How will computing look in 50 years? 100 years?

[phrostbyte]

Will Windows be around? Will Linux be around? Will GNU and the FSF still exist?

What do you think?

[Warren Watts]

Look at the LAST 50 years.... how much computer technology from 1957 is still around? NONE.

IBM is abut the only company still around from 50 years ago, and there certainly isn't any of their 1950's technology still in place...

So I think that MS may survive 50 years from now, but it won't be the same company, much in the same way IBM isn't the company they were 50 years ago.

As for the Open Source world, who knows? Perhaps 50 years from now, Open Source will be the standard, and MS will have been forced to adopt Open Source. (We can hope, right?)

As for 100 years from now? I won't even try and speculate.

[Ultra Magnus]

http://www.webmilhouse.com/wordpress/wp-content/HomeComputer.jpg

Something like this probably...

[Warren Watts]

What in the hell is that big wheel for?!?!?

It's a computer, not a submarine!

[Ultra Magnus]

What in the hell is that big wheel for?!?!?

It's a computer, not a submarine!

Thats the hand crank for incase windows fails to boot...

[phrostbyte]

I think people will have computers implanted in their brains. I also think display technology will get as cheap as paper, and a lot of the stuff from Minority Report (like the newspapers and cereal boxes) will exist.

[Darth Trix]

That looks like something out of Professor Frink's laboratory.

[phrostbyte]

http://www.webmilhouse.com/wordpress/wp-content/HomeComputer.jpg

Something like this probably...

Well it's 2007, where do I buy this futuristic home computer. :(

[izanbardprince]

I think Quantum computing will be the new standard, CPU's will be ten's of thousands of times more powerful than they are now, something on the order of a couple exabytes of RAM, and storage devices capable of petabytes of space.

In 50 years.

[GStubbs43]

What in the hell is that big wheel for?!?!?

It's a computer, not a submarine!



Actually (http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/hoaxes/computer.asp), the picture is a submarine...

[Warren Watts]

Actually, the picture is a submarine...
http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/graphics/rand2_small.jpg

It was just an off the cuff remark, but it's cool that I was right....:lolflag:

[Lord Illidan]

I'm not making any guesses. I doubt that 20 years ago we knew what we would be getting into..let alone 50 years ago. Hell even my schoolbooks are outtdated.

[Arwen]

+1 for Quantum computing,it will increase speed of cpu very much and surely change computers as we know them today and they probably will replace TV and phone(xDSL ;-))

(Imagine overclocking a quantum computer?:-P:-P:-P)

[monsieurdozier]

In 50 years, computers will no longer run on electricity. Can we envision a light powered computer?

"The New Intel C Processor. Computing at the speed of light." :KS

[Swarms]

We will have such a big amount of power that people don't talk about specs anymore, it is just about moving enough energy to do a task.

We place our whole life online, we don't restrict ourselves to psysical media, like blue ray or other discs, so we can access it everywhere in the world when we want it.

We carry our identity digitally, with a tiny chip (like the Rfid) inserted somewhere in the body which you use for ID, paying your groceries, using as key at your home etc.

[jgrabham]

We carry our identity digitally, with a tiny chip (like the Rfid) inserted somewhere in the body which you use for ID, paying your groceries, using as key at your home etc.

Who's been watching the zeitgeist movie then?

:D

[Dr. C]

Actually the keyboard in the picture is fundamentally the same as today, and I suspect 50 years from now people will still use a QWERTY keyboard. It has already survived well over 100 years so why not give it another 100?

The rest is pure speculation, but I will try some guesses

IBM will still be around and their primary customers will be big business and big government. This has also not changed for over 100 years. The technology will change but the business model will not.

*nix OS will still be around, it will be possible to use a terminal if you have root and the ls command will do the same thing as today.

Free (as in speech) software will be around if not the dominant form of software.

Microsoft I am not so sure. It had 15 years of growth followed by 8 years of stagnation. The innovation and vision is just no longer there. Take DRM for example. No body wants this and they invest billions?

The FSF will very likely be around. They actually have a strong pulse on what people actually want, and are more often than not ahead of their time. Again the DRM example.

[smoker]

hmm, just back from 50 years in the future... they're still waiting on xp sp3, and the vista replacement has been postponed again, lol

[beercz]

IBM is abut the only company still around from 50 years ago, and there certainly isn't any of their 1950's technology still in place...

I'm not sure, but wasn't HP around in the 50s too? Someone enlighten me please.

As to computing in 50/100 years time - I have no idea what it will look like, but I don't think I will be around to see it!

[RaiD_5]

Will Windows be around? yes, but alot more taxing on hardware and more GUI (as seen with vista)

Will Linux be around? yes, i think one day a distro will go market and be well-known and used (MAC will die)

Will GNU and the FSF still exist? yes, maybe under different names though

What do you think? ^

[Lord Illidan]

I'm not sure, but wasn't HP around in the 50s too? Someone enlighten me please.

As to computing in 50/100 years time - I have no idea what it will look like, but I don't think I will be around to see it!

