(Note from the Editors of Internet Advisor:  We publish this address delivered at the 35th anniversary gathering of SEMCO on 4/10/11 because of some interesting perspectives both on the past and the future of computing.)

The Future is Now!

By Warner Mach

I would like to address six examples to show why the “future is now” in the rapidly developing computer world. SEMCO started in 1976. These are some of the reasons why what was science-fiction in 1976 is reality in 2011. Sometimes we are imbedded in the culture and don’t see the tremendous changes that have occurred:

(1)  Overcoming limitations: We no longer deal with the limitations such as computer speed, limited memory, and limited external storage.

(2)  Telecommunications: The universal Internet as a solution to the communications problem.

(3)  Virtual Worlds: The world of Second Life and multi-user games.

(4)  The “Watson” supercomputer that beat the human Jeopardy contestants.

(5)  Simulation of brain neutrons: Henry Markram and the “Blue Brain” project.

(6)  Seymour Wolfram and a “New Kind of Science.”

So imagine, if you will, that you have stepped out of the time machine from 1976.

(1) Overcoming Limitations:

I think that, for people who have been in …