Think digital will be replaced by something more revolutionary?

Answer 1

Great question! The answer is a resounding yes. Think of digital as a stepping stone in the evolution of information management, just as analog was fifty years ago. As we expand our understanding of the physical world, we will discover new and interesting ways of managing the storage, retrieval, transmission and interpretation of information. We will undoubtedly model after existing natural phenomena.

Take the human brain, for instance. The human brain is a biological device that has the capacity to store and retrieve information. We are learning a lot about it today, but there is a lot we do not know. Think we will know more about it in one hundred years? How about a thousand?

Imagine a storage device made of biological material that has the ability to regenerate itself when damaged (generate new nodes and pathways) and is infinitely expandable (add more material). Do you think we will still be operating in digital when we are able to achieve such scientific ability? Probably not.

With the inroads we are making in the areas of physics, chemistry, biology, and computational theory, there is no doubt that something will come along to replace digital, and it will probably happen before your life on earth has expired.


Two hundred years ago, in a land far, far away…

“Do you think one day my cart will be pulled by something other than an ox?”

“No, like what?”

Answer 2

Well, the heart of digital is binary, a string of 1's and 0's. In terms of signal clarity, when it comes down to it, you can't get any better. There is no maybe, just yes or no for each individual packet. Digital is better than analog for precisely that reason. I think there will become much more technological and revolutionary ways of communicating and processing binary, but the heart of every system will still be a digital gate, whether it's a MOSFET or an electron spin quantum designation.

Answer 3

No, like what?