All this talk of tablets replacing other computers is really rather absurd.
When covered wagons were the best way to ship goods over land, steam locomotives were newfangled, amazing, expensive, and scary technology. Curmudgeons said, "Why would anybody ever want to go faster than 20 miles an hour?"
When trains were cheap and plentiful, that stinky automobile came along, but nobody could afford it besides rich playboys.
"If God had wanted man to fly, he would have given him wings."
Today we have an amazing range of personal transport available, from rollerblades to bicycles, to motor scooters, to sports cars, to aircraft, motorhomes, and semi trucks.
Each has its unique usefulness and appeal. Just because hybrid cars are available today does not mean Mack trucks will no longer be sold.
The same evolution is happening in computers. Mainframes, supercomputers, desktops, laptops and tablets can all share the same "information superhighway," each serving its own special purpose for the individual user. A sportbike (ipad) is not competing with a minivan (desktop) in terms of the users' needs, but complementing one another. Many of us will end up owning both, because we use them in different ways.
Today I received my iPad. So now I can start carrying it in a tank bag on my Ducati when the weather is nice, rather than lugging my laptop in a backpack in my truck to go to work.
I do not expect to give up using a desktop at work, a laptop at home and on vacation, and an iPhone, and now an iPad, everyday, everywhere. I do not expect to quit riding a bicycle or my motorbike (fast, but little storage) just because I have a truck (lotsa carrying capacity, slow in the traffic), nor to get rid of my truck because I have smaller, more nimble and more economical means of getting around.
Isn't Capitalism great to give us so many wonderful ways to improve and enjoy our lives?
"If the present Congress errs in too much talking, how can it be otherwise in a body to which the people send one hundred and fifty lawyers, whose trade it is to question everything, yield nothing, and talk by the hour?"
—Thomas Jefferson
AI