Yep in 1939 to be precise. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hewlett_Packard


We carry our identity digitally, with a tiny chip (like the Rfid) inserted somewhere in the body which you use for ID, paying your groceries, using as key at your home etc.

How barbaric, imho. And what a potential invasion of privacy that could be...and a digital trail everywhere.

[dhughes]

Older computers are a lot more durable than people than people think, look at banks and large institutions still using old Unix mainframe computers! It's more about having to change what is working than it is using the latest greatest computer.Stability is good, change is bad.

As for the actual hardware and OS of a future computer, with materials science making new stuff all the time such as nano-whatever it's hard to say.

I'm guessing they'll probably be diamond based in some way since it's so easy to make diamonds these days, more than likely light or quantum based CPUs and circuitry. Heat and circuit size will be a tough area to crack.

Windows, Mac and Linux all seem to be heading in the same direction - or should I say Linux/BSD has, Mac followed with OS X and Microsoft seems to be warming to Open Source Software (do they have a choice?). Maybe if all operating systems are similar and people concentrate on the same OS it will become very stable and have many great features.

I can see storage and memory merge somehow, instead of being separate. Maybe RAM and hard drives, which seem to be heading towards solid state rather than spinning disks, will become the same type of device (some sort of memory unit) and may even be combined into the same device since it's the same thing.

I find when people try and guess the future they tend to over guess and what they think will happen usually takes much longer. We don't have flying cars but we do have mobile phones. We aren't living on the Moon but we do have private space corporations getting ready to take off.

To be accurate make a guess and double the time, I don't think we'll be too advanced computer-wise in only fifty years anymore than we are today other than storage technology which seems to always grow.

Sticky this post so in fifty years we can all compare notes. If any of us are still alive! Hi grandkids!

[thisllub]

I don't know about 50 years but somewhere along the way and sometime soon your PC will be credit card sized and never leave your wallet. It will talk to a screen, keyboard and the internet without wires.

[Ultra Magnus]

Sticky this post so in fifty years we can all compare notes. If any of us are still alive! Hi grandkids!

It will probably make for humerous reading, if history has taught us anything its that its almost impossible to imagine how far we will have progressed in the far future, and its likely that we'll all sound like that IBM guy that said that there is possible a world market for 5 computers!

As for my prediction - After vista, people will get so pissed off about the massive hard ware requirements that everything will revert to CLI - Apple will start an orchard - computers will be edible (to solve the problem of disposing of all the old computers every year) and we will be using house hold pets as input devices instead of keyboards etc (Like a recent microsoft patent) http://www.gizmag.com/go/2926/

[GFree678]

Let's see... a typical day years into the future...

I'll go and sit down at my terminal, type in my "GatesLock (TM)" ID to provide access to my Windows workstation (since Linux will have been deemed illegal by now - easy when Microsoft owns all the Governments of the word and can ban the use of Linux under threat of death by impalement).

Next I'd probably open up Internet Explorer 47, run an encrypted proxy tunneler (normally illegal to do, but I've modded the hardware in my terminal as best as possible to circumvent the restrictions), to allow me access to the last remaining Linux forum available in the Internet Underground - ubuntuforums.org. There we will be able to reminisce what life was like without legally-mandated DRM on all CPUs which prevent "unauthorized" software running on them (such as Linux and home-built code).

Of course, running such a tunneler starts a trace, so no longer than 5 minutes connected to the forums at a time, or we'd never be seen again - not that it matters today however. Eventually I'd disconnect, get up, plead my allegiance to Gates (that's the only way to lock a computer these days)... and go kill myself.

Unfortunately, due to the world's shortage of plastics (there's no oil anymore, hence no plastics), my body will be recycled to form another WIndows workstation.

:popcorn:

EDIT: I'm not being serious here. I'm not that cynical, yet. :)

[triptoe]

you won't be able to see it :)

[Swarms]

Who's been watching the zeitgeist movie then?

:D

Nope, but I've heard the album. ;)




How barbaric, imho. And what a potential invasion of privacy that could be...and a digital trail everywhere.

Maybe, but our borders of ethics will move like they have always done, forward and back, and we will think of it as a perfectly sane thing to do.

50 years ago, people never would have imagined us sharing our deepest feelings with blogs, uploading our personal photos etc.

[NET WT]

Who knows how computing will look? Maybe in a hundred years the cheapest and most powerful computers will be mostly biological.

[ablaze]

I guess in 50 years from mow will will probably be able to communicate with almost everything that is artificially created, say refrigerators, cars, houses, desks, TVs etc. They will all have the ability to connect to and get information from the internet. E.g., you will be able to ask your sofa to get you some food.

Next to the immovable things, there will be robots that will help you through your day, doing all the stuff that we take care of today, like mowing, shopping etc. They will be able to communicate with you in a basic way.

In 100 years from now, humans will not be the same as today, as we will have changed due to genetic tinkering. Computing won't be something humans will do. We will concentrate on creative work, like poetry, music, and woodwork.

[Bou]

I just wanted to say hi to all the kids who must be reading this thread in 2057 and laughing at how naive we early century folks were.

Hi kids!

[BrokeBody]

I just wanted to say hi to all the kids who must be reading this thread in 2057 and laughing at how naive we early century folks were.

