Beyond Calculation; The Next Fifty Years of Computing

xviii, [2], 313, [3] pages. Illustrations. References. Contributors. Glossary. Index. Foreword by James Burke. Peter James Denning (born January 6, 1942) is an American computer scientist and writer. He is best known for pioneering work in virtual memory, which addressed thrashing in operating systems and became the reference standard for all memory management policies. He is also known for his works on principles of operating systems, operational analysis of queueing network systems, design and implementation of CSNET, the ACM digital library, and codifying the great principles of computing. Robert Melancton Metcalfe (born April 7, 1946) is an engineer-entrepreneur who helped pioneer the Internet starting in 1970, co-invented Ethernet, co-founded 3Com and formulated Metcalfe's law. He is Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at The University of Texas at Austin. Metcalfe has received the IEEE Medal of Honor and National Medal of Technology and Innovation In March 1997, the Association for Computing Machinery celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the electronic computer. Computers are everywhere: in our cars, our homes, our supermarkets, at the office, and at the local hospital. But as the contributors to this volume make clear, the scientific, social and economic impact of computers is only now beginning to be felt. These sixteen invited essays on the future of computing take on a dazzling variety of topics, with opinions from such experts as Gordon Bell, Sherry Turkle, Edsger W. Dijkstra, Paul Abraham, Donald Norman, Franz Alt, and David Gelernter. This brilliantly eclectic collection will fascinate everybody with an interest in computers and where they are leading us. Among the topics addressed are: Simulation, Human Intelligence, Information Warfare, and Innovation.…