The Rise and Fall of the Church-Turing Thesis

The essay consists of three parts. In the first part, it is explained how theory of algorithms and computations evaluates the contemporary situation with computers and global networks. In the second part, it is demonstrated what new perspectives this theory opens through its new direction that is called theory of super-recursive algorithms. These algorithms have much higher computing power than conventional algorithmic schemes. In the third part, we explicate how realization of what this theory suggests might influence life of people in future. It is demonstrated that now the theory is far ahead computing practice and practice has to catch up with the theory. We conclude with a comparison of different approaches to the development of information technology.