Hi kids!

:lolflag:

[stimpack]

I don't think computers will exist in 100years, we will live in a Luddite religious society. Technology will be seen as evil, using a 07' vintage calculator would get you executed.

[popch]

I'm not all that sure that 'computing' will be a recognizable term by that time. No, I do not think that we all will revert to the cave or the tree, although that could happen as well.

How often have you heard 'motoring' in the sense of 'using a motor', lately? There are now so many objects containing motors that we just take the things for granted. Fan blower, pencil sharpener (for those who still know what a pencil used to be, and why they had to be sharper than their users), kitchen appliances, fridges, photographic cameras, shaver, and on and on. Happy motoring.

I think computers will be present in most appliances, there might be a few new appliances we haven't thought of before, but no one will give a thought to the fact that they contain 'computers'.

[Pinnocchio]

Certainly voice, perhaps even bio interfaces.

The new IntAmd WinUx PC with a 2 Petaflop Processor and 1 Petabyte of on board Solid State Data (automatically kept synced to the rest of the global net with the Real Time (tm) T3 anywhere/anytime wifi connection) can be supplied in any of the following form factors.

Built into your glasses
In a Pen
Bio insert of your choice

and for the more retro amongst our customers we can supply it as an old style Blue Tooth lookalike unit.

The system runs for a guaranteed 365 days on one charge and the on Kinetic recharge system ensures that the battery is constantly recharged.

Built in Miranda (tm) AI ensures the system is always geared towards your needs and maximises your time and energy most effectively.

[Pinnocchio]

Older computers are a lot more durable than people than people think, look at banks and large institutions still using old Unix mainframe computers! It's more about having to change what is working than it is using the latest greatest computer.Stability is good, change is bad.

As for the actual hardware and OS of a future computer, with materials science making new stuff all the time such as nano-whatever it's hard to say.

I'm guessing they'll probably be diamond based in some way since it's so easy to make diamonds these days, more than likely light or quantum based CPUs and circuitry. Heat and circuit size will be a tough area to crack.

Windows, Mac and Linux all seem to be heading in the same direction - or should I say Linux/BSD has, Mac followed with OS X and Microsoft seems to be warming to Open Source Software (do they have a choice?). Maybe if all operating systems are similar and people concentrate on the same OS it will become very stable and have many great features.

I can see storage and memory merge somehow, instead of being separate. Maybe RAM and hard drives, which seem to be heading towards solid state rather than spinning disks, will become the same type of device (some sort of memory unit) and may even be combined into the same device since it's the same thing.

I find when people try and guess the future they tend to over guess and what they think will happen usually takes much longer. We don't have flying cars but we do have mobile phones. We aren't living on the Moon but we do have private space corporations getting ready to take off.

To be accurate make a guess and double the time, I don't think we'll be too advanced computer-wise in only fifty years anymore than we are today other than storage technology which seems to always grow.

Sticky this post so in fifty years we can all compare notes. If any of us are still alive! Hi grandkids!

You'd be surprised how quickly now banks relegate kit.....

Over the last 10 years the banks have started a rapid move to PC based solutions and within the last 3-4 years have started to dump their mainframe/mini solutions (which really were geared towards large batch job applications) to data centre distributed solutions.

As an example I built a major trading floor (over 2000 PC's) for a very well known bank in London in 1996, since then the whole floor has effectively been rebuilt two and a half times (and we've gone through over 7000 PC's in total). The upgrade cycle is now a rolling program with an expectation that every machine will be replaced every 2.5 years. Most of the time these machines are not run at anything like their full potential (power wise) however we've got about 40 machines that are 'special cases' where they are calculating arbitrage trades in real time and need the latest fastest setups to maximise the opportunities (we worked out one day that on average one of those machines pays for itself about 17 seconds after going live!!).

I just finished a project for a financial organisation in London that are going to get rid of 10 IBM Mini's and replace them with Dual Clovertown boxes (8 processor cores), they save nearly $1.2m per year in reduced running costs and reduced data centre space.

The market's changing pretty fast and Mainframe/Mini's are becoming increasingly specialised in what they can offer that a high end PC solution can't.

[lepz]

Such a lot of optimists, I think in 100 years time the main worry will be on how to survive, providing anyone is still around. Sticks head back in sand.

[rharriso]

You should read either on of Ray Kurzwiel's newer books Age of the Spiritual Machines (1999) or The Singularity is Near (2005). He's been at the forfront of AI for decades now, and in these books he discusses the future of computers, as he sees it. There is some very bazaar and interesting ideas in there.

[jonathonblake]

I see four possible futures.
(Listed in order of probability.)

a) Computer usage will be restricted to people who pass the sheeple test. Anybody who fails that test, and uses a computer will be tried for treason.

b) Climate change, along with similar man made disasters will have reduced the global technological level to approximately that of medieval China.

c) The planet will have been destroyed as a result of state sponsored terrorism by the first country to be declared a terrorist state twice by the United Nations;

d) Computers and people will be Libre.

