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Our Future in the Cosmos—Computers
No matter how clever or artificially intelligent computers get, and no matter how much they help us advance, they will always be strictly machines and we will be strictly humans. When we finally do extend the living range of humanity throughout near space, possibly throughout the entire solar system and out to the stars, it will be done in tandem with advanced computers that will be as intelligent as we are, but never intelligent in the same way that humans are. They will need us as much as we will need them.
As far as our destiny in the cosmos is concerned, I think that it will arise out of the two important changes that are taking place before our very eyes. One change involves the computerization of our society, and the other change involves the extension of our capabilities through aeronautical and space research. And the two are combined. Decades ago we science fiction writers foresaw a great many things about space travel, but two things we did not foresee. In all the time that I wrote stories about our first Moon landing and about the coming of television, nobody, as far as I know, in the pages of the science fiction magazines, combined the two. Nobody foresaw that when the first Moon landing took place, people on Earth would watch it on television. Nor did science fiction writers foresee that in taking ships out into space, they would depend quite so much on computers. The computerization of space flight was something that eluded them completely. So, I have two broad areas that I can discuss in talking about our destiny in the cosmos. One area is the future of computerization, and the other area is the future of space itself. In this presentation, I will talk about computers and their future, and I think I have a kind of right to do so. I have never done any work on computers, but I have speculated freely concerning them.
Despite my gentle appearance as a gentleman a little over 30, I have been a published writer for 45 years. If I can make it 5 more years, I will celebrate my golden anniversary as a published writer, which isn't too bad for a fellow in his early thirties. Perhaps