What Comes Next; September 2010; Scientific American Magazine; by Danny Hillis; Arthur Caplan; Edward Felten; Christof Koch; Michael Webber; Daniel Kammen; R. James Woolsey; Leslie Aiello; George Church; John Reganold; 6 Page(s)

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The Age of Digital Entanglement
By Danny Hillis

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On November 19, 2009, a single circuit board inside a computer router in Salt Lake City failed. The glitch cascaded, preventing air traffic control computers nationwide from communicating. Hundreds of flights were canceled. On May 6, 2010, the Dow Jones industrial average inexplicably plummeted almost 1,000 points in minutes, only to mysteriously rise before the day ended. Had the “flash crash” not reversed itself, a global financial meltdown would have ensued.

We humans have linked our destinies with our machines. Our technology has gotten so complex that we no longer can understand it or fully control it. We have entered the Age of Entanglement.