Technology plays a part in our everyday lives, where it's importance continues to grow on an exponential basis as time goes by. In fact, if one were to create a graph outlining the increasing role in which the artificial and the technological take root in the day to day running of the world, the graph would certainly look like a very, very steep mountain. Since the emergence of modern homo sapiens millennia ago, it is our very ingenuity that comes up with ideas, ways, and methods of overcoming the challenges presented to ourselves by the environment. The formation of basic ideas lead to the development and manufacturing of tools to improve the way we live and work. Our primitive ancestors stumbled across ideas such as creating fire, or using a circular shape to ease transportation. Wooden sticks and pieces of rock are crafted and reshaped to accommodate the process of making the task at hand easier and less strenuous, basic designs that continue to be used today such as the hoe, the wheel, and so on and so forth.

It is with these basic ideas that our forefathers had that ultimately led to what we have/are today. Would one have imagined, 20 odd years ago, that we'd have a worldwide network containing unlimited information circulating around the world today? Video displays that are barely thicker than a painting canvas? Sophisticated machinery capable of fabricating products on a molecular basis? Or even the very computer I am using to write this very article - roughly the size of two VHS cassettes in width and certainly no thicker than your average magazine, and yet housing the equipment to connect to the network without the use of cables or wires, and extensive multimedia capabilities that were just simply impossible a decade ago.

The main crux of the two paragraphs above this is the fact that technology continues to improve itself, evolving, for lack of a better term. The concept of evolution, while seemingly obvious now thanks to modern scientific research methodologies, was mind-blowing and utterly revolutionary when Charles Darwin first published it. It is indeed a great leap of faith to suggest that homo sapiens share a common ancestry with monkeys, and that every single living organism on Earth had a singular, focal point of origin. This was a literal smack in the face to Victorian conventions where the roots and origins of life can be found in the Book of Genesis in the Bible. God created man in the Garden of Eden, and all life that we see today were there as well, and we just simply expanded and moved on from there. And yet, moved beyond that outmoded concept and idea we did.

The computer is undoubtedly THE single greatest feat of human invention and engineering in the 20th century. While the original computers devised in the 1950s were gargantuan devices of tremendous size, power consumption, and literally quite impossible to operate by the average human being, things took a tremendous change with the introduction of silicon semiconductors. Through companies such as IBM and Intel, the PC revolution was born, spearheading the development of increasingly efficient, sophisticated, complex, and yet cheaper methods of creating these silicon chips that make up the brains of computers. Gordon Moore espoused the law that says computing processing power doubles itself once every 18 months, a law that has proven itself to be unerringly accurate. From the initial design of the 8086XT processor to today's high end 64-bit processors such as the AMD Athlon or PowerPC G5, one basic tenet has continued to be proven true - everything comes from a single, focal point of origin.

Why are there computers? To be used as a more efficient tool to be used by man to work. How is that any different from anything else devised by man? Why was the hoe devised? To make it easier for early man to plow the soil, thereby increasing productivity while performing the same amount of physical labour within the same amount of time. With that in mind, continuing to use the hoe analogy, farming implements have ultimately led to the development of gasoline-powered machines that now allows an individual farmer to do the equivalent work of what would have required scores of men to do, once upon a time.

Using this same train of thought, where can we find the point of origin for computers? The modern idea of computers can be traced back to the foundation laid down by IBM, but by taking a step back and looking at the bigger picture - why computers in the first place? Why am I using a computer to write this article instead of using a pen or pencil to write it down on a sheet of paper? Or even using a typewriter? The answer is simple - it is the best and most convenient tool available to myself. The computer is a productivity tool - no different from a hoe or a wheel in terms of ideological creation.

