Today's Hardest Computing Problems

</TODAY'S HARDEST COMPUTING PROBLEMS/> SELF-DRIVING AUTOMOBILES Google has been working on perfecting a driverless car for a while now. People are rightly wary of letting control of their cars go to computers, which freeze and crash on a dime. IF SOLVED NO MORE ACCIDENTS, NO MORE TRAFFIC DEATHS, AND LOTS OF FREE TIME FOR EVERYONE. MAKING AN ACCURATE WEATHER PREDICTION There's a reason your weatherperson is usually wrong, climate models are very hard to compute. While storm simulations on the news look easy, they aren't; more accurate weather means more expensive computers. IF SOLVED MORE ACCURATE FORECASTS, EASIER PLANNING FOR TRANSPORTATION, SPORTS, EVENTS. MAPPING THE HUMAN BRAIN 00 The human brain is the most complex organ, and we know nothing about it. Computers currently are able to make basically stick-figure brain sketches right now, we are aiming for photographs. IF SOLVED ABILITY TO SIMULATE INTELLIGENCE MEANS FINDING WHY BRAINS MALFUNCTION, CURING A NUMBER OF BRAIN INJURIES AND DISEASES. SIMULATING HUMANITY People are all unique in their own special way (aw!). Creating a computer to fool your brain into accepting it as people goes against centuries of evolution. Processing the various responses from even a single question? We may need a computer smarter than us to do that. IF SOLVED EASY TO PERFORM PSYCHOLOGICAL EXPERIMENTS USING HUMAN-SIMULATED COMPUTERS. FINALLY FIND OUT HOW EXACTLY WE ALL THINK. THE MOST COMMON COMPUTING PROBLEMS OF THE LAST CENTURY SOLVED USER-INTERFACE Not long ago, there was no Windows 10 or Mac's Jaguar/Puma/whatever cat. Just you, a command line and the worst adventure game. INTER-COMMUNICATIONS The Internet made it possible to contact people across the globe, coordinate with different offices and watch cat videos. All the cat videos. 10:39 PORTABILITY The first personal computers, with bulky CRT screens and gigantic power cables, weren't pack-up-and-go material. STORAGE When computers first came out, storage was in kilobytes and stored on physical punch cards. Really. Before you could hold the world's music in your hand, computer storage was delicate and unreliable. COMPUTER PROBLEMS WE SHOULD HAVE FIXED ALREADY CALLING MUSIC SUGGESTIONS VOICE DIALING GPS NAVIGATION The Black Keys are not the White Stripes, no matter how many times you play them side-by-side. "So you like Nirvana? Playing Madonna, Britney Spears and other '90s hits!" "Call home" *Calling Horace* "Call HOME" *Calling Herm* "CALL HOME" *Calling 911* "Please make a U-turn. Now make a U-turn. Please make a U-turn. You have arrived at your destination." ONLINE TROLLS INSTALLING AND UPDATING PROGRAMS They're everywhere and love to ruin everything for everybody. Not only do you need to update flash every second day, you also have to wait for the new version to install itself. COMPUTING IS NOT ABOUT COMPUTERS ANY MORE. IT IS ABOUT LIVING. NICHOLAS NEGROPONTE FOUNDER OF MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY'S MEDIA LAB Lenovo.