15.1 Introduction
This chapter closes out our introduction to computing by stepping back and taking a look at its history, seeing how we arrived at where we are today, and then looking forward to what the future may hold.
Section 15.2 traces the evolving nature of human-computer interaction, from its early roots through present day interface technologies. Section 15.3 looks at the historical rate of progress in computing technology and considers possible future increases in computing capacity. In Section 15.4, we take a look at a number of promising technologies that could dramatically improve the capabilities of computing systems, beginning with improvements to today’s semi-conductor based technology, then moving on to consider more advanced technologies, such as photonic computing, bio-computing, molecular-level computing, and quantum computing. Finally, Section 15.5 concludes this chapter, and thus the book, with a number of predictions based on the projected capabilities of future computing systems.