Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
(management of biological information) and biological computation (simulating living processes).
Laffan (2014) provides a comprehensive overview of the application of GC methods to geolocated
biological data. However, two new developments will affect BioGeoComputation by 2061: artificial
life and biological computers.
Artificial life has often seen the creation of programs and models that emulate biological
processes, such as plant succession, disease dispersal, neural networks or genetic algorithms.
Biomimicry has recently expanded to include machines that simulate biological adaptations, such
as fins, textured skin and autonomous microdrones that fly like bees or hummingbirds. Many devel-
opments have taken place in the last decades in creating artificial limbs, even under thought control
by their users. Both of these computational areas can be extended into the future.
The genetic unravelling of DNA that opened up bioengineering implies that living organisms
could be bred or engineered around computing tasks. Rather than encode an algorithm to simu-
late land use change, for example, a solution could be bred by combining genetic virus fragments
and having them compete to best mimic the process across space. Agent-based models could be
physically placed into simulated or even natural environments to determine where transportation
bottlenecks will occur. Experience shows that genetically engineered foods often contaminate the
natural environment, so care would have to be taken not to allow these biofragments to be self-
sustainable organisms. Just as in quantum computing, there may be a means to tap DNA itself for
computation by emulating gates and switches, allowing computers or solutions to be grown or
assembled.
Far more likely is the increased use of computing devices inside or on the human body. While
some applications will allow disabilities to be overcome, others will enhance the senses, truly the
stuff of superhero comics. There is essentially no difference between wearing augmented reality
glasses that can display a collection of blueprints in correct position and transparent perspective
across a building in three dimensions on the one hand and actually having x-ray vision on the other.
Already, body scans are replacing human searches for airport security. A digital earth promises to
deliver any piece of information anywhere on demand. Increasingly, the ties of distance to geogra-
phy will weaken, just as the international computer expertise market has opened up the world from
Bangalore to Japan. Not only the where but also the who of computing will change and reconfigure
as a result. Clearly, all of humankind will be users, but who will be the designers, developers and
builders once these concepts come to fruition?
19.6 CONCLUSION
In this chapter, we began by examining the thesis that the twentieth-century histories of computing
and of GISci, including cartography and remote sensing, share more in common than is well under-
stood. GC is that self-selected branch of both fields that overlaps. After examining two examples
of these blended histories, the chapter selected six topics of current interest to GC, explored the
present state of the art and speculated on where the issues will be 50 years into the future. All six
topics - fusion, mobility, ubiquity, the GeoWeb, interactive multimedia and biocomputation - reveal
some extraordinary potential changes in the future, sufficient that the challenges of today will be
overcome and that a new set of challenges will emerge to face our grandchildren.
A closing theme is that of preparation. What sets of new skills are necessary to be a designer, a
developer or a user of the next generation of technologies and how are they best learned and taught?
What geographic and computational theory will survive and still show relevance in the years ahead?
How can today's faculty and professionals retrain themselves for a future where today's new tech-
nologies are primitive? How will the students who are to inherit this future get the interdisciplinary
and even ultradisciplinary skills necessary to flourish? The need for truly interdisciplinary educa-
tion is now clear, yet institutions have been slow in responding. Geography seems well positioned
intellectually to lead this interdisciplinary shift (Clarke, 2011), but to do so, the discipline needs to
lose its internal divisions and further embrace computational geography and GIS. Already, other
