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Surfing the Waves of Change

Apple Grace S. Valencia

                Change is like a river, as it continues to flow; it forms a larger, a deeper and a swifter ocean that runs in the entire world.

                Our world is rapidly changing. Technology is the propelling power that brought change in our life. It has the lightning speed with which sound and communication travel, it has the flight from one point to another in record time, and the readily available tools and gadgets, all these and more spell changes.

                One of the most helpful machines used in this age is the electronic brain or commonly called as computers.

                The human brain is the most complex part of the human body. The question is, "Can the electronic brain, such as computers, compete with the human brain?”

                The marvel of the machine age, the electronic computer has been in use since 1946. It can do simple computations – addition, subtraction, multiplication and division – with lightning speed and perfect accuracy. It can multiply two-10 digit numbers in 1-1000 seconds, a problem that would take an average man five minutes to do with pencil and paper.

                Once it is given a program, what is asked will be carefully worked out as set of questions devised by a technician trained through a computer language. A computer can gather a wide range of information for many purposes. For example, the scientists  can get information from outer space or from the depths of the ocean through a computer program. In business and industry, the computer can also prepare factory inventories, keeps track of sales trends and production needs and makes out company payrolls. Computers made everything easy at home and in the workplace.

                However, computers do not just gather facts, it can also store information as fast as they gather and can pour them out whenever they are needed. The computer is really a high powered memory machine that has all the answers – or almost all, to all our questions.

                At times, a computer seems almost human. They can read hand printed letters, translate scientific papers, play chess, compose music, write plays and even design other computers. Today, phone calls can be directed by computers and messages and files can be sent over the internet.             Computers can even be used to arrange people’s romantic relationships through internet relay chat. The system allows people to communicate with one another in real time in an electronic area.

                Even though, they are taking over some of the tasks that were once accomplished by our own brains, computers are not replacing us – at least not yet. Still, 10 billion cells of our brain are much better than hundred thousand parts of a computer. Our brains are at least 10,000 times more complex than a computer. How we use them is for us, not the computer, to decide.