The answer can be found in the acronym CPU (Central Processing Unit). In 1965 Gordon Moore made a prognosis that still applies today, the number of transistors in a CPU doubles approximately every 24 months. In other words computers became twice as fast every two years.
Lets look at the inner workings of a computer: imagine the main storage as a warehouse, it is the computer's long-term memory. The RAM (Random Access Memory) it the short term memory and the CPU is a processor that stores new and retrieves old data. The difficulty is not in storing more information, the warehouse can be enlarged if needed, but in processing it. The increased CPU performance means that we can now watch videos on a mobile phone. Not so long ago we could only write text messages, now smartphones are supposed to be able to do everything at once with the result that just like PC they can crash. The technology experiences an information overload.
Moore;s theory is not a law of nature. The most important question is: is there a limit to a computers performance? Yes, says Moore. No, says the futurist Ray Kurzweil: in 2049 you will be able to buy a computer for $1,000 with a processing power equivalent to the brain capacity of living people. What does this mean?
'I was surprised by it's human abilities' Garry Kasparov, after he lost again the chess computer Blue Deep in 1997
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