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Where has all this technology come from?

As far back as I can remember I have had a fascination with computers which led to my early interest in electronics and the invention of microprocessors. This miracle of technology is the tiny silicon chip at the centre of every computer. For this section of my site I have searched the Internet to find a wide variety of information on the history of computers and microprocessors which are of interest to me and hopefully to others. I cannot take any credit for the large Chronologies and tables of CPU information, all I have done is to compile them together and present them in a more concise form. However this brief introduction contains just a few of my own ideas and views on the origins of technology and maybe what it holds in store for us in the future. I have also touched on the controversial subject of conspiracies, in particular the one event in history I consider to be the biggest cover up of all time, that being 'The Faked Apollo Moon Landings'.

You may think my ideas and views ridiculous or improbable, but I will say in my defence that my beliefs are based purely on evidence that I consider to be factually true (Although its impossible to know if the facts are true in themselves you've just got to have faith sometimes) However if there is convincing evidence and probable facts to back an issue up then I am more inclined to believe it to be true. Although I have an open mind I generally need a lot of convincing before I believe it.

Science and Technology has come so far in such a short period of time which often makes me very suspicious of the origins of computers and the incredible electronics that make them up. I need not go into detail as many people know that computers used to be the size of large rooms and their power was very feeble compared to the machines of today which take up the space of a piece of A4 paper. It makes me think that there must have been some kind of alien influence that triggered all this technology. The historic view is that new technology took off at such a high pace because of war and the need to help fight the enemy more efficiently with less loss of life and more sophisticated weapons. I'm fond of saying that it seem a little strange if not a coincidence that the transistor was invented back in 1947 which was the same year the Roswell incident occurred. From this time on technology seemed to take quantum leaps.

The same thoughts of alien influence occur to me when I see documentaries or read about ancient civilisations and the levels of technology that they possessed. How did they build such incredible structures? not only were these structures almost geometrically perfect with accuracy that we would find hard to match even today, but in some cases these structures represented celestial bodies with incredible accuracy. For instance there are three pyramids at Giza near to he Great pyramid which perfectly mirror a constellation of Orion's belt. Maybe it was a tribute to the Aliens who bought advanced technology and knowledge to the ancient Egyptians?

The ancients talked of gods and of incredible feats which today sound absurd. But if those gods were aliens who possessed knowledge and technology thousands of years in advance then that is exactly what they would seem like to people from ancient times. At our present state of technology we ourselves would seem like gods to people who lived just a few hundred years ago. You only have to think of all the things we can do now, and take for granted that were thought impossible centuries ago.

Although I believe that there is other life in the universe I simply cannot make up my mind whether we are being visited at this present time or in the recent past, despite what I think about 1947. But I would not be surprised if ancient people were helped along by alien influences (the theme of which is portrayed in 2001 A Space Odyssey by Arthur C Clarke.). Indeed it is highly probable that life on earth may have been seeded by aliens. Maybe one day (if not already) they will return to see what grew.

If your are like me and are curious about what might really be going on in the world, and have an open mind, then I suggest you look at the many conspiracy websites. I recommend http://www.area-x.co.uk/ which has many articles on a wide range of subjects

What might the future hold?

Even though I have worked with computers, electronics and designed circuits since I was young, I still find many of the new developments in technology mind blowing. The techniques used for fabricating smaller and smaller devices never ceases to amaze me. The next chapter in the history of miniaturisation will be that concerned with 'nano technology' that is building tiny motors, circuits machines and even , laboratories by organising individual atoms.

Processor Speeds

Many people keep tabs on the rate at which computer technology is evolving by reading about the latest PC specifications. Every year or so the MHz rating seems to double, as predicted by Moore's law. At the time of writing this the fastest CPU is the Intel Pentium 4 running at 2.4GHz, although I have read that a working 5GHz CPU exists, but it will be some time before that becomes commercially available.

The clock frequencies can only reach a certain limit as the heat generated becomes harder to remove, the more heat the less efficient the CPU. An alternative cooling method would be to have the CPU immersed in a non-conductive fluid that was cooled, but this I imagine would be a little messy and probably consume more power than a conventional fan. I don't know much about IC design but I do know that strange things happen at microwave frequencies which makes the layout of the CPU architecture very difficult. Another reason why the frequency can only go so high is due to the wavelength of the signals themselves. Using the formula V = f l  where:

V = Velocity of light (300 x 10⁶ m/s )
f = Frequency ( Hz )
l = Wavelength ( m )

If you take the frequency to be 3GHz the wavelength is 10cm. at 30GHz its 1cm. So by increasing the frequency so high you cause the wavelength to become much smaller which means the signal doesn't cover as much distance per wavelength as a lower frequency signal would. So in essence the signal is taking longer (more wavelengths) to cover an equal distance . You end up with signals taking longer to traverse a certain path than you would by using a lower frequency, effectively reducing the operating speed of the CPU.

Of course it will be some years yet before frequencies of 30GHz or more are reached, but I have my doubts that they will ever get that high. ( Famous last words!!!! )

The first PC I bought back in 1991 was a Sanyo 286 running at 12.5MHz, with a 40Mb hard drive and 1MB of RAM.

