[RadiantMind]

What do you think, how will programming change in the next 50 years or so? Will it exist at all, as a job that humans do? Do you think that computers will be able to program and debug themselves? Is AI going to become the reality?

Type your thoughts about this.

This post has been edited by RadiantMind: 18 April 2009 - 11:50 AM

[c0mrade]

Hmm, I do not think it will change that much.

Programming will constantly be brought to a higher level. Newer languages will emerge that make Ruby and Python seem like today's C.

But, as what we can do with computers increases, and the speed in which we can do it decreases, the complexity of the problems we will be solving will increase proportionally.

[KYA]

I think something along the lines of verbal communication with a computer and an interface similar to what was in Minority Report.

[markhazlett9]

That Kya and I think the major amount of work will be done on the AI side of things.

[Raynes]

Minority Report was fun.

[Zerobu]

Computer will be cells, so programmer will also be biologist/genetic engineers.

[KYA]

Oh and Clojure will be the language of choice.

I would not be surprised of programmers' jobs evolve to telling the computer what to do and the computer cranks out the code for review and debugging.

This post has been edited by KYA: 18 April 2009 - 06:30 PM

[ccubed]

KYA, on 18 Apr, 2009 - 05:30 PM, said:

Oh and Clojure will be the language of choice.

I would not be surprised of programmers' jobs evolve to telling the computer what to do and the computer cranks out the code for review and debugging.

Programmers greatest wish

Seriously, AI looks like it's going to be the next big thing. I can't wait to see what happens with it. That and I imagine holographic peripherals might become a research target more so than before. I so want the holographic keyboard they have out now, just so I can say I have it.

Edit: It made me think of something. Holographic printers that print on little holographic sheets of paper that can be flown through the world at your leisure. ROFL. The next gen paper airplane.

This post has been edited by ccubed: 20 April 2009 - 09:55 AM

[NickDMax]

Here are my thoughts:

#1 memristance -- HP's recent discovery of the memrisistor and confirmation of the theories put forth in the early 1970's is going to rapidly change the concept of a "computer". I say rapidly because we already have the theory developed, the papers needed to start pumping out the text books are already in place. We already know how to use the devices. Computers in the near future will move between the states of powered on and off with little to no delay. Memory will be capable of performing as persistent storage, power levels and requirements will decrease, and the ability to produce even higher operating frequencies will increase. Memristance offers explanations to many of the phenomena that have been blocking our attempts to reach higher speeds.

In addition to the immediate affects that are already possible this opens entirely new areas of study in electro-chemistry. We still have memcapacitance and memindictance to discover! This has already excited neuroscientist since electo-chemistry is still a burgeoning field of research and we are just beginning to see so much that was right behind our eyes!

#2 -- Neuroscience/Biology – Rat brains are flying F14's. The distinction between digital computer and neural networks are breaking down. The digital and analog worlds are once again beginning to merge and interact and higher speeds and smaller scales. Genetic algorithms are beginning to be more than just science projects for ambitious grad students. Bioinformatics is pulling biologists into programming and forcing computer scientists to look more and more at how biology solves problems.

#3 -- Consumer Devices -- Everything and its cousin has a processor in it. Embedded developers are finally getting their revenge on us PC programmers. Programs are evolving so that they are running on 3 or more platforms, my iPod is controlling my PC that is displaying data pulled from a server which will soon be sending information to the set top box that can share data with my DVD player that talks to my TV and my stereo. We can't continue to think about single platforms. Computers are becoming an integral part of the western human experience. (The memsistor will play a huge part in this as it will allow for smaller processors that consume next to no power and have 0 power consumption persistent memory).

#5 Parallel computing -- Supercomputers on your desktop. Intel is committed to massively multi-core processors. In PC programming we are already seeing a shift from the single thread model to multi-threaded model but we PC developers are still new to concepts and techniques - which are still evolving. Soon the techniques used in supercomputers today will be bringing new experiences to PC users.

