这个问题来自于对过去50年左右计算领域各种进展的评论。
其他一些与会者请我把这个问题作为一个问题向整个论坛提出。
这里的基本思想不是抨击事物的现状，而是试图理解提出基本新思想和原则的过程。
我认为我们在大多数计算领域都需要真正的新想法，我想知道最近已经完成的任何重要而有力的想法。如果我们真的找不到他们，那么我们应该问“为什么?”和“我们应该做什么?”
当前回答
Damas-Milner type inference (often called Hindley-Milner type inference) was published in 1983 and has been the basis of every sophisticated static type system since. It was a genuinely new idea in programming languages (admitted based on ideas published in the 1970s, but not made practical until after 1980). In terms of importance I put it up with Self and the techniques used to implement Self; in terms of influence it has no peer. (The rest of the OO world is still doing variations on Smalltalk or Simula.)
类型推断的变化仍在上演;我最喜欢的变体是Wadler和Blott的解决重载的类型类机制，后来发现它为类型级别的编程提供了非常强大的机制。这个故事的结局还在书写中。
其他回答
运动传感器在游戏中的兴起，使传统的游戏操纵杆消失，让用户非常接近游戏本身。这与我们不断变化的城市景观和生活方式相辅相成，因为我们的身体活动有限。游戏的发展肯定会让人在做喜欢的事情时至少进行一些体育活动。这绝对比在健身房做同样单调的练习要好。
The mouse - There have been posts about human interaction. To me, the mouse was the gateway to human interaction. Without it, we'd still be typing and not clicking in dragging, even with our fingers. GUI - Complimented the mouse perfectly. I work in an environment where an as400 is the backend of one of our major apps. Yeah.. Interesting stuff but it just reminds me of the screens 'Bill Gates' is working in in the movie 'Pirates of Silicon Valley' even though that's not what it was. To me, 1 and 2 are the reason anybody, including grandpas and grandmas can use a computer. Excel / spreadsheets - Someone mentioned this before but it's work mentioning again. It's so user friendly and is a great entry point for non-technical users to try their hand at simple programming concepts when performing calculations on cells. Granted it came out before 1980, but the versions post 1980 are when the technology in spreadsheets evolved. Internet (of course) - Not sure how people wrote code without it! Don't flame me for repeating because this belongs on every list. INTELLISENSE - LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT!!!!
“美国人没有过去，也没有未来，他们生活在一个延伸的现在。”这描述了计算的状态。我们生活在80年代一直延续到21世纪。唯一改变的是尺寸。Alan Kay
来源: Alan Kay:计算机科学是一种矛盾修饰法吗?
现代阴影语言和现代gpu的流行。
GPU也是一个低成本的并行超级计算机，拥有CUDA和OpenCL等工具，可以快速编写高级并行代码。感谢所有在那里压低这些越来越令人印象深刻的硬件奇迹价格的玩家。在接下来的五年里，我希望每台售出的新电脑(iphone也一样)都能基本具备运行大量并行代码的能力，就像24位彩色或32位保护模式一样。
比特币解决了双重消费问题。它被用来创造去中心化的电子货币。一个名为Namecoin的变体使用相同的技术来构建一个分散的命名系统(类似于DNS)。
过去曾有人试图创建加密货币(这个想法当然并不新鲜)，但比特币似乎是第一个成功的实现。其独特的P2P算法在不依赖任何可信权威的情况下解决了双重花费问题。
