THE GATHERING STORM



We are not even at the end of the beginning.

If we are to believe Nicholas Carr, the focus of an argument that suggests IT, as we know it today, is not essential and is unlikely to survive, “it’s going to be a bumpy ride”.


PC applications, computing and storage will be moved into the “cloud” … an “Oz-like place” hosted by a Googlesque consortium of high-tech companies that allows users to regulate grids of computers with just software. Imagine down-loading a three hour high definition movie to your laptop in five seconds. Harnessing the power of “the cloud”, it’s no longer a far off fantasy.



Enter Quantum Computing.


Quantum computing moves computer technology into the molecular realm. With molecular-level chips, a laptop could have more computing power than trillions of today's supercomputers.


The major challenge of the Google whiz kids of tomorrow: to take computing and networking power that is effectively infinite and create interfaces that are simple enough for mere humans to understand.


Within a matter of years, your new laptop will switch on like a light.


Steve Jurvetson, author of AI, Nanotech and the Future of the Human Species states “Quantum computers have the potential to solve problems that would take a classical computer longer than the age of the universe.”

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