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Microsoft Technology

The Whole World is Now a Computer, Says Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella (zdnet.com) 182

Posted by msmash from the view-points dept.
Thanks to cloud computing, the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence, we should start to think of the planet as one giant computer, according to Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella. From a report: "Digital technology, pervasively, is getting embedded in every place: every thing, every person, every walk of life is being fundamentally shaped by digital technology -- it is happening in our homes, our work, our places of entertainment," said Nadella speaking in London. "It's amazing to think of a world as a computer. I think that's the right metaphor for us as we go forward."

[...] AI is core to Microsoft's strategy, Nadella said: "AI is the run time which is going to shape all of what we do going forward in terms of applications as well as the platform." Microsoft is rethinking its core products by using AI to connect them together, he said, giving an example of a meeting using translation, transcription, Microsoft's HoloLens and other devices to improve decision-making. "The idea that you can now use all of the computing power that is around you -- this notion of the world as a computer -- completely changes how you conduct a meeting and fundamentally what presence means for a meeting," he said.
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The Whole World is Now a Computer, Says Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella More

The Whole World is Now a Computer, Says Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella

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  • I thought the network (Score:4, Funny)

    by Bob the Super Hamste ( 1152367 ) on Tuesday May 22, 2018 @12:26PM (#56654148) Homepage
    And here I thought the network is the computer

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Tablizer ( 95088 )

      And here I thought the network is the computer

      It's walruses all the way down. I am he as you are he as you are me, and we are all together. Goo goo g'joob.

      • "It's walruses all the way down. I am he as you are he as you are me, and we are all together. Goo goo g'joob."

        Good one. Got a joke for you:

        Cinderella came out of the photo shop and said sadly: One day my prints will come.

    • What's a computer? /StupidAppleAdvertisting

      posted from my mac mini.

    • I wonder how many people got your post. That was SUN's slogan. The Network is the computer. They were still using that up until they ceased.

      I wonder if Nutella knows that?

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Nadella is an ex-Sun employee....

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Miser ( 36591 )

      Didn't have to scroll far to find this.

      The Miser is pleased. :)

  • The world is a network of computers connected by the internet. Profound!
    • "The Whole World is Now a Computer, Says Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella."

      Computers are trying to sell the idea that they will rule the world. Satya Nadella is one of those computers. Think that's wrong? Think Nadella is probably human? I have proof! A human would never treat other humans so badly as forcing them to see advertisements on Windows 10 desktop computers.

      Someone! Make the world a better place! Find Satya Nadella's off switch. Leave him off until major updates are available. (I hope the updates

  • The network is the computer.

    - John Burdette Gage (1996)

    • That was when the Wired article with that quote was published. Sun used that phrase for I think nearly a decade before that. I know I heard coworkers quote it many times when I managed Sun workstations in the late 1980s. That was a great time. Other than hard drive failures, which seemed to happen way too often especially with the 200 MB Maxtor SCSI drives, and the electromechanical eject mechanisms on the floppies, they just worked.

      • The 200MB Maxtors were rock-solid. The Quantums, on the other hand, had a sticktion problem. As for the Suns themselves, the ones built into CRTs (SLC and ELC) would bake themselves to death, but the other shoeboxes and pizzaboxes were quite reliable. Previous pre-pizzabox Suns were maybe a little less so.

        • The 200MB Maxtors were rock-solid. The Quantums, on the other hand, had a sticktion problem. As for the Suns themselves, the ones built into CRTs (SLC and ELC) would bake themselves to death, but the other shoeboxes and pizzaboxes were quite reliable. Previous pre-pizzabox Suns were maybe a little less so.

          That wasn't my experience with the Maxtors, but you're right about the Quantums wrt stiction. Putting them in a freezer for a few minutes usually helped them start at least one more time. I saved many theses and dissertations using that method. I think I learned that trick from the old Usenet group comp.hardware.

    • The network is the computer.

      - John Burdette Gage (1996)

      Really? He lost to Douglas Adams [wikia.com] by about 15 years......the successor to Deep Thought was the Earth.

      Whoosh!

  • ... when you think that computer belongs to you.
  • ..and Miscreant-o-soft wants unhindered control over ALL OF IT. Time to break up Microsoft, they're getting too big for their pants.
  • The percentage of my frustration: 42.

