Quantum Leaps

During the Christmas break, I had a mundane problem to solve. Most PCs today no longer come with disk drives. This was problematic for me since, like for many of you, my family videos are stored on CDs and DVDs. I needed to upgrade to a more “modern” storage system. I use quotation marks because the modern solution I select today will likely become obsolete very quickly. Why is this the case? 

 

Let us pause for a while and consider this: Are you keeping pace with the technological advances that are speeding by? For example, in a matter of three decades, mobile phones went from the bulky, heavy, and expensive devices available from Motorola in 1984 to the flashy, light, and powerful smartphone devices of 2018. During this same period of time, we went from using the 5.25-in floppy disks in our PCs (the younger generation may not know what those are) to using CDs, DVDs, USBs, and cloud storage. Even computer terminals went from having voluminous screens that occupied large portions of our desks to having flat compact screens and, from there, to having touchscreens that respond to our fingers. All of these transformations in personal technology have happened since my college years. And we view the devices of today as superbly advanced and life changing. I wonder what technology my daughters will have at their fingertips two or three decades into the future. They will likely look back at the fancy smartphones, smooth touchscreens, and cloud computing of today and view them in ways similar to the way we view the old, bulky cell phones, large floppy disks, and cumbersome desktop terminals of the past.