8 Conclusions

In this course you have learned about the difference between the analogue world we inhabit and the digital world of the computer.

I've described how features of our world can ‘cross the boundary’ and be represented or modelled in the digital world, and then brought back across the boundary to us.

More excitingly, computer programs that manipulate digital representations of our world enable us to:

• simulate physical and social processes;

• explain current events;

• predict future events;

• create futuristic virtual worlds.

Whether or not these technological wonders are a force for good was left as an open question.