  • The World is NOT a Computer (Score:5, Interesting)

    by techmage ( 72232 ) <joe.latrell@quub[ ]ace ['.sp' in gap]> on Tuesday May 22, 2018 @12:33PM (#56654208) Homepage

    The world may have a massive collection of computers. Huge sums of those machines are in cloud computing. But they are all separate. When all of them are connected and act as one, having access to everything all at once, then we will have a world computer. That moment is not now.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by bondsbw ( 888959 )

      When all of them are connected and act as one, having access to everything all at once, then we will have a world computer.

      The vast majority of computers are connected and have access to everything that is available to the general public.

      Their ability to "act as one" is arbitrary. I am one person, but my organs do vastly different things.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        OK, let me dumb it down for you: The world is not a fucking computer, and only a pretentious vastly overpaid moron would say that, even as a (terrible) analogy. Got it?

      • Your organs do vastly different things, and they all act as one supporting your body's ability to obey your commands and get the things you want done, done.

        That is what is missing with the computers of the world today. They are like a huge pile of organs in your analogy. You are not. Or so one would hope anyway. ;)

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by bondsbw ( 888959 )

          Some do. Some like my heart don't obey my commands. My gut bacteria are only working for themselves, but as a byproduct they just happen to be useful to me. My appendix doesn't seem to have serve much of a purpose (other than potentially harmful).

          We say they work as one because on the macro level we can see a physical being known as me. Same could be said about computers, at the macro level they act together as the computer engine of the earth.

          • At a macro level, we are an organism consisting of organs, and we have agency and capability to form and follow goals.

            That is what can not be said about computers. At the macro level they are just a pile of computers.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by bondsbw ( 888959 )

              I disagree. Cloud computing is largely about working with globally dispersed data centers as a unit. Many such services don't even distinguish individual computers within the network. I make requests to Amazon, not some specific computer located in a specific rack in a specific building.

              I am willing to concede that there isn't A global computer. More like, there are many global computers, in the sense that different corporate data centers and cloud vendors behave distinctly from each other. And of course

    • If Nadella really thinks that the World is a computer, then Microsoft's next product better damn well be "Windows for Earth".

  • Is this the beginning of the real life Borg, right here at home? I, for one, welcome our new Collective overlords who, being a collective, cannot possibly be as evil as the dictatorial monopolies and tribes we have now.

    • I personally believe collective consciousness has always been a thing, it's just humans that need to learn how to "access" it. We're evolving in that direction it seems. Unfortunately I hate thinking about how people currently "in power" would try to control it. I have the feeling AI will play a big role in that attempt.

    • Is this the beginning of the real life Borg, right here at home? I, for one, welcome our new Collective overlords who, being a collective, cannot possibly be as evil as the dictatorial monopolies and tribes we have now.

      That sounds dangerously similar to an individual opinion, and collectives don't allow such acts of rebellion. Careful what you think, Comrade,the Telescreen is always on.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by macraig ( 621737 )

        What, me worry? Individual opinions that coincide collectively are a Consensus and a Movement!

    • Is this the beginning of the real life Borg, right here at home? I, for one, welcome our new Collective overlords who, being a collective, cannot possibly be as evil as the dictatorial monopolies and tribes we have now.

      Or earlier, Isaac Asimov (Nemesis; Foundation's Edge and Foundation and Earth).

  • That's frightening. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Pezbian ( 1641885 ) on Tuesday May 22, 2018 @12:36PM (#56654232)

    Imagine a worldwide BSOD.

    • In the days of Ping of Death, that pretty much happened. Was teaching a CS class in 1997, and I was standing in the back of the room when I saw over thirty Windows machines all blue screen at once. At work, we would often have several floors worth of Windows machines blue screen within seconds. That bug also affected Linux, Solaris, FreeBSD, SunOS, Irix, OS/2, Novell, and HP printers that we had where I worked at the time so basically it was a "worldwide BSOD."

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by balbeir ( 557475 )
      It's not blue. It's orange

  • Capitalism (Score:2, Interesting)

    by bluefoxlucid ( 723572 )

    I've frequently suggested regulating economies and creating public services to use the market as a computer.

    In healthcare, for example, the US can provide a public option that guarantees everyone healthcare at all times. When they can get affordable care, we can put a payroll tax on their employer (and an additional income tax on their paycheck) for either the affordable rate or (if less) the amount they usually pay, thus ensuring neither gets a monetary benefit by selecting the public option over the e

    • I've frequently suggested regulating economies

      Because that has worked out so well in all sorts of places. It is like you don't even recognize that failures of the current system are linked to exactly what you're suggesting. I'll give you a big reason why, because you said this yourself.

      Universal healthcare is easy.

