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Size Of Computer: Potential applications of the computer made possible by microelectronics include a small computer in every home or a pocket computer terminal that can be connected to a powerful central computer via the telephone. Such devices may be used to solve our numerical problems (e.g., income tax, or our bank balance) or as a creative tool to relate our knowledge and experiences to our future actions.
Microminiaturization of these input and output devices has not yet kept pace with that of the electronic circuitry. We can develop a small, pocket-size of computer personal computer to store all essential personal information in its memory. Because ten push buttons can be used to contact almost any telephone in the world, we certainly should be able to interrogate our personal computer by means of a pocket-size of computer push-button plate. But how are we to receive the output information from such a computer? A TV screen to present pictures, as well as words and numbers, is perhaps an ideal output device for personal communication.
And what of the computer? Olof Johannesson's 1966 novel, The Tale of the Big Computer (which first appeared in an American edition in 1968), offers a history of the development of computers as told by an advanced computer of the future. In an unemotional, utterly convincing essay, it describes the gradual obsolescence and disappearance of its creator, man. |
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