The second half of the twentieth century has witnessed remarkable advances in technology. The unquestioned leader in this race has been computer technology. Even the most modest personal computers today have computing power that would have astounded the leading technol ogists a few decades earlier, and what's more, similar advances are pre dicted for many years to come. Looking towards the future, it has been conservatively estimated that in 2047 computers could easily be 100,000 times more powerful than they were in 1997 (Moore's law Moore] would lead to an increase on the order of around...

The second half of the twentieth century has witnessed remarkable advances in technology. The unquestioned leader in this race has been computer technology. Even the most modest personal computers today have computing power that would have astounded the leading technol- ogists a few decades earlier, and what's more, similar advances are pre- dicted for many years to come. Looking towards the future, it has been conservatively estimated that in 2047 computers could easily be 100,000 times more powerful than they were in 1997 (Moore's law Moore] would lead to an increase on the order of around...