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European Visions for the Knowledge Age |
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European Visions for the Knowledge Age
A Quest for New Horizons in
the Information Society
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- Paul T Kidd (Ed)
- ISBN 978-1-901864-08-3 (Paperback)
- Price: See buy
on-line link
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- Chapter 3
- From Bits to Atoms
- Roberto Saracco
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- Introduction
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- The human race has achieved
spectacular progress through its capacity to conceptualise. Conceptualisation
does not use atoms, but something intangible that goes on inside
peoples' minds. Wording is an important part of this process;
modelling is another. Understanding the boundaries of objects
and capturing shapes are also part of conceptualisation.
Atoms are the starting point for many human activities, but adding
a human touch moves beyond atoms. Take coding as an example.
The activity of coding, be it in a written language, in a spoken
one or in gestures, started at an early stage in human evolution.
Over the past few hundred years, coding has become the object
of scientific theories. Engineers and computer scientists have
also made coding the foundation of their professions. They have
exploited the tremendous power of conceptualisation and consequently
created most of the objects that are associated with the modern
world, from tiny electronic parts to huge skyscrapers. These
have been conceived and designed, refined and finally planned
with the help of computers.
Computers work by manipulating bits. Bits are digits, either
one or zero. In computing, a bit is the smallest unit of information
handled by a computer. These are represented physically by a
very small pulse of electricity sent through a circuit, or a
small point on a magnetic surface that can change state to represent
either one or zero. Bits convey little information of use to
humans, but they can be manipulated by computers to present information
in a way that is useful to people.
The modern Boeing 777 aircraft was designed from the very start
using computers, that is to say, by manipulating bits, rather
than using physical mock-ups. Bits have also helped achieve spectacular
progress in medicine because scientists have been able to capture
and model the inner working of the body and to gain understanding
through conceptualisation. The decoding of the human genome,
the complete collection of human genetic material, was achieved
through the use of computers, and the result is but a first step
in a healthcare revolution that will have a significant impact
in the future.
Because of the value of bits, the past 40 years have been focused
mostly on the way to represent anything in bits and in creating
the means, often in the form of machines, to transform atoms
into bits. Sound, pictures, temperature and many other measurements,
are all examples of things that have been converted from the
physical into bits stored in computers.
There are however, many areas where significant work is still
needed to create bit representations. One example is the representation
of emotions. There will be continuing progress towards representation
in bits; researchers are working to capture single atoms and
to code them. At the same time they are learning how to manipulate
single atoms.
In the future it is possible that two big research areas connected
to bits may come to fruition. Both are likely to change the world
in very significant ways: the understanding of bits and their
transformation into atoms.
The abundance of bits will stimulate research into these two
topics. The first area of research will help make sense out of
the deluge of information. Understanding what is in an image
and how the various elements relate to other information will
greatly increase the use that can be made of bits. The second
area, the one addressed in this chapter, recognises that atoms
satisfy many human needs: bits belong to the perception of reality,
and atoms are the reality. -
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