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Computer Science is an extremely vast field and even though it has been an official discipline in universities for just a few decades, it is undeniable the incredible advances made so far. With all this expansion, numerous challenges appear every day. Some of these challenges are mentioned below.

There is no denying that computers are extraordinarily fast and smart, but they still need commands given by humans to perform an action or decision. And if humans are needed, some form of bias is usually present. The article in which this post blog is based gives an example of a young girl that develops an application and needs funding from a bank. Our conventional approach would be to deny such a loan because of the age of the girl. But what If we leave a computer to decide and leave the age as not being an important factor in the algorithm that is being used? We would still find an algorithm bias because it is normal and expected for a teenager to have a typical teenager likes and dislikes, and since she is young, she wouldn’t have as much information and important data as an adult would have. So even though the application could bring exceptional results, the decision to grant the loan would still be denied.

The internet of things can simplify very mundane activities such as tracking what you have in the fridge or control the lights or sound system in your house. It is a field that still needs a lot of research, but it will be in our everyday lives more each day. The major problem with this is that our data can be compromised and not only that, but our lives could be in danger if, for example, a person with bad intensions takes control of a car or an airplane.

Still talking about security, quantum computing is a major concern when it comes to encryption. While a bit of the conventional computers carries one single information, either 1 or 0, a quantum bit, or qubit, can carry both states, on and off, 1 and 0 and so on. This makes computational time much faster, and the security that encryption keys offer may became irrelevant.

The last challenge Computer Science faces in our time is, of course, artificial intelligence. Computing power is always growing and so is computer intelligence. According to the article, never in humanity’s history we had to deal with something smarter than a person. Opinions differ when it comes to how long computers will be smarter than humans in a vast range of areas. Some say it will never happen, others no more than 10 years. The problem lies in the lack of free will and maybe critical thinking and evaluation of a machine. It will eventually do what was asked to do, no matter if it is something that could destroy someone or the entire planet. It will also do it so fast, no giving enough time to analyse the consequences and revert the action.

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Curious Su was walking the other in the Dublin mountains when a blinding light appeared in front of her. She saw a weird object that resembled an airplane and from inside came a strange fella, rather short, but with a friendly face. He introduced himself as the wise man from the galaxy and told Su that she could ask him 3 questions. So many things passed through her mind: What are the numbers of the next lottery, how can I get more questions, do vampires exist?

She decided to be as wise as the man and ask 3 important questions for her at that time, and they are:

- How can humanity keep developing new technologies, but maintain human interaction and keep evolving our intellectual?

- How can we travel to places much faster than we do now?

- Is there any amazing talent I have that I do not know about?

The importance of her questions and the reason she decided to ask them are all related to her life at the moment. Su is studying Computer Science and one of the main reasons that she decided to explore this field is her desire to always simplify things, specially in a professional environment. At the same time, making things easier worry her because studies show that the human IQ is decreasing with the rise of technology. To illustrate that, she remembers of a comedy movie she watched a while ago, recommended by her former boss. It is called idiocracy and it shows how humanity will be in around 500 years. It is a very silly movie, but the message is kind of scary.

The second questions relates to more personal reasons. Su has been far from her family for over 2 years now and she wishes that traveling between continents was faster, from the screening processes in airports and the transportation itself. It has a downside, of course, specially now when we are all aware of what a pandemic can do to our globalized world, but she was sure the wise man would find a secure way to make this possible.

And for the final question, Curious Su wants to believe that people have a purpose and that everyone has talents. She would love to know what her great talent would be and maybe she could create a career out of it, maybe just a very nice hobby, or even help other people wth this natural and unexplored talent.

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