iTeen by Steve Siercks, Jordan Streiff, & Chris Rogers computer news with the teen perspective Mac To The Future by Jordan Streiff January 27th I was just looking at my new Wired Magazine that I got in the mail. The cover story was aptly titled "I, Robot." In this article, cybernetics pioneer Kevin Warwick has already implanted one chip into his body - in several months he will be implanting another. This led met to wonder - what do we really want out of our computers? What would be the ideal Mac in say, 50 years from now? The most closely watched aspect of computers these days is the processor speed. Often times, this will determine a buyer's purchasing decision. What will replace that benchmark if processors reach their upper limits, or get so fast that it hardly matters which one you pick? What will be the next killer aspect that everyone looks for in a computer? Hopefully, it will be interface, and that is one of the main reasons why the Mac has such a bright future. Another thing people look for is price. Maybe one day, laptops will become as numerous as calculators and prices will adjust accordingly. While buying a top of the line portable for $100 may seem far-fetched and a figment of my highly active imagination, I guarantee that it will happen someday. But what do people really want in a computer? That's hard to say. Maybe it is someone to talk to and share their feelings with, an un-objecting voice that can't respond. Or maybe it is the opposite, a friend that they can talk to and interact with, a true companion. Maybe it is a tireless worker that has no need for things such as pay or food. When are we going too far though? Do we really want computers to emulate people so much that they replace humans? If computers do all the work, then the human race could become lazy and carefree - a nation full of couch potatoes. Why do a task when your computer can do it for you? Why talk to a friend when your laptop is right beside you? Why think, when you could just load an extra extension into your brain and let it do the thinking for you? Computers were built to aid humans. Keyword: aid. They are not meant to do everything, but rather they are a tool at your disposal, one piece of the puzzle that is there to assist with the greater good. When computers go from aiding humans to thinking on their own, replacing functions that were long thought to be only for humans, that is when they have gone to far. It is the year 2051. I'm sitting on the couch with two young grandchildren. They are laughing. Laughing because I just mentioned that back in my day computers were measured at all of 500 megahertz. Laughing because I had a 4 gigabyte hard drive. Nowadays, they carry a terabyte around school on their finger, much like I carried a pen or pencil. They are laughing now just like I laughed when my father said his first computer was a Commodore with 16 kilobytes of memory. Just like my grandfather said he had to walk ten miles in the snow during a blizzard to get to school. This just goes to show how far we have gone in only fifty or sixty years. And just how far we have to go in the next. Peace, Jordan Streiff iTeen Most Recent Columns The Rio 600 Reviewed - January 25th The Little Things Count - October 26th, 2000 Questions & Comments About DVDs and Apple - October 10th iTeen Archives Offering computer news with the teen perspectiv, iTeen Online started with a weekly column at theimac.com under the supervision of Robert Aldridge. When they realized that there was a huge demand for teen computer news, iTeen Online was born. iTeen Online posted daily, original content that anyone (including adults) could read. Hits soared and iTeen Online became the number one source for teen computer news. Now iTeen Online has once again became iTeen. At The Mac Observer the iTeem will produce a weekly article that will air on Thursdays at MacObserver.com. In addition to the weekly article, the iTeem will give you the same reviews and content that you're used to at iTeenol.com.