IBM, The Silent Giant
Since 1911, IBM has steadily advanced pushing into the background. They’ve pedaled products openly here and there, but what is
it they really are doing? IBM seeks the future. Before trends and companies
become obsolete, IBM has likely begun transitioning. Today there is little to
be heard from the giant aside from appearances here and there. However, there
are massive undertakings in play by this entity that could vie for serious
power in the not so distant future.
Google,
google, google! When it comes to information harvesting and investing in the
future, many think this giant is the sole competitor. To IBM, Google is the new
kid on the block with plenty of tricks but just as much to loose. Unlike Google, IBM has ensured a
bountiful amount of resources. Although the next leap in power will rely on the utilization of
newer and better
. 
technologies, IBM understands that size combined can make for
a difference. These graphs give a clear image that this mega company most
surely has not faded into the background. Instead, they are performing a slew
of research. They have moved into the information age.
To
show IBM meant business, they comically jumped on the Jeopardy scene with
Watson. This big data platform isn’t just a talking computer. What was shown
was the front end application of a highly sophisticated search engine. In
simple terms, IBM decided to catch up to Google and then some. Not only was
this platform more effective at search queries, but too was intended as a rapid help-desk application. This mighty back-end service is even to deploy to the
public relatively soon! Other application of this device has been in medical
research and overall big data research and computation. What’s the scary part?
IBM has deemed this the technology of yesteryear. These devices were a means to
assist computation and make this informatics platform cheap down the road.
Quantum
computing and neural net type computers are the future. In order to expedite
computation before we can really harness systems based on more natural
influence, power will rest in the first entity to attain quantum computing.
Relying on the superset aspect of what is called a qubit, both IBM and
Google have realized the power that resides in this technology. Unlike current
 |
| Google's work into stabilizing qubits |
computers where a bit is either one or zero, a Qubit can be either. This deems
it possible for any set of amount of bits that every possible combination is possible at once, but a bit can only manage one combination.
This increases compute capability monumentally over existing systems. However, this
technology is prone to major instability. While Google has had some milestones,
IBM remains relatively quiet. None-the-less, IBM has invested three billion
between this field and neural based computing.
What
is a neural net? Imagine that you had ten friends and friends of friends in a
room. Some just know one person, while others a few. Perhaps some know each
other better. If a decision was to come around and each friend wanted to
advocate a choice, how would it be affected? Simple, whoever has stronger ties
to more people can carry more weight influencing closer friends. In turn the
decision can be made by this stronger cluster controlled by a chain of events
spewing from one node in the friend web. Now imagine you have billions of
interconnected logical nodes, each of these nodes will weigh in on processing a decision individually. Through the strength and amount of connections, this is processed and the end result given. A fabulous example is posted
underneath the picture of the mind storm. It links to a page containing a
description and video of the first brain mapped to a machine. While it is
simple and that of a worm it is a proof of concept. IBM has sunken incredible
capitol here. This technology is the ends to a
means and both Google and IBM see it.
With the creation of a neural net,
incredibly efficient machines can be designed to perform complex tasks. One of
those tasks would be to replace humans in many theaters. It is even within the
realm of possibility that the first wave of quantum computing ushers
in weak representations using software implementations or hybrids. While all of this technology is young,
the idea has been seeded and IBM is on its way to garnering future power.
Although
there is all too much leeway to really have a definite answer, IBM is a force
to be reckoned with. This giant has hid in the shadows, yet continued its quest
for power uninterrupted. Perhaps Google will win the quantum computing war.
Regardless IBM definitely is a company to watch as the seemingly always fails to
disappoint.
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