The why of tech
The why of tech
IF you've been reading this column lately, you read warnings that the personal computer and the world's largest software developer are doomed for obsolescence in the near future. If so, than what's next? Networks,
not computers,
are the futureIn two words, that answer is: The network.
In the beginning, the personal computer took hold because it demonstrated there was a more efficient way of doing work. If you were working on a document, for example, and you wanted to move a paragraph around, you needn't rewrite the entire piece. Certainly this was a great leap from the typewriter and worthy of the trillions of dollars the high-tech industry has generated all by itself.
But a funny thing happened on the way to the present. The computer transcended from being a business efficiency tool to a standardized conduit of human knowledge. No matter how fancy our electronics, ideas and experiences are all we have to give each other. And two computers (read: people) working together are vastly superior to two working alone.
The Internet is the most famous network and its contribution to our civilization is akin to the discovery of bronze. We have come to learn that information is more valuable than any element or commodity that can be mined from Earth.
Because computers are the tools we use to access this network, it is natural for us to confuse computers as the reason for the information age. The computer is merely the tool for gaining entry to the promise land. Although subtle, this is an important distinction that must be appreciated in order to understand and be prepared for the future.
With PCs, we have learned what we need to build and participate in complex networks; the computer has paved the way for more useful and better-designed devices. In the next few years computer manufacturers and the software companies that have empowered them will greatly decrease in importance. The smart companies are already abandoning the thought of computers as efficiency machines and realizing that they are only communication devices. Those that don't will not last two more years.
The real future, and therefore the money, is going to be in building faster and stronger networks to provide any type of information to any person from anywhere. After all, computers (like people) are only useful in the company of others.
Steve Jefferson is a Honolulu-based freelance writer
and section editor for InfoWorld. He can be
reached at: stevej@lava.net