Computer output will be speech, visual, or kinesthetic, depending upon input context.
( Time frame: 50 years on the outside. 25 years on the inside.)

Print output will be viewed as a quaint practice from the previous century. (Time frame: 10 years on the inside. 25 years on the outside.)

Speech input will be the standard form of data input/computer control. Multi-button 3-D input devices will be the backup mode. Keyboards will be retained only for specialized data input needs. (Most computers will have neither a keyboard hookup, nor a 3-D device input connection.)
(Time frame:
Speech input: 25 years on the inside. 50 on the outside. (This was set back at least 20 years by Microsoft.)
multi-button 3-D input. 25 years on the outside. 10 years on the inside.)

Source code will be available, and distributed for all software.
* Closed source software will be viewed with extreme suspicion.
* Software as a service will be viewed as a failed business model;
(Time frame: 25 years inside. 75 years outside.)

Your OS will require 2 Terrabytes (2060)
Your OS will require 7 Petabytes (2110)
Remember to allow for at least ten times that much space for your applications.

Standard non-volatile storage will be:
1 terabyte in 2010
1 exabyte in 2060
1 yatobyte in 2110

Devices that contain CPU units will be roughly the size of current mass market paperbacks. Most people will carry around a device similar to a current USB stick, that contains their "personal" data, that can be plugged into any CPU equipped device, with few or no interoperability issues. ("Plugged in' does not mean that a physical cable is required. )

xan

jonathon

[FuturePilot]

http://www.webmilhouse.com/wordpress/wp-content/HomeComputer.jpg

Something like this probably...


What in the hell is that big wheel for?!?!?

It's a computer, not a submarine!

Lol!:lolflag:
That looks more like a step backwards.
I'm not even going to guess. Nobody 50 years ago would have ever thought that one day you could make a phone call from anywhere, not to mention carry a phone with you anywhere.

[luckyd]

Let's see... a typical day years into the future...

I'll go and sit down at my terminal, type in my "GatesLock (TM)" ID to provide access to my Windows workstation (since Linux will have been deemed illegal by now - easy when Microsoft owns all the Governments of the word and can ban the use of Linux under threat of death by impalement).

Next I'd probably open up Internet Explorer 47, run an encrypted proxy tunneler (normally illegal to do, but I've modded the hardware in my terminal as best as possible to circumvent the restrictions), to allow me access to the last remaining Linux forum available in the Internet Underground - ubuntuforums.org. There we will be able to reminisce what life was like without legally-mandated DRM on all CPUs which prevent "unauthorized" software running on them (such as Linux and home-built code).

Of course, running such a tunneler starts a trace, so no longer than 5 minutes connected to the forums at a time, or we'd never be seen again - not that it matters today however. Eventually I'd disconnect, get up, plead my allegiance to Gates (that's the only way to lock a computer these days)... and go kill myself.

Unfortunately, due to the world's shortage of plastics (there's no oil anymore, hence no plastics), my body will be recycled to form another WIndows workstation.

:popcorn:

EDIT: I'm not being serious here. I'm not that cynical, yet. :)

omg its started http://bbspot.com/News/2000/5/MS_Linux_delay.html

lol kernel 2.4

[steven8]

Actually (http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/hoaxes/computer.asp), the picture is a submarine...

Crap. I was going to build my own, now what am I supposed to do with this big hand wheel I bought? :confused:

[jonathonblake]

Nobody 50 years ago would have ever thought that one day you could make a phone call from anywhere, not to mention carry a phone with you anywhere.

a) 50 years ago would have been 1957. The year of Sputnik. I don't remember if that was the one that played "The East is Red", or not. A song that could be heard worldwide, if you knew where and when to tune your radio to it.

b) The first mobile phone was leased by AT&T in the early fifties. If you were willing to pay for it, it was available for pretty much every LATA within the US.

c) One of the quatrains from Nostradamus has been interpreted to mean that cell phones were used to call from England to France, by people with waves breaking over their feet.

d) Arthur C Clarke (I think) wrote a short story in the forties about communication satellites. The implication was the people would use them for both personal, and mass communication.

xan

jonathon

[ezsit]

Computers 50 or 100 years from now will look nothing like computers of today. The computer of the future will be housed inside the human body and run on bio fuel from our own bodies. future computers will made entirely of bio-engineered materials. Our imagination will be the display system, thought will be the primary input mechanism, and networking between all people will be mandatory.

Data storage will be a combination of internal and external networked storage to maintain personal and public memory and knowledge. In the event of memory loss, people will be able to download and reboot themselves to restore their memory and personality. Microsoft will control the population, culture, private and public memory and the entirety of human knowledge and experience.

[handy]

There is quite a chance that there won't be many people who can afford to run a computer in the post oil crash future, apart from the military & the puppeteers.

Purchasing a computer will be very expensive due to the price of oil, & the fact that so few people will have paying jobs. Possibly you will require a security clearance to own or use one.

There may very well be the elite rich living in their secure compound & the other 99% of the worlds population scraping out a living off what's left over.

For most, telecommunications, internet & mains electricity will be a thing of the past.

Many will join the military, due to it being the only job they can get.

Survival will become the new hobby.

