It may be a while before you can wag your finger at a personal computer and get an intelligent response. But it seems certain that these machines will continue to surprise us. Dr. Robert E. Kahn, at the Defense Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency, is convinced that we're going to see "some very powerful and intelligent systems show up" in the next few years. Kahn has watched the evolution of computers from a unique vantage point, at an agency which has funded many of the most important research projects in artificial intelligence, time sharing, computer graphics, computer networks and other major advances in computer technology.

"In the next decade, we'll see a lot of what I call garage-shop computer engineering, and maybe even a little science," he says. "It's getting to the point now where you can go to your local supermarket and if you can't buy a floppy disc now, then tomorrow you'll be able to, and for $19.95 you can get a bag of logic, and some powerful chips. I think we're going to see a world of innovation come out of young kids, high school kids and pre-teens of all kinds, who are just given access to technology, with creative minds and no constraints.

And talk about cultural effect—I think people may be incredibly surprised at how clever some of these young people can be. While they may not have a good basic knowledge of the outside world, they will be dealing with an artificial technology where they can construct anything that they can imagine. And they've got great imaginations."

After watching kids at MIT's Artificial Intelligence Lab, Seymour Papert has a similar view. "I don't think there's anything wrong with arcade games," he says, "except that you have to play that one. I think in terms of creating a computation environment in which you not only have access to unlimited numbers of games but where you can make them yourself. And then the word 'game' takes on a different meaning. I think what it is all about is getting into 'microworlds,' simulated environments which are exciting because you can manipulate them. I think we don't fully understand what makes that sort of manipulation so powerfully attractive."

Are the Atarians in their cells really the monks of these microworlds? Not long before he built the first Apple computer, while he still worked at Atari, Steve Jobs went to India. Having grown up in the Silicon

The line between game and science blurs in Atari lab where designer "plays" with circuits for new chip.