The specification for a top notch PC at the time of writing this, would consist of a CPU running at 2.4GHz, ( 2400MHz ) a hard drives around 80GB (80,000MB) and RAM sizes ranging from 256MB - 1GB.

For the majority of people using PCs a machine with a quarter the power would be more than enough.

The machine I currently own suits all my needs. It has an AMD 800MHz processor, 128MB of RAM and a 15GB hard drive which isn't even half full and I make extensive use of my PC, including using CAD software that is quite hungry for power.

From what I have read the next generation of computers will use processors which don't have a clock (no MH\ rating) this might not make much sense to a lot of people but the processors of today are classified as Synchronous. What this means is that all the operations within the computer are performed in Sync with a main clock which runs at xMHz. The faster the clock the quicker the computer can perform tasks, but this is not strictly true although it helps the speed is not the only factor. The way in which the data and instructions are routed around inside the CPU is the other important factor, and this is determined by the architecture (design) of the CPU itself. These days the CPUs are designed in the most part by other computers as they are far too complex for an individual to understand.

Computers are made up of different building blocks, which themselves are made up of more simple building blocks and so on down to the level of just a few transistors. Its a bit like human beings, we are made up of building blocks, e.g. skin, bone, organs, brain etc which in turn are made up of cells, made up of molecules, made from atoms, made from protons, neutrons & electrons, these being constructed from Quarks (the Quarks could then be described as the equivalent to the transistors in a computer). Over the years these building blocks have been improved upon in many ways (efficiency, speed, size) making the computers far more powerful.

The next generation of CPUs will probably be of the 'Asynchronous' variety. This type of CPU when designed carefully is far faster and more efficient than the synchronous types. How they work is relatively simple, only a little long winded to explain.. As well as these advantages they don't require much cooling, if any? their power needs are far less. One really annoying thing about PCs is the noise they make, this is usually because of the fans needed to keep everything cool, although the mechanics of hard, floppy & CD drives also add to this noise..

The sort of computer I invisage for the future may contain some of the following technologies.

Microprocessor or Brain

The brain of the computer could be a Quantum device using the quirks of quantum mechanics. Instead of 'bits' a quantum computer uses 'Q-bits'. A Q-bit is both a logic 1 & logic 0 at the same time (sounds crazy but that's the weirdness of quantum mechanics) So if every bit of data is in both states at the same time, then with just a few Q-bits you can represent many numbers simultaneously. The strange nature of Q-bits means that you can do perhaps many billions of calculations simultaneously, whereas in a normal computer you can only do one at a time. Here in lies the incredible power of a quantum computer. The problem with making quantum computers at he moment is partly down to keeping the Q-bits stable, as they can be influenced or destroyed very easily. The second problem is actually reading the result of a calculation without altering the answer (known as decoherence or the measurement problem) The very act of looking at a quantum system will actually alter it. These type of computers would have power that is unimaginable right now and there are many obstacles to get over before one of these appears on your desk.

An alternative type of processor could be made from actual biological parts (artificial neurones) which would be able to grow in controlled ways to form biological circuits, even having the ability to repair damage if necessary. CPUs of this type may even have the capability to learn (as our own brains do) this in turn could lead to computers with true AI (Artificial Intelligence) and maybe even consciousness?

If these two quite different technologies were combined, that being the enormous computational capability and speed of the quantum system together with the learning capability of the biological ones. This type of computer would in theory have the ability to become far more intelligent than us. This is a scary prospect as computers are plugged into almost everything today. If they became intelligent or maybe the word should be conscious and decided that we were no longer needed, then there would be very little we would be able to do about it. Maybe this sounds outrageous but it makes perfect sense. If they became as intelligent as us and were plugged into almost everything they would have the ability to control our lives, just as we control almost all other lifeforms on the planet.

Display Device

Rather than a monitor or projection screen you would wear a special pair of glasses either linked by a cable to the computer or wireless. If a wireless link were used then some kind of small Hydrogen fuel cell would probably provide the source of power. The image would be projected directly onto your retina's using 3 lasers, red, green and blue, just like the three electron beams in a normal CRT monitor or TV. The three lasers would combine to achieve almost infinite colours. Using glasses such as these would not only give you the largest possible viewing area, but would also give you privacy and comfort as you wouldn't need to sit crouched in front of a monitor. Glasses such as these are currently under development, but as far as I remember there are still problems with making blue lasers that are reliable.

Memory & Storage

There are numerous methods which are being developed for storing information. The storage capacity of hard drives is incredible compared to a decade ago. But as with cramming transistors onto a chip there is a limit to how much data you can cram onto the discs within a hard drive. Techniques are currently under development for producing hard drives which can store in excess of a Terabyte - 10¹² bytes. I imagine the limit will be tens of Terabytes. The problem with hard drives is that as with all mechanical devices they are prone to wear, produce wasteful heat , noisy and slower than solid state devices.

