By Alexey Gavrilov on December 4, 2009

What do you want to be when you grow up?

In a kindergarten I wanted to be Fantomas but nobody asked. Then – an astronaut. Then – an archeologist (yup, if you meet Harrison Ford please tell him). Then – a geologist. Then… strangely I don’t remember what was my target in the high school.

Astronaut, archeologist, geologist – this is what I was telling adults when asked. I never told them the truth because they wouldn’t understand. What I wanted to be the most was a magician. I wanted that magic wand and the power to make wonderful and impossible things. At different times people, who wanted to be magicians, selected different professions. In XVIII century’s magic was alchemy, in XIX – chemistry and in XX – physics. Software and computer science are the magic of our time.

I’m a happy man because I’m living the dream. You are probably too. But here is the question. Is software the last magic ever? I guess it isn’t. Then, what’s the next?

What do you think?

P.S.

Current magic typically fails to deliver, what was expected, however the next magic delivers something valuable and quite unexpected instead.

Alchemy failed to turn lead into gold, but gave us Newton laws.

Physics failed in nuclear fusion power, flying cars, teleportation and space travel. We’ve got the internet, mobile phones, pocket-sized computers and Moore’s law instead.

Computer science will probably fail in thinking computers (aka Artificial Intelligence), natural language processing and transparent real-time machine translation (Babel fish).

What will be the next magic? What surprises will it bring to us?