Experts see computers getting bigger and smaller at the same time: "When pioneering professors Herbert Simon and Allen Newell began working with the first computer at what is now Carnegie Mellon University in 1956, they had no clear vision of how their research would reshape the world 50 years later.

So it's no surprise that the experts visiting the campus last week to celebrate the 50th anniversary of computing at Carnegie Mellon shied away from predicting what the digital universe will look like in 2056."