What comes after the computer chip?

The future of computing devices rests in their ability to understand subtleties in human communication, according to the prediction of Sethuraman Panchanathan, senior vice president in ASU's Office of Knowledge Enterprise Development, in a recent Future Tense article on Slate.

Panchanathan explains in "What comes after the computer chip? Better brain-computer interfaces," that in order to advance, computing devices of the future will need to adopt higher levels of cognitive processing – a major shift from current-day data-level processing.

No longer will people think of a computer chip as a physical entity, he writes, "but instead as a ubiquitous device conjoined and operating seamlessly with humans as partners in everyday activities."

Future Tense is a collaboration among ASU, the New America Foundation, and Slate magazine that explores how emerging technologies affect policy and society.