When I was in high school, I remember the computer geeks and how they had this secret room off the main hall where they made up punch cards and studied COBOL and FORTRAN ... The computer in that room was the size of a Buick. There were all kinds of tape reels and electrical panels. Multi-colored electrical spaghetti ran through trays from this box to that ... It looked amazing. It was top of the line.
Now ... I have a cell phone that has more than a thousand times the computing capacity of that thing. I carry around a dual core 1 gig processor with 16 gigs of memory ... in my pocket! I can stand in a corn field and call someone in Guam if the mood strikes me. I can log onto the Internet, check my email and then text my BFF in an instant. When I was in high school, the only guy with anything close to that was Captain James T. Kirk! What's next?!
I remember how odd it seemed to me that my grandmother was so thrilled when an airliner flew over her house. She'd stand on the patio and stare, marvelling at the thing. I'm beginning to know what she was going through.
There's a tiny box in my truck that TALKS TO ME and gives me directions to wherever I want to go. It even warns me of traffic jams and proposes an alternate route. If I make a wrong turn or miss an exit, it recalculates my route and gets me back on the right track. My DVR records my favorite TV shows when I'm not home, then plays them back for me, without the commercials if I tell it to. My watch sets its self by communicating with a satellite in Colorado ... I live in New York. The doors at my lab sense when I am near and unlock themselves so I can walk through without turning the door knob. I CAN SHOOT A MOVIE WITH MY PHONE!!!!!
So ... I'll be 46 years old soon. Odds are, I'll live another 40. What will I see in that time? Things that were science fiction in my youth can be bought at Walmart.
I am amazed and excited to see what will come around the bend next.
Thanx for spending a little time with me.
I appreciate it.
Billy
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