Computers will be transformed by alternative materials and approaches--maybe sooner than you think

In less than a century, computing has transformed our society and helped spur countless innovations. We now carry in our back pockets computers that we could only have dreamed of a few decades ago. Machine-learning systems can analyze scenes and drive vehicles. And we can craft extraordinarily accurate representations of the real world--models that can be used to design nuclear reactors, simulate myriad greenhouse-gas emission scenarios, and launch a probe on a nine-year trip to study Pluto in an all-too-brief high-speed fly-by. We fundamentally owe these capabilities to our ability to build progressively better computing devices--the transistors and other components at the heart of computer chips.