1 The History of Information Processing

Life without information processing is virtually impossible. Every living organism has the ability to receive information, to process it and to react. Humans used technical means to communicate and to process information very early on. The development of these means first began slowly and sped up dramatically in the past few decades and now includes almost all areas of human dealings so that some scientists are already discussing the possibility that humans will become superfluous through their own development. In this chapter, the significant aspects of the development of information processing technology will be sketched and a short overview of its possible further development and its limits will be given.