[Kzap333]

Okay I don't know if this has been said but... looking into the future...
Windows will be reduced to not much more than a gaming consuol you buy it install it on you're PC and you can play games on it.
Ubuntu (or another Linux) will be sanderd and gamers will use Windows.
Then someone will figure out why use Windows and bring out game 'straight for the PC no Windows needed' and Windows will probly fall.
Okay Linux may not be called Linux nor Windows, Windows. But I'm pritty sure thats what will happen.
As for what they look like I think coputers will devserfi (parden my spelling) and you will have Laptops, Pocket PCs and wrist PCs, I don't think you will have a main brick of a computer as even now I can see mine looking old and 80's. The largest thing you will be able to get (that is a PC not a mainframe or super PC like they use for doing CG in Holiwood) is a laptop.

[Kzap333]

There is quite a chance that there won't be many people who can afford to run a computer in the post oil crash future, apart from the military & the puppeteers.

Purchasing a computer will be very expensive due to the price of oil, & the fact that so few people will have paying jobs. Possibly you will require a security clearance to own or use one.

There may very well be the elite rich living in their secure compound & the other 99% of the worlds population scraping out a living off what's left over.

For most, telecommunications, internet & mains electricity will be a thing of the past.

Many will join the military, due to it being the only job they can get.

Survival will become the new hobby.
That's very dark thank you for that handy but I hopt it will be a future more like today. I think stuff like that is just for films and more linier than Today it will take atleast 100 years for the world to get like that and then hopefully I'll be dead.

[Kzap333]

Computers 50 or 100 years from now will look nothing like computers of today. The computer of the future will be housed inside the human body and run on bio fuel from our own bodies. future computers will made entirely of bio-engineered materials. Our imagination will be the display system, thought will be the primary input mechanism, and networking between all people will be mandatory.

Data storage will be a combination of internal and external networked storage to maintain personal and public memory and knowledge. In the event of memory loss, people will be able to download and reboot themselves to restore their memory and personality. Microsoft will control the population, culture, private and public memory and the entirety of human knowledge and experience.
That's quit dark to if that happens I thik I'll just stick with the good old phsycal computer.
Although that would be a great idea for a film like gataga (or how ever you spell it).
:popcorn:

[Kzap333]

Crap. I was going to build my own, now what am I supposed to do with this big hand wheel I bought? :confused:
How aboout you build a sub and fly to the moon.

[stinger30au]

i have no doubt that M/S will still be here...

maybe they would have changed the colour of blue and gone for pink screens of death.... no doubt they will still be happening.

M/S is no longer top dog of the desktop arena as Linux is going very strong. instead of the linux camp breaking up in to smaller and smaller segments, they decided to unite and stand behind the most 16 commonly used flavors of linux, and they have now got a 45% share of the desktop arena against M/S

[Kzap333]

i have no doubt that M/S will still be here...

maybe they would have changed the colour of blue and gone for pink screens of death.... no doubt they will still be happening.

M/S is no longer top dog of the desktop arena as Linux is going very strong. instead of the linux camp breaking up in to smaller and smaller segments, they decided to unite and stand behind the most 16 commonly used flavors of linux, and they have now got a 45% share of the desktop arena against M/S
Did you know ever sence computer have had colur screen Microsoft have had the blue screen of death.

[popch]

Did you know ever sence computer have had colur screen Microsoft have had the blue screen of death.

I have also seen black screens of death on color screens.

[Swarms]

There is quite a chance that there won't be many people who can afford to run a computer in the post oil crash future, apart from the military & the puppeteers.

Purchasing a computer will be very expensive due to the price of oil, & the fact that so few people will have paying jobs. Possibly you will require a security clearance to own or use one.

There may very well be the elite rich living in their secure compound & the other 99% of the worlds population scraping out a living off what's left over.

For most, telecommunications, internet & mains electricity will be a thing of the past.

Many will join the military, due to it being the only job they can get.

Survival will become the new hobby.

Haha, you sound like an apocalyptic priest.

Yeah we will run out of oil, though we will find alternatives and making computers more efficient, is a big topic too.

[lepz]

Haha, you sound like an apocalyptic priest.

Yeah we will run out of oil, though we will find alternatives and making computers more efficient, is a big topic too.

Yeah and we will find cures for all known illnesses,climate change just suddenly goes away, we put an end to poverty and all nations will live in peace and harmony with each other. Not sure what your smoking but I wouldn't mind some. :lolflag:

[popch]

Haha, you sound like an apocalyptic priest.

Yeah we will run out of oil, though we will find alternatives and making computers more efficient, is a big topic too.

I don't care about running out of oil. My laptop runs on wood or coal, anyway.

[phrostbyte]

You know what hasn't changed for 2000 years? People predicting the end of world (usually within their lifetime).

[@trophy]

I don't care about running out of oil. My laptop runs on wood or coal, anyway.

LOL spoken like a true American. Maybe we can produce a couple of baby-seal fired power plants as well! Those renewable resources just aren't as profitable as the other kind. :lolflag:

[mips]

That's very dark thank you for that handy but I hopt it will be a future more like today. I think stuff like that is just for films and more linier than Today it will take atleast 100 years for the world to get like that and then hopefully I'll be dead.

