I'm very excited to be talking to you because the era of computing that we're starting to get into is about to explode. The next ten years are going to require your expertise, the expertise of diplomacy, of understanding human beings, of understanding human affairs.
Introduction
I'm very excited to be talking to you because the era of computing that we're starting to get into is about to explode. The next ten years are going to require your expertise, the expertise of diplomacy, of understanding human beings, of understanding human affairs. The very poor computer technology that we've been using for 50 years is going to get better connected with your sets of skills.
So I'm going to talk about what I think is going to come. I wish I had the technology to deliver right now.
Allow me to give you an example of what technology is like. If you have an image of a computer in your mind at all, it's probably one of two things. When I first started in computing, it was of a mainframe computer, a giant box behind glass walls that needed to be specially protected and that had hundreds or thousands of people that used it, in some cases seemed to worship it. Or, you may have an image of a more modern kind of computer. You may have one on your desk, a personal computer. You may have one in your home. You may even have a little one on your lap or in your pocket. Now, you know, we have lots of people devoted to it, but it often seems as though each of us has a kind of devotion to our computer which it doesn't return unfortunately.
About the Author
Edited remarks by Dr. Mark Weiser, Chief Technologist, Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, at the Virtual Diplomacy Conference of the United States Institute of Peace, Washington, D.C., April 1-2, 1997.