The Future of Computing Is Analog
With respect, I think most comments here are missing Dyson&#x27;s point (perhaps because it was somewhat poorly made).<p>I don&#x27;t think his point is about whether the integrator and analog electronics will be resurgent in the next century, and analog hardware will be common.<p>I think Dyson is talking about the complex network of the modern world, where humans interact with computing machine, and with each other - humans influence computers, and computers come back around and influence humans. I think his &quot;future of computing&quot; is a future where human society and culture is decided based on the interplay between humans and our machines, and this decision is an &quot;analog computation&quot; made by a massive scale hybrid computer that no one has intentionally designed or understands.<p>You can see examples of this already, with youtube recommendation engines influencing the belief systems of millions (billions?) of people across all kinds of subjects, and with our thoughts frequently dominated by whatever happens to show up on our phones.