The future is going to get worse. I'm kinda glad I live in Africa as there still some hope for us compared to the 1st world.

[@trophy]

The future is going to get worse. I'm kinda glad I live in Africa as there still some hope for us compared to the 1st world.

Yeah, people even look at me funny if they find out I know how to make a fire without matches or a lighter... there's gonna be a lot of automatons out there in some seriously big trouble when the electricity starts to go out more often than it's on.

[Swarms]

Yeah and we will find cures for all known illnesses,climate change just suddenly goes away, we put an end to poverty and all nations will live in peace and harmony with each other. Not sure what your smoking but I wouldn't mind some. :lolflag:

Never said that but the response was kinda stupid, like when we would run out of oil and we would just go and bash our heads against a wall, only rats beats us in adapting to environmental changes.

We will figure something out, drain some other planets etc.

[lepz]

............

[~~Tito~~]

I think people will have computers implanted in their brains. I also think display technology will get as cheap as paper, and a lot of the stuff from Minority Report (like the newspapers and cereal boxes) will exist.

Like that Anime show called, Crap I forgot it but its really cool.

[mips]

Yeah, people even look at me funny if they find out I know how to make a fire without matches or a lighter... there's gonna be a lot of automatons out there in some seriously big trouble when the electricity starts to go out more often than it's on.

I dunno where you from but I kinda agree.

I can get my nutrition from the earth with no hassles. Medicine would be a bit harder but I'm sure I would cope as I have found some novel plants lately.

Only hassle is my country is seriously aiming to go nuclear power which is BAD.

All in all I could easily survive off the land & sea. Something which I can't see the rest of the 1st world oing. I recall some marine in survivor trying to cact fish in the sea with earth worms, what a wanker ;)

[Darkhack]

Microsoft will still be around but I don't think Windows will unless MS will completely scrap everything they have (including NT) and start from scratch. I think we can except to see more television and journalism ownership out of MS since they already own MSNBC. They may even do something like Pixar for movies and I predict MS will still be in the gaming business but it will be console focused.

Linux will still be around. Probably version 2.6.350 since it seems like the 2.6 branch is here to stay. Ubuntu, possibly around, but distributions aren't like other operating systems. They come and go much quicker since they are only "yet another Linux" rather than a whole new OS. The Torvald's girls will be grown up. I wonder if they'll be hot. Hehe... Linus is going to slap me around with a big fish (then feed it to Tux) for saying that if he ever reads this.

Hopefully the next generation will come to their senses and scrap C++, Java, and the x86 architecture. I know this is flamebait material, but man do I hate those things.

Artificial intelligence will be used more often. It won't be advanced enough to be able to understand English except for simple phrases or maybe even a spoken word form of an SQL like language. Computers will either fix themselves or when an error dialog comes up it will have a "Fix" option rather than just OK/Cancel that will allow the computer to solve the problem. It won't work with everything obviously, but computers will be able to detect suspicious behavior from programs and data coming from the outside rather than just solid rules like we have with firewalls today.

ID chips will be built into our hands. It will be our credit card and allow for keyless entry into homes and vehicles. Other forms of computers and microchips will be implanted into humans but only on a needed basis. The ID chip probably won't be implanted until age 18 in 2057, but by 2107, it will be accepted enough that people won't have as many moral issues about implanting them in babies after being born.

More bio-technology obviously. I'm not in the medial field so I won't speculate. I don't even know the stuff they can do now.

LCD displays will become cheap enough that you will see them in more places than you do now. For example you might see a Microsoft Surface type table used when ordering food at a fancy restaurant.

More voice activation. They won't be able to understand complex English sentences, but simple phrases will work and they will be able to compensate for people with accents if they are speaking their non-native language. Say you're shopping at Wal-Mart, you see a device with an LCD screen and you say "where is iPod" and it brings up a map on the display of where it is located in the store.

Robotic devices will mow our yards and vacuum our house. I know we have this kind of stuff now but it will be more sophisticated and more commonplace.

Clothes will be stain-proof. We have some of this now, but all clothes will eventually be like this. They might even develop a fabric that doesn't trap oders or body sweat so that clothes can be worn for several days in a row before needing to be washed. They will include sensors to monitor heart rate and such for athletes or to alert medical professionals if assistance is needed when old people (like I will be myself in 2050) suffer from panic/heart attacks or strokes.

Batteries will last longer, charge quicker, and be smaller.

Television will be on-demand. Pay-per-view will still exist for new movie releases but your standard half-hour TV shows will be free with the cost of cable and you will be able to watch any episode of any TV show anytime you want. Why bother to Tivo stuff when everything you watch is already provided on-demand?

I know the flying car is cliché, but I believe it will happen. No one person will own one (except maybe the rich) but sky-buses will be used daily to commute around heavy traffic areas as well as for emergency services and rescues. Most of these will be automated and nearly all road cars will be self driving. It will also make transportation more efficient as cars can figure out the shortest route, detect traffic and time stoplights better.

