Power In Your Palm: The Computing Power In Today's Smartphones

This past weekend I was browsing a few timelines on Twitter, and I came across this tweet by @A4XRBJ1 that said “Your mobile phone has more computing power than all of NASA in 1969. NASA launched a man to the moon. We launch a bird into pigs.” I thought that this was simply hilarious!

Then I started thinking about the truth behind this tweet. Could it be that this wasn’t meant to be funny at all? What do we do with the power we have at our disposal? Did you know that in 1946, ENIAC (the world’s first computer) could perform 385 multiplications per second. Today, the iPhone 4 can perform 2,000,000,000 instructions per second (The iPhone 4S is even faster). It reminds me of Peter Parker’s grandfather telling him that “with great power, comes great responsibility.” How responsible are we with what we have today?

Technology can aid the human race to accomplish so much more. Take for example a company called Emotiv. Their slogan is “You think, therefore, you can.” Simply put, using one of their wireless neuroheadsets, you can interface with your PC by using your mind. Yep, you read right. What is even more incredible is that they have developed an SDK for developers to use to create apps (written in C++, C#, VB.NET or Java – Coming Soon, Mac OS X and Linux) that can be controlled with your mind.

The possibilities for incredibly useful and life changing software has just gone stellar. Forget speech recognition because nothing trumps this. Developers can put the power of communication in the hands of so many people with speech impediments. Just see how technology has changed our world already. A hundred years from now (if we all survive the 2012 doomsday predictions) we will have a perfect record of our family tree preserved in Facebook. There will be a collective conscious of the human race all tied up within Twitter.

Technology is ever evolving. Its future could hold untold treasures and new discoveries. One thing is for certain though, that it is every day people like you and me that make it happen.