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I always like thinking about what things will be like in the future, I imagine computers will be drastically different in 10 years and probably nothing at all like computers today, in 20 years time!
Popular mechanics did a piece on the top ten upcoming computer technologies that will have the greatest impact on the world, not too long ago, one of them was the ability to email tangible objects. Ive read in some other places this has been in R&D for awhile, so I guess they are getting close or will be within the next 10 yrs, this will not only change computers, but will likely re-shape the entire world! If they have discovered another method to move objects/ materials, etc, obviously this will drastically change everything very quickly, no longer be a need for UPS, DHL, and maybe even one day, physical shipping and freight transportation in general.
I cant recall everything on the list, but imo, the tangible objects tech has the potential to be the most significant.
I do think there will still be desktop versions and portable versions, no matter how advanced things get.
I have to imagine though, at some point, eventually there will have to be a limit to how advanced computers will be available to the public, once it starts impacting Govt ability to exert its authority in anyway, I think this kind of tech will be suppressed.
Smaller. In 10-20 years most households won't have computers as in a box that sits somewhere. You'll either just use your cell phone and connect to peripherals or it'll be something in between the size of a Raspberry Pi and an Intel NUC. Inputs will be different. More things like Toby tracking or neural interfaces, although how wide spread that becomes is more questionable.
As far as emailing your desk chair, that will never happen. You could use a 3D printer to recreate it, but you'll never fit a desk chair through a copper cable.
I don't think things will change that much, things are not doubling in the home pc market as they used to.
Now it's 500G or 1T hard drive and 4G ram 8 if you are lucky. For many years computers were getting so much better and cheaper that it made sense to buy a new one every few years, now not so much
Plus I feel like I've been using Windows 10 forever, but it's not that different than Windows 7 which has been around for 10 years.
I still love my Windows 10 PC, I hate that apps replaced programs. I use my notebook PC as a desktop replacement so I don't even need it to be touch screen. I'm happy with a wireless keyboard and mouse and a TV as a monitor.
I always like thinking about what things will be like in the future, I imagine computers will be drastically different in 10 years and probably nothing at all like computers today, in 20 years time!
Things like Smart TV's, home theaters and gaming consoles are already crossing the line. Further integration into the household of things like this and amazon's echo will continue. Instead of "computer" you will simply have displays of different sizes, think along the lines of phones with giant screens and integrated computer hardware.
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Popular mechanics did a piece on the top ten upcoming computer technologies that will have the greatest impact on the world, not too long ago, one of them was the ability to email tangible objects.
Not exactly the same but you could do something similar with 3-d printers.
You can't email a tangible object without teleportation, or recreating it on the other end with 3d printing technology.
On one of those space shows they were discussing a lab experiment where they were able to "teleport" information. My understanding in this is lacking to say the least but the gist of it is you have two particles that are linked and the information available to one particle is instantly available to the other regardless of the distance they are apart. The applications for communications are obvious especially when you start dealing with vastness of space.
The delay during the Apollo missions was a few seconds, one to Mars would between 3 and 22 minutes depending on Mars orbit position relative to the earth's. Such tech could eliminate that.
You can't email a tangible object without teleportation, or recreating it on the other end with 3d printing technology.
Delivery companies have nothing to worry about for quite a while
Apparently its something that has been in R&D for awhile now, so maybe they have figured out a way to 'de-materialize' an object and make it materialize again somewhere else.
I get that it sounds very sci-fi, but in the quantum world it doesnt matter so much, also keep in mind, this is still about 10 yrs out, its not like the technology will be coming out next year or anything, that tells me its not perfected yet, but it is possible.
I don't think the desktop PC will disappear completely. There will always be reasons to have the most power you can have (within reason) even as mobile and laptop and standalone machines get more powerful and cloud-based processing becomes feasible. It'll be a while before a mobile GPU can handle 15 trillion floating calcs per second... and if that happens, desktop GPUs will be able to do, say 100 trillion.
I think one innovation that may not be far from being reality is that the idea of RAM and Storage being separate entities might disappear. We could see a future solid state drive interface and medium that is faster than today's RAM. You might essentially have One Terabyte of RAM / Solid State where your entire OS, all of your executables, etc. are stored, and then a separate 5-10 TB SSD with a more pedestrian interface and memory type for media and file archiving.
I also think VR and AR will make strides, but there will be much segmentation -- professional, commercial, prosumer, high-end consumer, premium mediocre, cheap crap, etc. And there will be things that require or benefit from a massive GPU (wirelessly though) as well as things that work quite well as standalone / self-contained headsets. Hand-tracking will be built-in to everything, as will variable focal planes, eye-tracking, and ultra-wide field of view. We may see see-through AR headsets that can be perfectly transparent or perfectly occlude the real world on a pixel-by-pixel basis, along with real-time lightfield photogrammetry. The real world, the augmented world, and the virtual world will start to blur, to the point where people can be physically co-located with other people who are virtually co-located, and all experiencing persistent shared architecture, information, features, etc.
How much smaller are todays' towers over the Dell, Gateways, XT of 20 years ago. Memory modules, video cards, and heat sinks and power supplies are all larger despite of CPUs becoming more efficient. Computer screens use to be 13-15 inches, now they are 24", even 34" ultra wide. Only macs have gone through seriously styling changes, not saying all for the better.
It seems to me desktop/laptops are already on their way out while smart phones keep getting more connectable and the hardware more powerful.
5G, computing on the "cloud" and the "internet of things" might even make a pocket-sized computer powerhouse archaic in 10-20 years... our computers will be "everywhere and nowhere" at the same time.
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What will average household computer look like in 10 years/ 20 years?
