Students today have more computing power in their pockets than the Apollo astronauts did on their missions to the moon.
Artificial intelligence is poised to change learning in ways that we humans cannot begin to imagine. (Should we ask ChatGPT what’s ahead?)
But it was only a few years ago — okay, a few decades — that calculators were incredible new devices.
The other day, Sabrina Bunks found a couple of Westport News photos, from 1974. She posted them on social media.
One (below) shows students Paul Flaxman and John Lamb posing in presumed awe as they “operate” a calculator that can “compute, calculate and perform higher mathematical functions” — an important skill in “the machine age.”
Another photo showed Sabrina herself, seated at a table next to Joanne Macieski and Brad Siff, watching a “teletyper” to see whether the program they wrote would work.
Sure, we can laugh at these gee-whiz photos today.
But 5 decades from now — in 2075 — what will the readers of whatever “06880” becomes think about our “simple” cellphones, let alone our wary embrace of AI.
Assuming, of course, that the human race is still around then.
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