The Future of Technology Art and everything inbetween

I have to admit in my first year of being a University student and I have already learnt so much that my mind boggles as to what’s coming next! Opposed to a lot of purely (purist!) 'Graphic Design' courses..Well let’s just say it’s not the kind of course that will necessarily spawn the next Si Scott.

I feel something electric in the air, and no it’s not the buzzing of the servers and networking equipment or the pointless fans in the rooms (circulating warm air..) or even the monitors for all the numerous PCs in all the computer labs fighting to keep face and outputting some fairly poor resolution graphics. No it’s a feeling of what is to come in the future. I’m not confessing to be a predictor or foreseer of any sort, but id quite happily admit when I get a feeling for something I just know it’s a safe bet. (Mainly because I like to use facts evidence for coming to conclusions..unlike some people I know) I’m sure everyone has those feelings about all sorts of things, but Tech is my bag and it makes my brain tingle every time I learn something new and exciting. And this is why I am bothering to write in this little journal entry.

I’m not some scientific whiz kid by no means I know some people who are, but I like to day dream about the technology as we know and picture it having its mind blown! There seems to be a very large amount of people on this earth that not only know how to use a computer but either know or are learning how they work and this is an amazing thing. Especially when you consider the time it has taken for this to happen. My father’s first computing was an Amstrad. My first introduction to this little box and something I was informed to be called a keyboard was that it was a bit like a television, and just like television never seemed to have much on either. Some of you might be a bit young to have even heard of those, given that I’m not to be considered Old just yet myself. I was just fortunate to be have computers in my life from a very young age. If you’ve heard of Sir Alan Sugar then look into his history. He founded Amstrad back in the late 60's. These were the days of computers having no random memory. That’s permanent memory, sorry I have to bare in mind someone reading this and having no idea what all this mumbo-jumbo is. You either created a file or entered data and there was no way to bring it back once the machine was turned off. You think technology has problems now! Unless you were the lucky owner of a newer system that made holes onto very thin paper! When my mother worked for a company in London she had to use one of these systems, and given that she’s poor on technology use now I can’t bare to picture herself or anyone else using this system back then – it was a painful process – the paper was a little like the paper used on lie detectors, graph like. (I have no better way of describing it). The computer would put lots of tiny holes in this paper and that would act as a re-call device. But these were extremely volatile as you can imagine, computers seem to be fairly good at processing thousands of mathematical equations (Algorithms) all at the same time nowadays. But when the technology was first used - as it always is.. It’s unpredictable. No matter how sound the Algorithm used. There is always a percentage of error. Not to mention the risk of the long thin piece of paper getting damaged and rendering it completely useless. The Amstrad that my father had which must have been the next big upgrade could used disks they were a little like Floppy Disks – Anyone else remember those? – they were used to save files onto, much like we do today, but the funny thing was that every time you switched it on you had to completely reinstall the operating system from a disk. With no real graphics to worry about this was fairly-ish simple operating system programming code. The interface looks very much like Dos does if your after a comparison, except less options obviously. But it does make me smile when 'people' complain of having poor start up issues and the occasional blue screen these days. I say consider what came previously before you complain about the here and now. All things need time to develop. People who are purely just users of computers and programs don’t know, and quite rightly, that it takes a good year or so to filter out all the errors and process of a system or program. There’s no test that you can perform that matches that of thousands of users hammering you new program or operating at the same time. If you consider all of the above in terms of evolution, you’re more likely to have generations of elderly people in 50 years time, who have no intentions of putting a stop to their learning. I know I certainly won’t be. I intend to move with Technology and let it move me, and that is the way forward.

So why I am I writing all this you may ask. Well I know I am not going to be the first person to put the link together, mostly because the technological advances for the piece of scientific amazment I am about to mention is already being put in place, studied and researched ect. (And I’m only discussing it this way because it encourages me in my personal direction to do so, and I don’t see or hear many people discussing its possibilities other than in small circles and I think that needs to change). This piece of genius is allowing a computer 'brain', memory, to learn and evolve without any input from a human. The only involvement we have is to put the wheels in motion so to speak. It learns evolves breeds and then creates new generations that take on the characteristics of what works best during its learning process. Natural selection in the digital form? Indeed. I speak of the Chaos theory, fractals, and quantum physics. Don’t panic, the Chaos theory is not what you think. I’m still very new to this, and that’s no exaduration I might managed to sound like I know what I’m talking about but I don’t. Things like this and quantum physics amaze me but I’m not ready to explain how it works to anyone. However it doesn’t take a genius or a techno individual to understand that everything has a consequence. As small a thing as 'a butterflies wings beating' and as big as an earthquake or volcano erupting, which is essentially the Chaos theory. It also has a lot to do with patterns and repetition. Consider again evolution, particularly of nature if something works well it stays - look at the links below to see the Mandlebot Set and other lovely bits of juicy science - if something fails and is of no use it is discarded - Hmm where did I leave my tail. Ever heard of Occam's razor? - It means the simplest explanation is normally the right one. (I’m not afraid to admit that I first heard about Occam’s razor from a Simpsons episode..yeah!) If you look at the scientific explanation behind fractals and the chaos theory you will maybe make a link in your brain as I did. That this amazing fragile world that contains us managed to work out what it needed to know to survive - to allow its inhabitants and future inhabitants to evolve in an efficient manner. Next time you go for a walk, and I advise that you do, take note of the trees, the plants, how they all follow a pattern. How the branches, and stems, all repeat one after another until they peak, and then regard their leaves and petals.. It’s ended less. Infinite! Everything around you flows, it may not hit you the first time but I promise you it will. Now who would have ever thought nature and computer technology could be so closely related! - I certainly wasn’t expecting it.

This is where I my end my little informal rant; because my knowledge has gaps and a lack of full technical understand at this moment in time. I plan to research, and who knows it might be useful in my final degree year. But I do know one thing. If you are as interested in understanding why things work the way they do. Then you need to check this stuff out! Whoever you may be, whatever age group.. Whatever skills or lack of skills you may think you possess know that you are not alone! Learning, discovering - Freedom of Information - These are all wonderful things and if you are reading this then you possess one fantastic thing.. that I can be absolutely sure of... The Internet! Use it, and let it make your brain tingle as it does mine. There’s no other feeling like it.

Someone once said Knowledge is power... I think they may have been on to something.


Regards G