Chapter 750 An epoch-making book 'Digital Survival'
"Digital Survival" was published in 1993. The author is Negroponte, who is the first generation of computer experts in the United States. He especially has an unparalleled sense of informatization.
In his previous life, Liu Lang accidentally read this book when he was in college. It was already 2003, and nearly ten years had passed since the book was written. However, he still did not understand the content inside, as if he was reading a heavenly book, and
Ten years later, that is, one or three years later, he accidentally read this book again. This time he finally understood the book. It was not that he had grown up, but that the content written in the book had appeared to everyone.
Now, even a primary school student knows what the Internet is.
In other words, the content written in this book exceeds this era by nearly twenty years.
Later, Liu Lang learned about the impact of this book on many of China's first-generation Internet users from the memoirs of them. Many people even truly understood what the Internet is and what informatization is after reading this book abroad.
What is big data, and I firmly believe that the content written in the book will arrive at some time in the future, and then join the wave of the Internet era, or be eliminated by this big wave, or truly become a trend-setter and establish one's own
A great achievement.
It can be said that this book became the enlightenment textbook for China's first generation of Internet entrepreneurs, and even had a profound impact on the enlightenment and development of the information age in the twentieth century.
Liu Lang wrote this book based on his own memories a year ago, but he did not give it to Professor Wilson at that time.
It is now the end of 1987, and there are still six or seven years before the release of this book in the previous life. In the previous life of 1993, computers in the United States were already very common. Not only every household had them, but at least they had begun to be widely used.
In China at that time, some middle-class families were also equipped with computers. Computers of the 286 and 386 models cost as much as 20,000 to 30,000 yuan each, and ordinary families could not afford one with their annual income.
In that era when computers began to become popular, this book caused a huge sensation upon its release. It is conceivable that the concept of digitization was new and unfamiliar in that era, not to mention that in 1987, there were no computers yet.
In the age of popularization, this book will probably become an incomprehensible bible, sitting in a corner and no one cares about it.
But then again, in this era, the idea of the future Internet has actually appeared in many details. As long as we grasp this idea and extend it forward, we can deduce a big era.
Liu Lang still remembers the first time he met fellow countryman Wang Haijun when he took the lead in establishing SMIC in Shanghai two years ago. He studied semiconductor technology at Huaxia University, and the textbooks in 1983 included some information about foreign computers and
Turing's information, especially Turing, mentioned the concept of artificial intelligence in the 1960s.
Wang Haijun was very interested in Turing's research, and wrote his graduation speech when he graduated from college: Humanity will eventually be replaced by artificial intelligence in the future.
Having such a profound understanding in 1983, Wang Haijun's understanding of artificial intelligence has surpassed that of many Americans. However, the relevant knowledge he was exposed to in college was too little to support his vision. Now Wang Haijun is studying in an island country.
He studied semiconductor technology, and I believe he will give Liu Lang a big surprise when he returns from studying abroad.
Turing's concept of artificial intelligence contains many prototypes of digitization, informatization and big data. By the 1980s, many American companies had entered the field of wireless communications, the most famous of which was Qualcomm.
This company also has some connections with Professor Wilson. Their listing evaluation was done by Professor Wilson's team. In order to understand what CDMA is, Liu Lang even explained it to Wilson for a long time.
In the future, Qualcomm will be the world's top enterprise in the research and development of 3G and 4G technologies. It has more than 3,000 patented technologies in the field of wireless communications and provides technology licenses to hundreds of manufacturers around the world, covering 80% of the world's telecommunications companies.
Equipment and consumer electronics brands.
To put it bluntly, Qualcomm's future business is to manufacture hardware for the global digitalization and information industry. Now their CDMA technology has matured. In less than two years, wireless communications in the United States will begin to become more popular, even more popular than computers.
The popularization is still earlier, in China. In the early 1990s, some "rich people" had brick-like "Big Brother" in their hands. They usually used it to "show off" and could also be used as a murder weapon in critical moments.
It’s really a dual-use machine.
It can be seen from this that even in this period of the 1980s, signs of digitization and informatization were emerging. It was not too advanced for Liu Lang to come up with the book "Digital Survival" at this time.
Of course, Liu Lang still made a lot of changes to this book, eliminating many theories that were too advanced.
First of all, "Digital Survival" begins with a clear statement, pointing out that the general trend of the future world is to achieve a leap from atoms to bits.
What are atoms? Nature is the component unit of the material world. All tangible things in the world are composed of atoms. Of course, atoms are not basic particles in modern science. The explanations in the book only use concepts familiar to ordinary people.
Bits are the building blocks of the information world. In this era, most information is presented in the form of atoms, such as newspapers, magazines, books, video tapes, etc. Everyone has been accustomed to this for thousands of years.
However, with the development of computer technology, real-time electronic data transmission will become the mainstream method of information dissemination. This new form will help information escape the constraints of time and space and become a globally shared resource, bringing convenience to people in various fields.
It will reversely promote the popularity of personal computers and the Internet.
When people are connected to each other through computer networks, geographical communities will give way to various electronic communities based on common hobbies or ideas. People will have digital neighbors, and this kind of communication has nothing to do with physical space. Therefore, many relationships about groups, nations and countries
Values will also change.
The first part above is Liu Lang's derivation process about the popularization of digitalization and Internet technology. It is very logical and I believe ordinary people can understand it. The second part is the hard stuff, mainly focusing on informatization.
Developments in technical hardware.
The American computer science community is still dominated by programming languages, operating systems and network communication protocols.
Liu Lang believes that computer research at that time should focus entirely on "how to make computers easier for people to use." As long as this is done well, the company will surely stand firm within ten years, but it is only
Ten years from now, the situation will be completely different.
By that time, due to the effect of Moore's Law, the functions of computer chips will be far greater than they are now. Work that was unimaginable in this era will be easily achieved in that era. The focus of computer research has also changed. It is no longer "how to make computers
"Easier for people to use", but "how to make computers easier for people to get along with", which is now one of the computer development strategies Liu Lang proposes to Wanan Company.