First written:
11-30-96

What the world will be like in 50 years
 By Clay Busker

The world is ever-changing, and the world has never changed at a faster rate
than it does now.  In the next fifty years, this rate will continue to
increase, and computers will play a larger and larger role in our lives.
The part of society where we will see the biggest change will be in the
educational field.  Each child will be able to begin learning at their own
pace.  If a kid can read by the time they reach first grade, they will be
able to read twice or more times as well at the end of the year.  The
intelligent child will not be held back by the rest of the students in the
class.  The less-intelligent students will be able to go at their own pace,
without feeling overwhelmed.  Every child will be able to learn at their own
pace, yet still have the opportunity to interact with other children on
subjects that cannot, or should not be taught by computers.

Education is the foundation of knowledge, the rest of life is adding onto
that foundation.  With ever increasing bandwidth, and printers that are ever
becoming more powerful and less expensive, news will be delivered to us in
ever more digital ways.  One day, we will be able to download a customized
version of the New York Times, and print out a version for us that people
of today swore came from a newstand.  You would then open up your paper,
fresh from the press, and see pages of information that you are interested
in, alongside ads that offer products that appeal to you.

That said, one begins to wonder how we are going to be able to supply all
the paper to this society that continually wants a hard, readable copy,
that can go everywhere with you.  Instead of constantly cutting down more
and more trees, new ways of recycling paper will come about.  It will come
true to such an extent that after we get done reading the paper, we can
throw it in the recycling bin, and within minutes, have paper ready for the
next days edition, at nearly the same quality as todays.

Yet this is not what is amazing about what will happen with technology.  In
fifty years, we will be playing with comptuers that run like Crays, yet run
in the palms of our hands, and cost under a hundred dollars.  Of course, at
that time, the next generation will be playing 3D, full color, true size
fighting games on their 3D graphing calculators.