Jaron Lanier forecasts the future

* 16 November 2006
* NewScientist.com news service
* Jaron Lanier

In the next 50 years, computer science needs to achieve a new unification between the inside of the computer and the outside. The inside is still governed by the mid-20th century approach – that is, every program must have defined inputs and outputs in order to function.

The outside, however, encounters the real world and must analyse data statistically. Robots must assess a terrain in order navigate it. Language translation programs must make guesses in order to function. Because the interface to the outside world involved approximation, it is also capable of adjusting itself to improve the quality of approximation. But the inside of a computer must adhere to protocols to function at all, and therefore cannot evolve automatically.

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