Keep your eye on The God Particle!

 What does particle physics and the Higgs boson have to do with banking? Well, in a very small way, the "physics" of banking will soon be changing again. If you haven't noticed, our technology has been shrinking in size yet growing in power over the last six decades.

Back in the Sixties, banks used a lot of people and very big adding machines. Banker's hours meant that we closed early so we could count everything. In those days, people were augmented with technology-primitive technology by today's standards.

Today, in the performance of our daily banking jobs, technology is augmented by people. In other words, technology does the heavy lifting in the bank while human resources are used to manage exceptions and think over logic!

As described in a CBS News story, researchers in Switzerland using the Hadron collider were able to identify and prove the existence of the so-called God Particle. The Higgs boson-to use its other name-is a subatomic particle used to define how the basic pieces of matter act together.

Once this data about the Higgs boson is synthesized, we will begin to apply this knowledge to rethinking computer processor design. This knowledge will usher in a new wave of mega-powerful computer chips; chips that will have three-dimensional holographic memories that can change processing speed dynamically and storage density on the fly. Imagine, a computer chip that can change itself! Scary, maybe, but a new dimension, absolutely.

Gordon Moore, co-founder of Intel, predicted that computing power will double every 24 months. This prediction was born in a paper he published 1965. Looking back, Moore was more than right! Looking forward, I predict, thanks to the Higgs boson, that our banking environment will be changing just as dramatically. Put on your goggles and fasten your seat belt! We are about to see the last 50 years happen again in the next five.