A COMPUTERIZED WORLD

A COMPUTERIZED WORLD

Since the first computer was made in the late fifties,
the technology has developed extremely. Computers which took
the place of a living-room then, are now being made in
creditcard-formats. More and more areas are being taken over
by the computer.
As computers are capable of handling large amounts of
data in a very short time, they are well suited for
wordprocessing. I guess that it won't be long till all the
paper-archives are replaced by magnetic tapes and diskettes. A
diskette can contain much more data than a written page, and
it takes less place! It is possible to get the Norwegian
telephone book on just one diskette.
In near future, a new area will be taken over by
computers, namely maps. Different routes are stored on one
single compact-disk. Imagine, simply insert the CD into the
CD-driver in your car, and tell the computer where to go. The
rest will be done automatically. This will be a safer, faster,
and more comfortable way to travel.
Another new area, called "virtual reality" is currently
being tested. This is a way to simulate reality on a monitor.
In order to feel this so-called reality you have to wear
special electronic glasses and an electronic suit. Fastened to
the suit are sensors, which send information to the main
computer. This computer works with the data and displays them
on the electronic spectacles. This is a technique which use
three-dimentional views, therefore the scenery seems
incredibly realistic. If you want to be a boxer, simply change
the scenery on the main computer, and you are in the ring.
Today, many kids have got video games. You could say
these games are the present's answer to ludo and monopoly. In
a way, it is a great advantage that the kids are being
presented to computors at an early age, because they will
definitely have to use them later, when they start to work. In
the future there will be few occupations which won't use
computors, one way or another. But the videogames are often
being presented as something negative, which hinder the kids
from doing homework and other more useful activities. This
partially true, if they do much of it. But generally, I think
the young people's contact with computers is positive.
In Norway today, it is getting more common to have a
computer at home. You can use a personal computer to keep
household-budgets or other economics. It is also possible to
get in touch with your bank and transwer money while you're in
your sitting-room.
It is possible to contact other databases and gather
information from them. The use of computers has lead to other
criminal actions. "Hacking" is one of them. A "hacker" steals
and manipulates information from other databases. These crimes
can be very harmful. In The USA, hackers have managed to break
into NASA's database.
The computer-programmes, the software, are extremely high
priced, sometimes they are even more expensive than the
hardware. Therefore it is not unusual to make copies of these
programmes. This is strictly illegal, but nobody seems to
care, because it is difficult to control it. Software
producers loose BILLIONS of dollars each year because of this.
Many methods have been invented to prevent this, but since the
"hackers" often are more intelligent than those who make the
software, I doubt that there will ever be a successfull way to
hinder this.