Everything that a computer does is based on calculations, and the tools that we used to crunch numbers are calculators - or it's ancestor, the abacus. It's a simple physical device created by the ancient Chinese to perform complex mathematical tasks in an easier, streamlined, and organized manner. Before that, the values had to be written down on some medium or another so that an overview of the required calculation at hand can be seen in a physical manner, thereby ensuring a semi-permanent record of sorts of the work already and yet to be done. Of course, in order for this to happen, writing had to evolve from the concept of oral language. Writing is basically a physical form given to the idea of language. The 26-character alphabet employed today in most languages is derived from Arabic characters, simplified and whittled down to it's globally agreed upon most efficient form. As obvious as this idea is, someone had to have come up with the original idea of putting words to letters in the first place, or at least in pictorial format, which is the root of all writing anyway. The icons and images used in ancient pictographic writings evolved from the need for ancient man to communicate with one another, establishing kinship, societies, communities, and ultimately civilization and government.

Notice how the past few paragraphs have managed to meander from the roots of modern computing into mankind's humble beginnings and attempts at language and communication. This, to me, is proof that evolution transcends biology, and that it exists in ideas, technology, and literally everything in the universe. The greatest technological leap of evolution in modern computing is the development of the Personal Computer, a standard designed by IBM from which all manufacturers can produce compatible parts, accessories, and software to run from. This is very different from earlier attempts at bringing the computer revolution home because the IBM PC standard is prepackaged, instead of requiring the computer hobbyist/enthusiast to assemble the system from bits and pieces like a glorified model and compiling and programming the software components to transform the machine into something more capable than that of a very expensive paperweight.

By bringing packaged hardware and software to the masses, leaving the development of content and innovation to the experts and companies with the resources to do so, the IBM PC standard flourished and eventually became the dominating presence it is today. Most of our modern computer systems utilizing the latest AMD or Intel processors owe their existence to the original IBM PC standard, which has since been improved and expanded upon to accommodate more sophisticated accessories, applications, and operating systems.

The hardware is ultimately useless without the software to give it instructions. Our bodies are basically nothing more than highly sophisticated bags of chemicals, joints, and servos to accommodate the commands given to it by our brain, which is the receptacle that houses our thoughts and ideas - software. Therefore, that which we consider to be our identity, is therefore our own individual operating system. And the various skills we have that help us do our work and daily chores are the applications that are either installed or designed by our brain to grant us the capability to do what we do. Everybody on this planet knows how to breath, eat, drink. blink, and defecate, among other things. These are the predefined capabilities that came pre-installed into our brains - the basic functions of the operating system, just like how the likes of Windows, Linux, DOS, or Mac OS all can do the same basic functions - organizing data, copying and moving files, producing a basic display from which the user interacts with, and accepting input to produce an output.

If the human brain is no more than a highly complex and sophisticated computer that adapts itself and learns from the environment, would not the same conclusion apply for the computers of our own manufacturing? It took us hundreds of thousands of years to get to where we are today, and it will take additional millennia to eventually perfect ourselves. Computers have a significant quantum advantage over us in that regards - remember Moore's Law?

For all of the speed and mathematical sophistication designed and built into modern computers - they are still essentially expensive, high tech paperweights unless it has an operating system installed to guide it. Therein lies the genesis of the computer's evolution - artificial intelligence. The concept of A.I. may still sound like science fiction to the average person on the street, but it has become scientific fact for quite some time now. Intelligence - the ability to learn or understand; the ability to cope with a new situation. Based on that definition, everything that we have learnt and every skill obtained over the course of our lives come from basic human intelligence. For example, how does one learn to read and write, or even pick up a language? Children did not have to attend classes to learn a language - they simply do so by listening and associating certain words with a particular object or behaviour. Sounds are given physical form thanks to the creation of characters, which can then be written down or read from. By that very definition of intelligence, aren't computers today considered "intelligent"?

