To put this question in perspective, I am 45, and I have seen the timeline of innovations such as tube tv's and analog phones change gradually into solid state and digital technologies, along with the advent of the personal computer, and the evolution of the internet as we know it today, but it seems like things are starting to slow down a bit. I think eventually Ray Bradbury's Veldt/ Star Trek's Holodeck will become a reality, and maybe time travel and inter-star travel, too, but for right now, it seems we are slowing down in our innovations. I'm a little bit familiar with Moore's Law, and it seems like things are hitting a wall. I expect nano science to become a major part of the future of computing which will help us in all technologies, especially healthcare and space exploration. I'm an optimist, but I don't have the feeling anything significant is on it's way anytime soon. What do you think?

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place

I think maybe due to the stagnant economies of the developed world the pace of product releases has slowed a bit but I doubt that the pace of technological break throughs has slowed much.

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Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.

The innovation of technology is a neverending story. I sometimes wonder where it'll all end. Probably with the disappearance of the human race. I do think technology innovations are in a rapid nowadays...

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rOZZ
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Historically, development in science and technology tends to be punctuated with plateau periods.

The development of agriculture (circa 10 000 years ago) saw a huge leap forward with formerly nomadic people settling into permanent communities and leading to the beginnings of what we have come to think of as civilization.

The development of the scientific method in the 1500 - 1700 era (Kepler, Newton, et.al.) saw a huge leap forward in our understanding of the natural world. Then a pause with slow evolution of science and technology.

In the 1760's a chap by the name of James Watt kicked off the industrial revolution that still continues to this day to an extent, but those first few decades saw the most explosive evolution, followed by decades of gradual change.

We are now in what is often called the information revolution and it will slow down and consolidate eventually, all revolutions do.

What comes next is anyone's guess.

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I think technological innovations are still happening at a relatively fast pace, but the innovations are coming from areas outside the Personal Computer space as hobbyists traditionally expect them.

For example, the tablet is now taking the place of many mobile laptops, and Google's Glass is making wearable computing an interesting prospect, if even controversial as it will require a change and acceptance of wearable computing in public spaces.

I think currently we are trying to figure out how to best integrate these new offerings into the way we do our everyday computing. Younger generations tend to take to these new offerings much quicker than people of older generations, so it seems to me that the uptake of these innovations is going to be tired almost directly to the population's generation.

Google's Glass is making wearable computing an interesting prospect

Google Glass is intriguing. I actually think it will be the next big thing.

What I would really like to see is a smart tv/computer combo with voice recognition - I've read various things about Apple's dabbling in an iTV.

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place

"How come none of you computer teachers have a smart phone?" The quick and simple answer is, "I don't need it."

Same here. Still have my 5-year-old cellphone and I'm quite happy with it...

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rOZZ
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"How come none of you computer teachers have a smart phone?" The quick and simple answer is, "I don't need it."

Same here. Still have my 5-year-old cellphone and I'm quite happy with it...

I have a dumb phone and it does everything it is designed for quite well.

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place

Every semester, at least one of my students asks me, "How come none of you computer teachers have a smart phone?" The quick and simple answer is, "I don't need it."

I teach basic IT at my local 60+ club and I have a smart phone,(I am also 60+) probably a third of my time is spent helping students use their various smart phones that sons and daughters have given them, to try and get mum/dad into the 21st century, doesn't always work though!!

My feeling is to teach IT you have to know as much about it as you can and smartphones/tablets are going to be the way forward.

PS like it or not smartphones ARE computers with operating systems.

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"How come none of you computer teachers have a smart phone?" The quick and simple answer is, "I don't need it."

Same here. Still have my 5-year-old cellphone and I'm quite happy with it...

I have a dumb phone and it does everything it is designed for quite well.

Yup, me too. I can talk and (I think) send text messages, that's it.

Luddites of the world, unite!.

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Up until approx. the present time, advances in technology have resulted
in jobs; different skills, but jobs, never-the-less. However, from what
I read and observe, todays "automation" has resulted in fewer jobs -- esp.
in the middle-class, including "white-collar" jobs.

So, from my perspective, the challenge to MIT and Silicone Valley, et. al.,
will be to create new technology that will, certainly, justify itself by
increasing the efficiency of the workplace, but will, also, increase the
number of people working at meaningful jobs. This is no small order, and
I, personally, don't have the faintest idea of what form it might take.

The Fed's leaving the interest rate low, is good -- but, it's a band-aid.

Perhaps, someone -- even in the SETI net -- might have some ideas on
the subject.

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Traditionally when new technology is introduced, a re-tooling of one's skillset is required to provide a living. For example, the invention of the printing press required people that knew how they ran and how to fix them when they broke.

With the increasing pace of technology, it requires an increasing pace of education and more creative ideas to solutions. The caveat, however, is that it only takes one person per X number of machines, with each machine doing what formerly X number of humans used to do, while the individual is still earning only the pay of a single individual, as that is all the market will bear.

