How will computer technology change in future years?

I don’t really have any ideas other than “smaller, faster” which has been the general trend for a long time. The quantum revolution is still in its experimental phase.

The limits on computer size are the input and output devices. Smartphones are the smallest practical computer right now as their keyboards and displays are as small as you can get and still be usable by humans… until we develop neural interfaces that take input from and shoot output info to our brains directly.

Massively parallel computing will continue to be a thing, and will develop over the years; expect quad-core CPUs to become quaint relics.

Solid state storage will continue to come down, eventually replacing mechanical drives as they become cheaper.

Quickly, there will be no wires on devices.

Soon, there will be no privacy.

Eventually, there will be an Enternet that allows the privacy of only people you know seeing what you enter.

Full circle. Writing an e-letter.

(My time machine screeches to a halt)
In the future, computers are so powerful they can design energy strategies to solve the world power demand, yet we instead wasted the bulk of mainframe space with Candy Crush, and teaching computers how to twerk.
(My time machine shudders, then disappears)

What about having a new computer system that combats crime? Perhaps a computerized body suit for police officers that would repel bullets and tracking systems to find criminals faster? Also cloaking devices? What about newspapers where you don’t have to turn the pages anymore?

Computers have their limits. Tracking systems rely on sensors more than they rely on the computers that process the signals from their sensors. And cloaking systems rely more on sensor and material technology than on computer technology.

We already have that last one though. However, e-readers confuse people since the average person has no real clue about computers. People are unaware of how to use computers, or their capabilities. Some buy a top-tier $4000 gaming PC to run Facebook and Youtube, while people like my father-in-law cannot figure out why the 8088 he pulled from the dump 20 years ago cannot read DVDs or his handwriting.

The one upgrade I think will need is to upgrade society to one that is educated, mentally flexible/adaptable, and otherwise ready for the late-20th-century. Many parts of the world have that already, but the US with our lackluster education and egotistical insistence that the world adapt to us, we will continue to fall behind technologically simply because the rest of the world is capable of advancement but we refuse to adapt.

Brain chips connected to neurons.

Well… now computers use boolean binary, that is only1’s and 0’s. Ignoring quantum computing for a second, what if computers can evolve to using base 5 or 10? That would have profound implications on speed and storage. Quantum computing allows (in theory) multiple streams of computing at the same time! That would be cool. And fast.

@herculies An intermediate step will likely be optical. Why go with 01 when you can go ROYGBIV? Hell, even RGB would allow for trinary operation.

@jerv We use RGB for data retrieval. We have the math for the quantum computer… one of the few times the math is more advanced than the physics. Quantum is light anyway. I believe quantum computing will have needs that can only be answered by optical computing, we iust don’t what those needs are. As it is, optical computing is too theoretical for mathematicians to decipher and send to the engineers.

@herculies…for now.

@jerv You’re so right. What exciting times we live eh? The issue of the quantum is beyond us. Einsteins’ Quantum theory and theory of Special Relativity have survived every attempt to discredit them (millions of times over.) Separately. Than Steven Hawkings’ gave us the Hawkings’ Radiation theory, his math is also correct. Both of Einsteins’ theory are correct we are sure of it. At the quantum level if one is correct the other is incorrect. When you do one first, the other is incorrect.

How can this be?
Remember the theories are real cosmological events we observe in the universe. In short, the duality of the quantum (waves or photon beams) is beyond mans’ understanding. Ok maybe just this man.

@herculies That’s why I drink.

@jerv Did you really read all that stuff I wrote? Does anybody?

@herculies Yes, and the paradox of correct but conflicting theories is enough to need a drink to handle the brain cramp from trying to resolve it.

X = A
X = B
A ≠ B

If this were pure math, one could just say, “X has multiple values.”.

Substitute Reality for X though, and things get deep. Are there multiple realities, or merely one incomprehensible one? Either we get into the implications of multiple values for reality, or are forced to discard what we think we know about existence.