The ultimate in memory storage would, as with many aspects of technology exploit quantum mechanics. The protons within an atom have an attribute known as spin. Imagine a child's spinning top to represent the proton, it can go clockwise or anticlockwise. If clockwise was logic 1 and anticlockwise was logic 0 then you can represent a bit of information, all you need do is set the direction of spin. MRI scanners disrupt the spin of the protons in your body to produce an image.

If it were possible to construct a device that could alter the individual spins of protons so that they stayed in the state that they were set to and say the storage medium was a cube of 1cm in size. Then you would be able to store more information than currently exists in the world, which is reported to be around 10¹⁸ bits or 1,000000000000000000. The cube would have no moving parts, use a tiny amount of power and of course have an enormous storage capacity.

Interfacing with the Computer

Many people hate having to type, I was lucky and learnt to touch type whilst at school but even touch typing can become a pain and in some cases lead to problems. e.g. RSI (Repetitive Strain Injury)

Speech recognition has been slowly improving over the years and can only get better with time. Its mainly a matter of processing power. In simplified terms, the speech that the computer receives form the microphone is converted into audio waveforms. These waveforms are compared with a library which was constructed when you taught the computer your voice. The trick is to compare what is spoken with the library and produce the correct words on the screen, or interpret the action you want performed. The faster the computer the quicker it can do this. But errors creep in, but the errors will decrease over time, as will the amount of training needed by the computer to recognise your voice.

Speech synthesis on the other hand hasn't improved much since the days when I had a speech synthesiser on my Commodore 64. For some reason the linking together of phonemes (the individual sounds that make up all our vocabulary) in a way that sounds natural seems to be extremely difficult to reproduce. HAL the ships computer in 2001 - A Space Odyssey has the sort of voice we are striving for, but as far as I can see its still a long way off.

Printing

One other area is that of reproducing documents or images. At the moment the best way to print out a text document is using a laser printer. Whereas for true colour photographs an inkjet still produces the best quality, colour laser printers aren't as good as a quality inkjet printer.

For quite a while I've been trying to think of an alternative method for printing documents / images that doesn't require ink or toner. The only idea I've managed to come up with so far is the following description, but I'm not sure if its come into my head because I've read it somewhere and forgotten, but here it is anyway.

Rather than using paper a special kind of light sensitive material would be manufactured. A single or matrix of tuneable lasers would produce a very coherent beam onto a very small region of he material. Depending on the wavelength used the light absorption characteristic of that area of the material would be permanently changed. So in other words tuning a laser beam to a certain wavelength would produce a dot of a certain colour on the material. By scanning the laser across the material from top to bottom, line by line an image or document would be built up.

This material may be sensitive to natural light and so would come in protective packets, these being placed in the printing machine. Once an image has been printed and all the sensetive area set by the scanning laser then it would not change when exposed to normal light. Whether the image would fade or not would depend on the makeup of the material.

It will be fascinating to watch over the coming years and decades how technology develops in ways we can't yet even imagine.

The Faked Apollo Moon Landings

Whether you believe what you are reading is true or false is up to you, there is a lot of false (or misinformation ) out there and it requires you to use your common sense to determine whether you think its true or not, although in many cases its impossible to know either way. However saying that there is one particular issue I heard about a couple of years ago and after watching a few films and reading much about it have decided that I am 99.9% certain that the Apollo moon landings were FAKED. There is so much evidence out there that they were faked that I could fill my website all over again with it.

Some of the main issues are:

1. NASA has not returned in over 25 years - WHY?

2. The Van Allan radiation belt between us & the moon would have been very dangerous, if not fatal to the Astronauts as material used for the lunar module would not have shielded them from the radiation.

3. Their space suits would have not been able to keep them cool as you cannot radiate excess heat into a vacuum, so the Astronauts would have been boiled in their suits. Even going into the shade wouldn't have helped.

4. The photographs that were taken were framed perfectly even though the camera's were mounted on the front of the Astronaut space suits and they had to guess if the picture was framed correctly. KODAK who supplied the film said it would have melted in the temperatures it was exposed to on the moon.

5. Photographs didn't match 'live' video images of exactly the same scenes. Were they taken at different times?

6. The sun was the only light source, apart rom the earth which would only provide a feeble illumination, yet the shadows in many photographs don't make sense when you look closely. There are details in many photographs which could only have been seen if there had been extra (artificial) lighting. They didn't have enough room to take extra lights, so where did the light come from?

7. The same scenery with different permutations of rocks and mountains, appears in supposed different locations and on different missions.

8. Have you seen a film called 'Capricorn 1' about a mission to Mars that wasn't possible, so they faked the entire mission.

Was the theme of this film based on the findings of so called 'whistle blowers' ?

There are many more points I could make, as I said the evidence is substantial. If you are intrigued to know more then check out the Internet yourself, there are many sites out there providing convincing evidence. See what you think because if they can cover something like this up it makes you wonder what else are they keeping from us?

I know I've deviated off the main subject of computers & CPUs here but as I stated initially I'm still suspicious of the origins of technology. Maybe the only reason we have all this wonderful technology is because we have been kept in the dark over where its origins lie. The fact that they can cover up faking something so historically important as the moon landings would mean that they could easily cover up the origins of today's amazing technology.