There was a book on this subject,"Computer power and human reason" by Joseph Weizenbaum, Freeman (1976) which I tried unsuccessfully to publish while working in Mondadori Publishing House. Weizenbam is the author of the ELIZA program which simulates a psychoanalysis interview, but he wrote it as a jest. He was frightened when he saw it was taken seriously.
Tullio

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But I well remember many years ago one young manager being totally shattered by leaving his filofax, the old paper version of a smartphone, on a train. His whole life was in that book, addresses, phone numbers, contacts, personal photographs, the lot. He was totally stuffed. I can see the same "all the eggs in one basket" syndrome happening with today's reliance on gizmos.

You've heard of the cloud, haven't you? Many devices have the capability to backup all your stuff onto a server so that in the event you lose your device, simply getting a replacement allows you to restore and resume exactly where you left off.

To sum up, technology innovation has made us into a lazy society, where too many people use it because they can, or think that they have to, to fit in. I don't think the pace of innovation has slowed down, but I do think that face to face human interaction has because of it. Pros and cons, but I see more cons at the moment.

Society has always been lazy. Man invents so that he doesn't have to do work. The wheel was invented so he could put a box on two and put stuff in it and move it down the road much easier. Anyone who thinks this doesn't apply to themselves are likely deluding themselves.

And you keep going on about face-to-face communications - yet technology has allowed us to have virtual face-to-face thousands of miles away when we couldn't afford to travel to the other party otherwise. I remember as a child my mother had bought my brother and I a pair of walkie-talkie radios. We'd use them literally 6 feet away! It was simply so cool to use! Use them across 25 feet? Forget it! Couldn't see the other person. Rather 6 feet so I can see them when I talk. Long distance is for telephones. Now with VOIP, smartphones and videophones, all these things have converged. It is truly opening up communications in our world, which can only be a good thing. We need more discussion and more understanding of differing views.

I assure you that like the invention of the wheel, gas powered engine, radio, television, VCR, personal computer, the Internet and whatever comes after it, the human race will adapt and adjust. Sure, things will change from what you knew it far beyond when you're gone. That's the nature of our existence, and change is a must.

There's been a German study where they put a book in front of a ten year old I think it was...
She started rubbing her finger on the book, thinking it was a touchscreen, now how crazy is that!!
Lisa has restricted access to her smartphone and computer, no matter when, and I always monitor her...

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rOZZ
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:)

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rOZZ
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it's changed pub discussions out of all recognition. Time was when 1/2 a dozen lads would get all uptight about who won the Cup Final years ago and the score, or whether a certain footballer ever played for Man U etc. And there were punch-ups over it. Now, someone will produce a gizmo, go online and google the answer. End of argument.

To sum up, technology innovation has made us into a lazy society, where too many people use it because they can, or think that they have to, to fit in. I don't think the pace of innovation has slowed down, but I do think that face to face human interaction has because of it. Pros and cons, but I see more cons at the moment.

I definitely agree with you that the fun is taken out of a lot of arguments nowadays because of Google. To clarify what I mean about technology innovations slowing down, I'm thinking about the big changes, such as B&W tv to color, man on the moon, typewriter to computer, snail mail to email, wall phone to mobile phone, dumb phone to smart phone/tablet. So, I'm really just thinking in a global sense of how tech affects a large group of people, and I don't see anything on the horizon.

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place

There's been a German study where they put a book in front of a ten year old I think it was...
She started rubbing her finger on the book, thinking it was a touchscreen, now how crazy is that!!

I believe it!

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place

it's changed pub discussions out of all recognition. Time was when 1/2 a dozen lads would get all uptight about who won the Cup Final years ago and the score, or whether a certain footballer ever played for Man U etc. And there were punch-ups over it. Now, someone will produce a gizmo, go online and google the answer. End of argument.

To sum up, technology innovation has made us into a lazy society, where too many people use it because they can, or think that they have to, to fit in. I don't think the pace of innovation has slowed down, but I do think that face to face human interaction has because of it. Pros and cons, but I see more cons at the moment.

I definitely agree with you that the fun is taken out of a lot of arguments nowadays because of Google. To clarify what I mean about technology innovations slowing down, I'm thinking about the big changes, such as B&W tv to color, man on the moon, typewriter to computer, snail mail to email, wall phone to mobile phone, dumb phone to smart phone/tablet. So, I'm really just thinking in a global sense of how tech affects a large group of people, and I don't see anything on the horizon.

Most of those technological advances have taken anywhere from 20 to 40 years to become commonplace. We just had computers finally become a common tool in the workplace and home about 15 years ago. Remember that computers in the 70s typically took up an entire room; in the 80s computers were actually called "micro-computers".

The next evolutionary advance is moving everything mobile and less device-centric. This is where we're seeing laptops overtake desktops in sales, and eventually into tablets. We're going to see more gesture based interactions with computers. The overarching idea seems to be heading toward less emphasis on all your data on a single device and into a server accessible by any device so that you can borrow a friend's tablet (or any publicly available device) and still have access to all of your data. No more worrying about losing documents just because you switched or upgraded computers.

Depending on who you ask, this seems to all head toward a "holo-deck" type environment for entertainment or virtualized workspace.

It's easy to think we're slowing down when you're in the middle of it all. It looks like it is moving faster when you look back on all the advances. I think in another 20-50 years, they'll be amazed that it took us so long just to get gesture into the marketplace.