that in many ways machines already do many things that no human can do.
 
Nowadays, the most promising areas for further progress in computers are the nanosciences, biosciences, and neurosciences. Nanotechnology allows us to build novel materials from scratch, to manipulate atomic-scale objects, and thus offers the potential to build even smaller computers. Bio-molecular components can be used to perform computations too, and it may be possible in the near future that you can for example swallow intelligent medication that decides in the body where to go and what exactly to fix. Finally, advances in neuroscience will allow us to better understand the brain and to replicate some of its functions by means of computers, nanotechnology, and biotechnology, and thus to create more intelligent machines.
 
Have you ever opened your computer? Do you know what the key difference between computers and other machines are? Do you know the basics of computer’s internal workings? Do you know that bacteria can perform computations too? This Café will explore the fast and fascinating advancement of computers, illustrate novel computing machines, and muse about what’s coming next. The only about half a century old story of modern computers is a clearly a success story, yet it’s only just the beginning of much more radical technological advances that will undoubtedly affect all of us. Come and explore together the unknown world of future and emerging computers at the edge of science fiction!