Specifically, what is the next big area of exploration in computers that isn't really being taught in colleges and doesn't require an immense amount of training to explore?<p>We had the hardware and software of the 80's, the Dot Com boom of the 90's, resurgence of Web 2.0 and social media in the 2000's, and now it seems that mobile application development is the current boom.<p>I feel the new industries which will have a profound impact are the commercialized space race in the mojave dessert (a.k.a. Rocket Town), bionics and robotics (silicon valley and boston), and the human computer interaction field of neuroscience. However all of these seem to require graduate level work to even break into.<p>Will there be anything like the last quarter of the 19th century again in our lifetime?
I ask because, while in 1989 I was programming choose your own adventure games in BASIC on a commodore, I was too young to make anything of it. In the late 90's I was finishing up high school in the rural south without access to any real cs/ce curriculum. And in the mid 2000's I was working on my degree in Digital Media despite being a step ahead of almost every subject covered. (I probably should have been pursuing ce, or better yet, just moved to Palo Alto)<p>So I keep mulling over the idea of going back to school to get up to the level needed for the industries above. But part of me just wishes there was a way to dive in and get my hands dirty like they were doing in the beginning of all this.
Integrating web and specifically mobile technologies with the real world and physical products. Creating a seamless interface, some companies are just starting to explore this in the medical and entertainment areas. The next set of billion dollar companies should come from this area. It'll take awhile though since there are only a handful of people with the skill sets to launch and guide the companies.