What is the one high technology used in other high technology areas?

[Scifi fan]

A while ago, I started a thread asking what is the one common subject in any high tech area, and we agreed it would be mathematics, but that it would be applied in a unique way in each area of high tech. I also added the requirement of English report writing, because that is the one subject many science and engineering majors would need.

Now, I'll ask a similar question. In any high tech area, what is the one area of technology that would be needed? I can think of only one answer - computer science. Regardless of whether that area is genetic engineering, materials engineering, aeronautical engineering, spaceflight engineering, or, yes, software engineering, the designers would need leading-edge computer science. There is no other high tech discipline needed that is common to all areas of scientific progress.

I would also say they need basic writing skills, but that is an old standby that will never go away.

 

[Lenny]

You've confused me slightly - you're asking about an area of technology yet give as your own answer an area of study (well, the study of foundations of computer systems, and their practical implementations).

How are you defining technology?

 

[Dave]

My 2 cents...

I would say that the only reason you perceive that every area of technology needs computer science is simply a product of the time in which you live. The information revolution that has just happened has made number-crunching easy, and this has driven forward advances in science that could not otherwise have happened until now i.e. decoding the human genome might be possible with a calculator but would take far too long. Searching the sky for stars is as old as man, but computers have automated all the boring parts of it.

Now, if you lived at the turn of the twentieth Century, if you were say, HG Wells, or even better, Mary Shelley, then electricity would be your new technology - making everything work effortlessly, labour-saving devices everywhere, and the revolution of industrial automation and consumerism on the horizon.

I'm sure if we went back further, then the wheel would have been seen as a fairly ubiquitous piece of technology. Can you think of any piece of technology that does not have a wheel inside it? And the wheel leads to vehicles - vehicles lead to travel - travel to commerce and to further exchanging of ideas.

If we look to the future, I would speculate that the next revolution will be biological and in genetic engineering - I would speculate that we will not only be able to grow spare parts for our bodies, but also to grow computers, grow houses, grow vehicles...

Who knows if biologists will finally have their day in the limelight? But, I'd certainly say that computer scientists will be relegated to the same status as electricians by that time, or even to wheelwrights.

 

[Scifi fan]

Good point, both of you. Dave, you really gave me food for thought. I never thought to take the long-range historical view. But the wheel is ubiquitous, and it is even in computers, as I understand it.

To continue the discussion, genetic engineering will have its day, along with other forms of advanced biotechnology. But they will need advanced computational devices. In every area, custom made software and computers are needed - as I understand it, parmaceuticals require really high-powered specialized computers, and nuclear engineering also requires the same for its needs. In fact, I read many years ago that Bechtel is selling its computer expertise to other nuclear engineering firms.

As for the wheel, that is no longer leading edge technolgy, though it is ubiquitous. My challenge is to find something that is BOTH ubiquitous AND leading edge. And, to me, computer technology fits both criteria.

Dave, your example of electricity would have met both criteria in an earlier age, so kudos to you, my friend. I don't know anything about electricity, but, if there are constant leading-edge advances in the generation and/or transmission of electricity, then it would also qualify. This is a really good example.

I like shooting the breeze on various subjects.

 

[ManTimeForgot]

Technology, as an application of scientific knowledge, will always use the most efficient means of communication, categorization, and calculation as possible.


In the future this may mean organic computers in the form of synthetically made/grown brains or alterations to our own brains. It may involve direct brain to brain communication using radio in our heads. It may involve microfluids and synthetic plants which alter flows based on the most minute changes in density. But computers and networking are not going away... they will change form (atomtronics... quantum computing) but not disappear. Electricity may disappear (we may find something more efficient), but more basic things (like application of geometric and architectural principles) are not going to disappear simply because no matter what way you shake it a straight line is always going to be the shortest distance between two points.

MTF

 

[Dave]

...but more basic things (like application of geometric and architectural principles) are not going to disappear simply because no matter what way you shake it a straight line is always going to be the shortest distance between two points.

MTF

By any chance, have you been reading Anathem by Neal Stephenson