      No, it isn't. It is fraught with all sorts of difficult decisions that make really bad headlines, the most recent being Alfie Evans case in Britain, where the STATE decided to end life support, when there were other viable options outside that system.

      The fact that you cl

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        " there were other viable options outside that system"
        no, these people were poor, they had no options, in USA he would of been dead before he even entered the hospital, if they were rich then a few capitalist healthcare providers would be a bit more richer but the end result would of been the same.

        • They had options, including offers from other places to take and care for the boy. The state (UK) prevented them from leaving.

          Yes, they were poor, so now I know what Socialized Medicine really is, state control of poor people. How is that different than now again?

  • Absolutization of one's domain (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Bradmont ( 513167 ) on Tuesday May 22, 2018 @12:39PM (#56654266) Homepage
    There is a common tendency among experts of every domain to absolutize their field : particle physicists tend to make every physical effect into a particle. Evolutionary biologists try to explain every behaviour as a result of natural selection. Clinical psychologists make everything a result of their chosen theory of mental health. Economists make economics the ultimate cause and solution of every human problem. When you spend your entire life digging deeply into one topic, you start to see the world through the lens of your expertise. Sometimes this can lead to great discoveries. But it often leads to harmful overgeneralizations, or making a fool of yourself in public. This is one of those latter cases.
    • If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Myrdos ( 5031049 )

      Agreed.

      "People are very seldom concerned with some kind of universal model of capital T Truth; they're almost always concerned with creating models that help them get their job done. This is inevitable, and it creates problems when you try to glue data from different sources together. The *unnecessary* problems that arise come from people who don't accept that their useful domain-specific models don't describe all of objective reality." -- Matt Leo

    • The answer is Quills people, Quills.

    • I am not a particle physicists, but in that list, they would seem to have the upper hand.

      Although, I presume that they would tend to make every physical effect into a particle or wave, or both.

      That would also take care of computers, the world and the CEO's ranting about computers.

  • Sounds like he is behind the times.

  • I knew the mice must be in on it...

    Guess I'll just go back to my pan galactic gargleblaster.

  • Seriously, why is he saying this?

    GPDR this fool.

  • we should start to think of the planet as one giant computer

    Does it run Linux?

  • Wow, metaphors are neat, aren't they? Here's one: Satya Nadella is a vacuum.

  • The world is not a computer. (Score:3)

    by quietwalker ( 969769 ) <pdughi@gmail.com> on Tuesday May 22, 2018 @12:56PM (#56654400)

    It's so unrelated to the concept he is trying to describe - that (primarily the citizens of advanced nations) encounter or operate some sort of microcontroller or computer so many times in their daily life that they can be considered ubiquitous and having a great impact on our life - that it's not a useful metaphor nor phrase.

    Pick any other technology that's done the same. Like, I dunno, cars.

    "It's amazing to think of a world as a car. I think that's the right metaphor for us as we go forward."

    Look how stupid that sounds. Same with just about every other transformational technology; radio, tv, cell phones, airplanes, etc. It's not a useful abstraction or insightful discussion point. It's pure pablum.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tsa ( 15680 )

      It's managers' speak. Everyone but managers themselves knows that managers usually say mindbogglingly stupid things.

  • "The idea that you can now use all of the computing power that is around you -- this notion of the world as a computer -- completely changes how you conduct a meeting and fundamentally what presence means for a meeting,"

    mIRC 365, anyone?

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Human Computer Formation

  • I sure fucking hope it's OS isn't Windows.

    Or anything BUT open source based for that matter.

  • A hope (Score:4, Funny)

    by techdolphin ( 1263510 ) on Tuesday May 22, 2018 @01:34PM (#56654654)

    I just hope that nobody decides to reboot. That would mean 4.5 billion years down the drain.

    As an aside, can somebody improve my memory retrieval function? It has been having some issues lately.

  • When all you have is a hammer...

  • ...I'll take this statement a little more seriously.

    The vast majority of Earths inhabitants have absolutely no use for computers, and aren't even aware of their existence.

  • that the CEO of one of the world's largest and most important tech companies can spout so much blatant, blithering nonsense? This missive sounds like one those pseudo-profound 'revelations' that rock the worlds of people who are very stoned on really good weed. Most of these people, when they come down from the high, recognize the sophomoric and pedestrian nature of their 'insights'. Maybe Satya is still stoned - or maybe he simply has that combination of narcissism and stupidity that that is the hallmark o

  • World is a computer, and its Blue Screen Of Death is made of resource exhaustion, climate change, and loss of biodiversity.
  • I wondered why the world is full of so many bugs. :-)

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