Jim Blinn

Graphics Fellow, Microsoft Research Graphics Group

Most Important Technology of the Last 40 Years:

The Web and mobile technology.

Most Important Technology for the Coming Decade:

The Web and mobile technology reaching those who haven't yet been touched. Maybe it won't revolutionize society, but a kind of tipping point occurs when something gets to be widespread enough.

Technology That has Evolved in a Surprising Way:

Computers.

"I remember listening 30 years ago to Alan Kay saying that in the future a PDP-10, the standard computer used by researchers at the time, would shrink from the size of two or three bunk beds to the size of a ring binder, and people would carry them around wherever they go. I thought, 'This guy's crazy.' The fact is that computers are now so cheap that the one inside my cellphone is probably more powerful than the one I've done most of my research on."