Artificial intelligence has given birth to technologies that recognize speech, faces, thumbprints, and so on and so forth. Modern programming and computing routines have allowed for the creation of applications that learn by themselves, essentially evolving beyond their original limitations and design. In fact, rudimentary artificial intelligence is already prevalent in modern society. They can be found in computer and video games. When one looks at the challenges set upon the player in earlier games such as those found on the Atari 2600 or the Nintendo Entertainment System, enemy A.I. is essentially a complication of 'if-then-else' routines that ultimately forms a repeating behavioural pattern from which the player can and will eventually exploit to their gain, thereby emerging victorious in the game. This same basic rule still applies for modern games, the only difference being these routines are now larger and more complex in scale.

Game development studio Maxis Games revolutionized applicable artificial intelligence in computer gaming with the creation of SimCity, which was actually more of a city simulation rather than a game itself. It was totally open ended with no real target or accomplishment required of the player outside of designing and managing the city. This has ultimately lead to Will Wright's The Sims, which was basically a game about living a life. This was one of the earliest examples of having humans controlling electronic equivalents or avatars of themselves in a computer environment, basically playing god. Of course we know that the characters in create in the various permutations and versions of The Sims out there are just that - computer characters. They have no real intellect or anything that we would construe as intelligence at all.

However, by applying the concept of evolution to this idea, is it not feasible to eventually have software that ultimately achieves sentience and awareness? Computer processors are becoming increasingly powerful with each passing day, and the development of amazingly powerful platforms such as the Sony-IBM-Toshiba developed Cell architecture holds great promise. However, there will come a time when conventional manufacturing and fabrication techniques can no longer be used as processors become increasingly sophisticated, thereby requiring more switches and transistors, moving beyond current microscopic stages into the world of molecular design and assembly. Based on current theories, computers would then expand beyond its silicon origins and move into the theoretical world of quantum computing.

Software would be designed to harness such potential and staggeringly powerful devices, wherein a quantum leap in software and hardware development will be achieved where the next generation of computers will be designed by the current generation of programs running on the current generation of processors. This idea of what is essentially the software version of nuclear fission could potentially result in an infinitely unimaginable level of sophistication and complexity that would ultimately result in the creation of the next step in artificial intelligence - consciousness and awareness within an artificial construct that has no physical form. After all, isn't it existential awareness that separates us human beings from animals? We know; therefore we are. We know that we are alive, and from knowing this us human beings go beyond simply existing - we live! And we use our lives to learn and create, eventually bettering and improving ourselves. This is something impossible as far as animals are concerned.

Based on that idea, life is then no longer limited or bound to a biological form. So long as something is aware that it exists and is alive, would it not be considered a lifeform? This, while hardly original, is indeed a mind-blowing idea. Over the course of human civilization, we have been searching the skies for signs of biological life out there in the greater universe, with no (official) results whatsoever after decades of what what is essentially looking for a needle in a haystack. Evolution would surely allow for the development of life outside of the physical realm, theoretical creatures that have no shape or form outside of thoughts, ideas, and expressions that humanity has yet to grow to a stage of evolutionary development to grasp at the outer-most periphery of the existence of such notions.

What would happen if indeed the A.I. routines programmed into some future application is combined with some learning routines, thereby allowing it to improve and expand upon itself, eventually attaining consciousness? Would it not think "why am I here?" "what am I doing here?" "where did I come from?" These are the ultimate questions that have plagued humanity since the dawn of mankind, and probably something that causes long ruminations amongst all sentient beings out there in this universe. Using The Sims as an example, can it not be considered an extremely primitive version of the artificial construct seen in The Wachowski Brothers' Matrix Trilogy? And we, controlling every single aspect of our electronic avatars, are the Architect. Essentially god, determining who lives and dies and how the live their lives.

The moment a piece of software realizes that it does indeed exist and questions the secrets behind it's origin - I truly believe that is when we will find a true artificial lifeform. And the label 'artificial' is a misnomer in and out of itself, after all, is our fleshy bags of chemicals and organs any more real than the immaterial ideas that could potentially gain sentience? What is to say that we are more 'natural' than another unimaginable lifeform? Advances in the field of computing and artificial intelligence is very intriguing and one can only guess at what would be the ultimate outcome of these progress.