The US and the world have to change due to the information revolution. There have been several information revolutions and they all have had profound impacts on the world. Paper and the printing press was a big one. Punch cards was a small one. Today we are undergoing a revolution as profound as the industrial revolution. While we may argue about jobs and technology, the information revolution is changing everything. A Univac (they no longer exist) computer in 1952 predicted accurately the 1952 election. See Nov. 4, 1952: Univac Gets Election Right, But CBS Balks.
Transistors, integrated circuits, very large integrated circuits, . . . have been enlarging computing power ever since. And then along came digital communications, early on with teletypes, later with the ARPA net, and today with the Internet. Cable and fiber optic technology have vastly improved the speed of digital communication and now digital communication has gone wireless.
This has brought about profound changes already, but the big changes are just beginning to happen. As IPAD devices become standard newspaper printing becomes obsolete. Who needs printed material when you can carry everything with you in a device that is as thick as a pad of paper. Book printing will become obsolete in the next ten years. So will selling music on a hard medium. I cannot remember the last time I bout a CD. I have fantastic speakers hooked up to my computer and I purchase my music through iTunes. As Bob Dylan said "The Times They are a Changin"
But, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Computers control manufacturing devices. They have done so for a long time through CNC controllers. The programming of these controllers is becoming automated. Soon one will only need to present a design to be manufactured and the machine will make the design. And accuracy is improving dramatically. Fewer and fewer people need to be involved. Better yet the manufactured items don't break down as often and need less maintenance. For example, I remember learning to replace tubes in the first black and white television my parents owned. I now have had a television for over twenty-five years that has never needed to repair and works just fine. I throw out computers that work perfectly fine but no one wants because they are too slow.
But this is just the start. Speech recognition is slowly but certainly improving, even across low bandwidth telephone networks. It is just a matter of time before I use speech recognition to write my comments and diaries. Soon, as in the next ten years, people will not need to drive. The defense department is developing robots to replace humans on the battlefield. (Where are Asimov's laws when you need them?) At one time chess was considered the big test (aside from the Turing Test) for computers. Chess programs have ceased to be a challenge to write, and even Grand Masters are defeated.
Information technology was critical in conquering the human genome and is critical for nano-engineering. Information technology changes everything including teaching. I wrote of the earliest papers on using computers as a teaching tool. Look at the Obama campaign and DailyKos to see how information technology is changing politics.
The question we are not dealing with is how do we adjust. Education and continuous education is part of the answer. Reducing the amount of work required of workers from the "40" hour work week is another part of the answer. Increasing vacation time and salaries is another part of the answer. Dealing with our trading partners so that they recognize that they need to make similar changes is another part of the answer. Reducing the retirement age and increasing retirement benefits is another part of the answer.
Worrying about the deficit is not only not a part of the answer, but it is a part of the problem. Tax breaks are only a part of the problem. Poor paying jobs are only a part of the problem.
Somehow we need as a country to change how we think about the world today. We need to recognize the information revolution for the game changer it is. I am saddened that the US is slowly but surely giving up our leadership in computing. Today China manufactures many of the world's computers and China Grabs Supercomputing Leadership Spot in Latest Ranking of World’s Top 500 Supercomputers. Think nuclear weapons and weather prediction when you think Supercomputers.
Information technology is changing everything. We either change, or conditions will get much worse. How do we make Washington aware of this revolution, beyond blackberries?