Space tourism will exist but I don't think it will be as prevalent as others make it seem. It will mostly be a zero-gravity cruise. Maybe a trip to the moon. They'll probably build a museum on it. Mars is too far away for anything practical. I doubt any man will ever walk on it.

Quantum or light computing. We will be able to keep up with Moore's Law. If you calculate it out and assume that Moore's Law holds true...


Year..........2021....................2041
CPU..........10 Thz..................10 Phz
HD.............1 PB......................1 EB
RAM...........1 TB......................1 PB


Think about it. We are just 14 years away from having a terabyte of RAM. And for those that aren't familiar with those higher value symbol names...



1 Terabyte / Terahertz (TB / Thz) = 1000 GB / Ghz
1 Petabyte / Petahertz (PB / Phz) = 1000 TB / Thz = 1 million GB / Ghz
1 Exabyte / Exahertz (EB / Ehz) = 1000 PB / Phz = 1 billion GB / Ghz

I can hardly wait for my future computer. ^_^

[goumples]

I think the keyboard and mouse will be obsolete in the future, as touchscreen and voice recognition will be spot on 100 years from now. No more carpal tunnel for meh!

[happysmileman]

I think that computers will be super fast, possibly quantum or making use of lasers, but they will also be used for pretty much everything.

I expect that TVs, Radio(if it still exists), Phones, maybe games consoles will all be a function of the computer.

They will be much faster and have a lot more bandwidth available, but if it does turn out that TV, phone etc.. Are run by computers I think we will have the same problem we have today... One home computer that, despite being incredibly fast, is slowed down by lots of processes and having to stream TV to 2 or 3 screens at once.

So people in the future will still be waiting for upgrades like we are now

[ry4n]

To see the future, you must look at the past

This is a rough timeline of what apple has done in the past 30 years with the personal computer.

from this i would think it would be easier to figure out where we will go

The apple II 1977
Speed 1 MHz
RAM 4K to 48K
ROM 12K

Macintosh II 1987
CPU: 16 MHz
ls ROM: 256 KB
RAM: 1 MB, normally expandable to 20 MB
power Macintosh g3 1997
CPU performance
300 MHz: 9.85 BYTEmark, 926 MacBench 5
350 MHz: 11.51 BYTEmark, 1144 MacBench 5
400 MHz: 13.31 BYTEmark, 1323 MacBench 5
450 MHz: 1484 MacBench 5 RAM: 64 MB or 128 MB standard, expandable to 1 GB using PC100 SDRAM


mac pro 2007
CPU Two 3.0GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
Ram 16GB (8 x 2GB)



p.s. I don't even own a mac it was just easier to figure out for apple

[handy]

Haha, you sound like an apocalyptic priest.

Yeah we will run out of oil, though we will find alternatives and making computers more efficient, is a big topic too.


Never said that but the response was kinda stupid, like when we would run out of oil and we would just go and bash our heads against a wall, only rats beats us in adapting to environmental changes.

We will figure something out, drain some other planets etc.

Many don't appreciate that our wealth is based on oil. When oil is no longer cheap our wealth becomes isolated into small super powerful groups. Those same (in many cases dynastic) groups that have been getting very wealthy for (often) many generations. These people will do whatever increases their control of the the world.

As far as space exploration is concerned, it is possible that we may have wasted our resources to a degree where that may not be possible. A lot depends on how the oil wars go; how much oil is used & wasted in this period, & whether some lunatic goes nuclear or not.

[@trophy]

We will figure something out, drain some other planets etc.


Of course! Why live sustainably in one area if we can constantly destroy one place then move to another?

[handy]

Of course! Why live sustainably in one area if we can constantly destroy one place then move to another?

Yes, we do have a tiny problem with that consume at any cost mentality...

The Universe is large enough to contain us, but we were too ravenous on our one tiny planet to even be far sighted enough to colonize the Moon!

[phaed]

You have to think outside of the box. Technology doesn't just increase exponentially. It also shifts paradigms. 50 or 100 years from now there may be entirely new substrates on which computational systems are produced. There may be no difference between RAM and ROM (like on the wetware of the brain). There's simply no way to predict what computational devices will be like.

One thing we can predict, though, is that the computational capacity of affordable, desktop machines will surpass that of the human brain within 20 years. Within 20 years after that, real artificial general intelligence will probably be possible. Then, the era of human domination on earth will be over.

[phaed]

Maybe I should post this link to give you something to think about:

http://www.saunalahti.fi/~tspro1/whycare.html

[~~Tito~~]

Ah, now I remember that anime show, its called Ghost In Shell. If anyone watches it here, whether on [adult_swim] or on an anime channel, then you would think thats how it would be like but with less fighting and murders XD. That is a very great concept that they made in that show and pretty cool if you ask me, prosthetic bodies, downloading brains, hacking people's minds, pretty awesome.

[RAV TUX]

Will Windows be around? Will Linux be around? Will GNU and the FSF still exist?

What do you think?The Desktop and Laptops as we know it will be extinct and unnecessary. The OS as we know it will be obsolete.

