COMPUTATION: ALL THINGS DIGITAL

The advent of electronic computation and mass information communications is
causing another age to dawn. Calling this age the Information Age would be like
calling the Industrial Age the Steam Age; information is only one key part of the
picture. For lack of better terminology, this age has been referred to as the postindustrial
or postmodern era. Perhaps a better term is
the Virtual Age: an age in which
digital computation, the ubiquitous network, and increasing personal productivity
allows virtual representation of all that was once physically tangible.
As we view organizations through the simple four-square analysis — energy,
computation, communications, and community — it is evident that advances in
computation and communications dominate the current transition beyond the industrialized
age. The spotlight in this age is on the computer. Society’s current journey
is “from atoms to bits.”
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It is an economic transformation. The old economy measured
the cost of goods in terms of intrinsic weight, while the new economy measures the
cost of goods based on the intrinsic value of the function they perform.
New goods and services give rise to new occupations, new businesses, and
entirely new ways of organizing society. Pictures, documents, money, video, music,
telephone calls, entertainment, and records of all types have migrated from analog
or atom-based media to digital representations. In the digital form, any data type
can be stored and computed upon with the same electronic hardware. There is no
need for multiple information and media formats for video storage, audio information,
photographic information, written information, etc. The universal world of data
storage, management, and manipulation has arrived. The information is digital, and
its storage is electronic memory.
In digital form, information can be shipped anywhere at the speed of light. It
can be transformed, manipulated, searched, stored, retrieved, shared, or massively
distributed, all within the virtual world of the computer and the Internet. Today,
actions on information can be performed instantaneously, simultaneously, anonymously,
ubiquitously, and inexpensively. Labor transformation will be as significant
in this age as it was in the move from Agricultural Age to Industrial Age. Steam

power supplanted (to a large degree) physical effort in the previous transition.
Computational power will “supplant” mental labor in the current transition.
The
long-held promise of automation has been realized in this generation in the form
of a personal computer capable of replacing bureaucratic labor at a fraction of
the cost
.
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Franchised business models replace thinking positions with simplified repetitive
processes that can be quickly learned and accurately repeated. Tougher assignments
like inventory management and financial accounting operations are automated by
the network of computers in everything from the cash register point of sale to the
delivery truck global tracking system. Those mental labor functions that the computer
cannot fully automate can be quantified and transported worldwide, to be performed
by the most cost-effective labor pool.
The move from atoms to bits means complex, effective models of reality are
now resident in computers, and the line between real and virtual is blurring. Money
is electronic, consummating financial transactions at the speed of light — no more
mail float at the end of the month. Fluency and ease with the computer is the
technologic skill required for this economy. The labor of thinking for the working
masses — that is, of “task-oriented” mathematical thinking and any systematic,
repetitive thinking — is diminished. Computers, and their increasingly sophisticated
software, do this kind of thinking for the user.
Computers are superb at doing the math (spreadsheets, making changes, etc.).
They write reports from automatic measurements (financial reports, applications,
etc.). They search the available media for your preferences (search engines, Tivo,
etc.). The information worker need only follow the script. Work ethic, computer
literacy, and compensation requirements are the economic measures of workforce
competitiveness. Human labor in this specific context is not particularly creative or
interesting, but the efficiency of this system will free human time for other pursuits.
Here are a few of the computational product trends gathering momentum from
twenty-first-century techonomics:
•
Digital omniscience
.
The big brother to data is knowledge. All electronic
transaction data is available on the network of networks (Second Law),
and the computational power to analyze it is rapidly progressing (First
Law) without the need for human intervention (Third Law). With the
volumes of data being collected from transactions on the ubiquitous network,
the companion advance will be intelligent systems that mine useful
information from this data. Consider how much the network knows about
you. Every time you use your credit card: electronic transaction; every
time you write a check: digitized transaction; every time you write an email:
electronic record; every time you search the Web: cookies watch;
every time you make a telephone call: electronic transmission. Following
your electronic data footprint reveals a lot about you. Cash transactions
are not the answer, either. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) devices
are becoming so inexpensive (First Law) that they will be embedded into
major currencies within the decade. Amazon.com has been an early mover
in trying to understand customer preferences and use that understanding to increase sales to that customer. Such buying recommendations are the
tip of the iceberg of data mining for specific value added. In the fight
against terrorism, automated monitoring capabilities and data mining for
all forms of personal communications have been enhanced and used. We
face a brave new world in which not only every transaction is captured,
but the computational capability exists to infer potential future behavior
from combinations of those transactions. Certainly, the data and analysis
means are available if the models of human behavior become more accurate.
•
Genesis of the virtual world
.
This generation will witness the creation of
a virtual world for interaction, entertainment, commerce, and education.
First Law computation advances make graphic displays realistic, compelling,
miniaturized, low power, and inexpensive. The Second Law joins
the world, via the Internet, into a virtual community only a keyboard
away, or in a totally wireless world, provides the virtual anywhere. Threedimensional
animated video games create worlds so compelling that players
spend all their waking hours in an imaginary environment. Animated
movies blur the line between the real and the computer generated.
Each year, technological advances in hardware, software, and content further
blur the line between real and virtual. Today, a greater diversity of physical goods
can be accessed via the Internet virtually than can be made available physically at
the largest real shopping mall. The eminent missing product, which will link the
masses with a compelling virtual world, is the transformation of the computer display
to a head-tracking, eyeglass-like immersive device.
Such a device could lead to the
creation of totally virtual life experiences rivaling the experience of the real world.
A comfortable system combining high-resolution, wide-angle stereo display, seamless
kinesthetic tracking, and directional stereo audio output would immerse the user
into 90% of the real-world data input of the human sensory experience. In the years
ahead, such devices will change our comprehension of the media experience. With
techonomic trends supporting electronic miniaturization, community network interaction,
realistic generation of animated displays, and a market demanding an evermore-
realistic entertainment experience, the age of the virtual world is approaching.