Ubiquity is dedicated to helping professionals (computer scientists) and informed laymen better imagine and understand the future of computing. “Extraordinary Ordinary Things” is dedicated to bringing to mind truly world-transforming things that have become so embedded in daily life that we scarcely even notice them. These two ideas may seem to be rather far apart, if not incongruous. In reality, they are quite close together, almost like conjoined twins. Computers today underly virtually everything that makes up the modern world, either directly, but most often indirectly, by how they permit commercial, cultural, and scientific ideas to be converted into life-altering products and services.
Extraordinary!
One of my fondest memories of childhood (I was born in 1942) was taking a bath. I loved snuggling down in the bathtub, being completely covered with water and imagining swimming in the Pacific Ocean just a few blocks away from where I lived in Los Angeles. However, as I grew, this pleasure became denied to me because the bathtub was too small for me as an 11- or 12-year-old child to fully immerse myself. The bathtub had become too short for me to comfortably stretch out and the sides were too low to fully immerse myself without water overflowing the side.
Continue reading The Bathtub: Extraordinary ordinary things
