Programming the Future: What will the world be like in 2050?

The rat race in technological innovation is happening in a light speed. Various platforms are continuing to intertwine different fields of specialization to provide solutions from complex to mundane problems of everyday life. One of the pillars of such breakthroughs is computer programming. With all these changes happening, there are two questions relevant to ask today. How will computer programming impact the future? Where do we go from here?

Accenture held "Shaping the Future Forum 2012" last Thursday, 26th July 2012 at Edsa Shangri-La Hotel, Manila. In partnership with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Accenture invited Srini Devadas, MIT professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, to lecture about "Programming the Future" which aimed at keeping technology professionals abreast with the latest trends and developments in computing and programming. 

Top executives from Accenture gave an overview of the company's profile and mentioned how Asia, particularly the Philippines, is playing a key role in its global operations. Then, a brief introduction was given for the guest speaker. Srini started his talk by inviting the audience to imagine a world where everyone has avatars with the likes of Tom Cruise, a descriptive illustration on how the future could be like. His discussion went in-depth on the history of programming beginning from the Abacus age of computation. He then discussed about Plato together with the importance of calculation, Ada Byron being the first programmer and Harvard Mark 1 and 2 as the pioneer electro-mechanical computer. It was interesting to discover the robust background of programming and know where it all started.

MIT Professor Srini Devadas giving his Talk

There have been a lot of developments in programming. "What about the next 40 years?" asked Srini. Logically, it is appropriate to ask what the next chapter will be after the introduction of new programming languages and coding platforms which gave birth to new disruptive technologies. The next part of the talk centered on three computing paradigms playing a significant role in technology: Programming for Everyone, Big Data and Crowds to Clouds.

Programming for Everyone

According to Srini, in the near future, millions of programmers will need to write billions of lines of correct code. These require coding methodologies such as Graphical Programming, which allows element manipulation using graphical means instead of standard texts, and Programming in English, a method used in programming data structure codes.

Big Data

Financial Markets Causality Connections

New Age Technology gives access to big data which are relevant in understanding everyday problems and carving out solutions. Srini added that there are a lot of significant data that can be analyzed. However, this overwhelming volume presents the big data challenge: Too big, Too Fast and Too Hard. A solution to this is locality sensitive hashing where input items are hashed to group similar items and placed in the same categories with increased probability. An interesting example mentioned by Srini was about consumer credit risk analysis and forecasting. The goal was risk profiling of consumers based on their financial transactions. To achieve this, machine learning was utilized to detect potential defaults. The results were more accurate compared to the FICO score method. Machine learning applies sophisticated analytics to big chunks of data.

Crowds to Clouds (c2c)

Cloud Computing. Photo Credit: Aisha Hasan

Cloud computing is the future.Despite of its infancy stage, tech giants Amazon, Google, Microsoft and even Oracle, to name a few, have joined the cloud provider's club. The cloud's seamless accessibility, security and storage are a magnet to enterprises and startup companies. Srini perceives the future with billions of people using devices to connect to trillions of processors in the cloud. To illustrate this vision, project cartel, a pothole finding application, uses sensors from GPS, WIFI and cellular triangulation to measure and localize traffic delays allowing people to spend less time in traffic. Another example is Twit info which synthesizes interesting information based on raw twitter feeds.

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Diving into more unconquered charters, Srini asked "What is the future of Artificial Intelligence?" According to him, combining the strengths of human and machine is the way to go to create synergy in Artificial Intelligence.

What will the world be like in 2050?

Personal Systems Genomics

In general, Srini's talk characterized the future with technology playing a big role to achieve its maturity. Its presence will be felt across major aspects of human life. Climate change will utilize Green software by means of using Big Data. The future will seek to predict unpredictable weather patterns. Autonomous driving will be seen in the field of transportation. In the health sciences, personalized system genomics will allow to track generations of ancestral origins and determine predispositions to diseases and determine preventive measures.

Srini concluded his talk by saying that programmers are in a great field since computer programming will be a major driver of growth and opportunities. No one really knows what the future will be. It will all depend on the present generation of IT professionals to lead the way in shaping the future.