Proactive Computing: A Progress Report

For almost 40 years, Computer Science has been dominated by J.C.R. Licklider's powerful vision of Interactive Computing. Although this "Human Centered" line of research has been tremendously productive, the interactive model will not scale as networked computers begin to outnumber people a hundred or thousand-fold. Intel Research has initiated work on Proactive Computing working toward environments in which networked computers proactively anticipate our needs and, sometimes, take actions on our behalf. This talk presents the elements of Intel's research agenda and identifies some of the "larger than Intel" challenges facing the research community.