The Computer Revolution
The computer has been the defining technology
of the current era. Together with supporting technologies such as miniaturized
digital electronics and communications, it has radically transformed
most areas of lifemedia, commerce, research, industry, education, entertainment,
health care, the military, and day-to-day living. It has also revolutionized
thought about fundamental concepts about what it is to be human, such
as the nature of intelligence, the fabric of information, the structure
of society, the legacies of culture, and the nature of work. Prognosticators
suggest that even more profound changes lie ahead. This section reviews
research and artistic activity focused on the past, present, and future
of computers. For many, the computer is an appliance sitting on desks.
But computers actually have much wider reach, and researchers are feverishly
working to extend their application into every corner of life. Invisible
computers lurk everywherein the toaster, the toy, the automobile, the
television, the stove. Computers underlie many systems that people rely
ontelephones, manufacturing, transportation, health care, finance, and
government. Even more profoundly, digital information systems have changed
cultural patterns, for example, in the ways people are abstracted and
represented, the ways social decisions are made, the ways we attribute
value to information, and the ways that images are used to shape meaning.