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Fast forward to 2020 and computers could be imbedded into your coffee pot, photographs, alarm clock and kitchen pantry. Your entire house will be wired with fiber-optic cables to transfer data from one device to another. Everything from your car to your clothes, your washing machine to your refrigerator will have nano-sized computer chips integrated in them. Internet connections will be thousands of times faster, and utilized to run almost any device.
Come on in to the homes of the future. It is run on computers.
What may exist as a distinct and independent entity today could become integrated into virtually any object in the future. Powerful nano-machines could become so ingrained in our everyday lives that we do not give them a second thought. Computers the size of molecules will be used to run a plethora of devices, making virtually anything possible. This in turn drastically alters the average home life, allowing a profusion of new possibilities.
Just how different will the computers of tomorrow be? Today, computers function using electricity, transistors, a host of wires and silicone chips.
In the future, fumbling with wires and hook-ups will be history.
Tomorrow’s computers will be powered through atoms, DNA, fibers and light.
Difficult to imagine maybe, but baby steps are now being taken in that direction.
Stop for a second and try to imagine what it would be like with billions of microscopic and powerful computers running our world. Would our everyday activities be accomplished with much more ease? Or would things be more complicated since we rely on computers and machines for our daily functions?
Nevertheless, technological progress made in the field of computers has been immense in the past few years. Today’s desktops and laptops could easily become tomorrow’s quantum processors and DNA computers. Yes, scientists predict that the future of computers will be of two kinds: Quantum and DNA.
Get ready and take a quick early look at these two types of future computers now, as these will definitely be buzzwords in just a few years time.
Quantum Computers
Today, even the most powerful computers run on the same microscopic transistor chip that is found in your home’s personal computer. It ‘thinks’ using the concept of binary computing (the use of one’s and zero’s to process and represent information.)
Although the ability of binary computation has exponentially increased over the decades, scientists predict that this conventional technology will no longer be able to increase computer performance. Try as you might, the processing speed and computing potential of microchips have limits. It cannot solve thousands of computations simultaneously nor have the memory capacity of a trillion compact discs. But this is all going to change with the new buzzword – quantum computing.
Quantum computers will replace microchips with atoms and binary computation with quantum physics.
It has the capacity to compute thousands of inputs at the same time and solve new problems that the conventional computer cannot. A quantum computer’s superior computational ability allows it to crack the most complex secret codes or devise encryptions which are impossible to be decoded by human means. Though currently still in early development stages, scientists predict that quantum computers could be of great use to the military, intelligence services and other industries.
DNA Computers
This computer can run a trillion applications at the same time and is 100,000 times faster than the average personal computer. Its secret ingredient: DNA.
DNA computers harness the vast memory capacity of nature’s biological data bank to perform complex calculations and store immense amounts of information. Instead of silicone microchips, a soup of enzymes and DNA molecules are used. Though still at its infancy stage, DNA computers could potentially transform the future of computers in medical and pharmaceutical applications. Automatic bio-molecular computers could work as doctors inside the living body, sensing the disease or abnormality in the cells and curing it by releasing drugs based on its stored medical knowledge.
DNA computers of the future could also release drugs to repair unhealthy tissue or monitor the body’s well-being. The potential of DNA computers has yet to be fully understood. But one thing is for sure, its potential to improve our quality of life is so great that science fiction writers struggle to keep up.
However, don’t rush to your nearest computer shop to get the latest quantum or DNA computer just yet. It could take a while before these computers of the future will be available at a store near you.
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