Newsgroups: comp.arch
Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watdragon!rose!ccplumb
From: ccplumb@rose.uwaterloo.ca (Colin Plumb)
Subject: A step ahead of IBM
Message-ID: <1991Jan27.083412.14484@watdragon.waterloo.edu>
Keywords: HAL 9000
Sender: daemon@watdragon.waterloo.edu (Owner of Many System Processes)
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Sun, 27 Jan 91 08:34:12 GMT
Lines: 16

I just saw 2001: A Space Odyssey again tonight.

"I am a HAL 9000 Computer.  I became operational at H.A.L. Laboratories
in Urbana, Illinois on the 12th of January, 1992."

That was, at the time, a rather long-term prediction.  It doesn't look
like it will come true.  The user interfaces
give all the computer technology away.  But it's interesting to compare
the past expectations of computer advances with the present state of the
art.  I believe centralisation and cost are two big assumptions made
in 2001 which have proved to be false.  Any others?

(No need to drag out the "world market for computers is 18" (or whatever
the number was) quote, I don't think.)
-- 
	-Colin