#6 The Cloud. While I personally am betting that users will not want to abandon their home PCs and consumer devices, the concepts of cloud computing provide enormous potential. Not only will it allow users to take advantage of incredible computing power it provides a potential glue for all of our consumer devices. Users are already big fans of MMORPGs and I definitely think that our social computer addiction will carry mankind into the age of cloud computing. Since I think it is the social aspect of computing that will lead the charge I think that we as programmers have to begin to embrace the fact that the computing experience will no longer be dictated to users by programmers. The best we can do is provide the tools that people will use to create their own. (This is already the case, but few organizations seem to understand this).

#7 Quantum physics. There are a number of incredibly interesting advances coming out of the physics labs. Quantum entanglement offers the potential of faster than light digital communication as well as completely secure data transfers. Quantum computing is approaching reality and advances in quantum tunneling have been exciting those in the know (which I am not). While still on the edge of science fiction more and more these ideas are winding down to practical applications.

We are living in very exciting times technologically. Especially since we are living in a time when so much information is freely available and we are empowering not just the scientists working in labs, but anyone who really wants to get involved, to explore, to discover, to invent, to create. Add this to the armature inventor movement that is piggybacking the green-movement and the potential is just exciting. Knowledge is the commodity, the goods, the services, and the experience – and it is freely available!

[BetaWar]

In 50 years, I would hope that things are more like the Azgard (excuse the spelling) core technology from Stargate, all you need to know is what you want the end product to do and it will fill everything else in for you.

Though something tells me it will be much like it is currently, C/C++ as the base for much of what people use and others trying to kill them off with the newest shinyest language.

[WinBase]

i cant see it changing beyond all recognition, the languages will be more powerful but u will still need a human to write and design the programs - i mean things aint changed in principle since computers were first invented, we just use other means rather than stuff like punch cards

GL

Bob

[noorahmad]

i think it will become just like English.

[BigAnt]

Humans will always need to be involved somehow in the creation process. I think we will eventually get to the point were computers can create all the simple things, such as new applications for people to use. But humans will always need to be involved somehow. There will always be that bug the computer can't find but a human looks and it an Bam bang bingo they found it. Now when this happens programmers will have to really change the wy they do things. There will be a call for a lot more researchers who can research new ideas and once they know how the new concept is program the computer to know and use the new concept.

Quote

Quantum entanglement offers the potential of faster than light digital communication as well as completely secure data transfers.

There will never be completely secure data transfers. If someone can find a way to new way to secure the data someone will eventually find a way to break the security (it may take a while but it will eventually happen.)

[NickDMax]

Quote

There will never be completely secure data transfers. If someone can find a way to new way to secure the data someone will eventually find a way to break the security (it may take a while but it will eventually happen.)

Although I can not honestly comment inteligently on the subject (and should therefor keep my mouth shut... but where is the fun in that) I think that quantum entanglement will be pretty darn secure for a pretty long time.

Of course just because you are able to make a change to particle A and instantly change the state of particle B on the other side of the universe -- does not mean that the devices that send and transmit have not been compromised. From what I (don't really) understand about quantum entanglement is that particle A and particle B are created in such a way that they are almost two parts of the same whole. When one is poked with the stick the other feels it with no need for any sort of transmition... so other than the stick that does the poking nobody else knows anything about the change. Someone watching particle cannot B discover what happened to A unless it there is a regular "sub-light" data channel to provide some extra information -- but in the case of digital communication all that is needed is to know that some change actually took place (you don't have to care what change, only that it happened).

Point is.. there is no man-in-the-middle attack if there is no middle. If device A and device B are secure, then the the communication is completely secure.

However... I also believe in the inevitable failure of any security model.

For example, we know that there is a completely secure encryption algorithm. There is NO WAY to break it. The best that one could do is produce all messages of length less than or equal to the length of the message... but how does one know which message is correct. If my encrypted message is 1k long, then how do you tell which of the 256^1024 possible messages I mean... sure I can narrow it down but even if I only accept ascii messages then I have 96^1024. Most of that is noise but a very large population is actual text... So basically this is not getting me anywhere...

BUT we have yet to discover a good protocol to use it with. Every one has a problem... there are problems generating the keys and problems transmitting the keys.

With quantum entanglement there will be problems in producing the devices, problems in delivery of the devices etc.