This summer we celebrated 50 years of computing. Three years ago the Prime Minister promised that the State would ensure every child in Britain would have access to a computer. Charles Ross , Secretary of the European Institute of Quantum Computing, reports on computing as an integral part of learning, thinking and understanding in the Age of the Brain. In the computer we have for the first time a machine that can multiply the capabilities of our brains.
New inventions tend to be used initially to replicate existing systems.
The first trains were stage-coaches on rails. We are now using computers in learning, training and education as though they were books, pencils, blackboards and exercise books. It may turn out that the cutting edge of our emerging technology is in the humble classroom. Printing was invented half a millennium ago yet millions are still not taught to read. Now we have a device that changes the name of the game.