Computing for Everyone 0: Yes, Everyone!

Welcome to the Computing for Everyone series! Which everyone? Every everyone--that means you!

The ENIAC was the size of a blue whale and took up about as much space as a volleyball court.

We have arrived in a world of information at our fingertips and ubiquitous computing, and we're only just beginning to grasp what that means as a population. Think of the first electronic computers filling rooms and buildings. Now think of how so many of us have computers millions of times more powerful in our pockets.

My Galaxy SIII fits in my pocket, including the case

What is the nature of computing power? How are we using it? How could we be using it?

Here is a short list of what advances in computing have enabled as of 2013:

• On-demand entertainment
• New forms of entertainment
• Almost-free publishing
• Almost-free, almost-effortless research
• Efficiently navigate unfamiliar cities
• Almost-effortless group outing coordination
• Convenient, fast, and secure financial and government transactions
• An explosion of consumer choice
• An unprecedented reach for businesses with niche markets
• Ads that are actually for things you might want sometimes

Each of these advances is only possible because of the harnessing of computing power. This is what has been pre-packaged for mass consumption. But computing is a general power that can be adapted much more closely to our own needs.

The MacBook Air runs all day on battery power.

Computing isn't something you need to wait for others to do on your behalf; computing is something you can personally use to save time, reduce risks, spend less mental energy on trivia, and do things which were not possible or feasible before computing power became cheap and ubiquitous.

Enough warm-up. Enjoy the series.

Exercise:
Each bullet point above describes a computing-enabled change in terms of its positive effects. What are the new challenges introduced by each change? 

Example: "On-demand entertainment means there's no pressure to schedule leisure time around TV broadcasting schedules, but it also means that there is less social bonding on the basis of new episodes of popular TV shows. This presents the challenge of bonding with acquaintances through other means."

Extra credit:
What's a repetitive part of your life you could automate away to save time? What are some things you would do or do more often if you could find a way to speed up smaller parts of getting these things done?