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.

traces the evolving nature of human-computer interaction, from its early roots through present day interface technologies. looks at the historical rate of progress in computing technology and considers possible future increases in computing capacity. In , 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, concludes this chapter, and thus the book, with a number of predictions based on the projected capabilities of future computing systems.