[edd07]

We'll have neural implants in our brains that allow us to store stuff un our memory like USB sticks! Well, maybe not in 100 years, but i think (hope) that will happen eventually.
The Holy Grail of installing Linux on our brains is getting closer...

[eph1973]

In 100 years, computers will look like this:
http://www.greenash.net.au/sites/default/files/images/matrix_agents_shooting.jpg

[icechen1]

Yeah, people even look at me funny if they find out I know how to make a fire without matches or a lighter... there's gonna be a lot of automatons out there in some seriously big trouble when the electricity starts to go out more often than it's on.

heard this : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microwave_power_transmission ?

[ExSuSEusr]

Thats the hand crank for incase windows fails to boot...

:lolflag:

[karellen]

http://www.webmilhouse.com/wordpress/wp-content/HomeComputer.jpg

Something like this probably...

thanks for the image :)

[sivakumarpondy]

Now days Computer Technology Grown rapidly.

Hardware in 50 - 100 years?

First we discuss about Hardware, a part of computer.
Now days size of hardware reduced, but performance increasing.
after 50-100 years a nano computing devices are used.
they are very small in size.

Software in 50 -100 years?
Today open source is best method to develop a knowledge base softwares. These software developed around the world. there is lot of contributions and idea. The deep stage of software is artificial intelligence this is big module. open source people develop this and computer behaves like a human. at that time we have a lot of AI Slaves
it develop society more....

thanks
sivakk2007@dataone.in (mailto://sivakk2007@dataone.in)

[eph1973]

http://www.webmilhouse.com/wordpress/wp-content/HomeComputer.jpg

Something like this probably...
Pardon the off topic here.
You know, I was in the U.S. Navy, and in my cruise book, they had some pictures depicting a similar set up in the background (the photos were of people sitting at the panels), and they had to cut the photos from everyone's cruise book because they were considered classified. It's interesting that the Navy had put a picture of it (it's just a picture of what the panels in a submarine maneuvering look like) available on a web site.

[Ebuntor]

We carry our identity digitally, with a tiny chip (like the Rfid) inserted somewhere in the body which you use for ID, paying your groceries, using as key at your home etc.


Ok, there's a terrifying idea. Sounds kinda like 1984's Big Brother. (btw you do know those RFID chips cause cancer? (http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/59295.html))

[jacksaff]

There won't be computers, merely one huge distributed system, and everyone will be plugged into it through an interface directly into their brain. Virtually limitless computing power will be on call instantly, wherever and whenever you want it, with only superhuge processing needs that require a significant portion of the whole world's available computational power being restricted. The actual processing might be done by a chip in a nearby wall, a datacentre in a neighboring city or on the other side of the world, depending on what resources were available when your brain triggered the processing request. You'll be able to see the results on any nearby surface, or through an illusion pumped straight into your optic nerve - your choice. And Duke Nuke'm Forever will be due in just a few more months...

[Kzap333]

Honstly I think now that it will be multitouch computers like Microsoft surface we just need to think what linux will offer in return.
AS for laptops I think they will be replaced with multitouch tablets.
So PCs = Big Multitouch screens
Laptops = Multitouch tablets.

[markp1989]

Computers 50 or 100 years from now will look nothing like computers of today. The computer of the future will be housed inside the human body and run on bio fuel from our own bodies. future computers will made entirely of bio-engineered materials. Our imagination will be the display system, thought will be the primary input mechanism, and networking between all people will be mandatory.

Data storage will be a combination of internal and external networked storage to maintain personal and public memory and knowledge. In the event of memory loss, people will be able to download and reboot themselves to restore their memory and personality. Microsoft will control the population, culture, private and public memory and the entirety of human knowledge and experience.

that sounds excelent, computers implanted into humans , i cant wait!!! i wont run windows on my body thou, wt if it gets a virus it could kill me

[kopinux]

it will be replaced by robotics.

and robots can emit hologram as monitor.
or connect it in your brain if you have implants.
it will be voice commands or brain command if you have implants.

robots, whether humanoid or a haro ball.
and it will run on RT-Linux.

[keisse]

Like that Anime show called, Crap I forgot it but its really cool.

you wouldn't probably mean AEON FLUX right ? :p i was always watching that on MTV i heard they made a movie out of it to :D

[zmjjmz]

Singularity.

The short story "I, Rowboat" by Cory Doctorow sums up how I see it 20 years from now.

[cardinals_fan]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/be/Slide_rule_cursor.jpg/250px-Slide_rule_cursor.jpg

[Delever]

How will computing look in 50 years? 100 years?

Let's wait and see. Because if you can't see by waiting, does it really matter? :)

[RATM_Owns]

There will be more Linux viruses than Windows viruses and `echo` will be replaced by a virus scanner.

The economy will not go up.

[phrostbyte]

Singularity.

The short story "I, Rowboat" by Cory Doctorow sums up how I see it 20 years from now.

I think technological singularity will probably take much longer. :)

But I think we could probably reach singularity in like 50 years if the entirety of humanity was focused in reaching it like it was a religion.

But I like your optimism!

[powell]

I think technological singularity will probably take much longer. :)

But I think we could probably reach singularity in like 50 years if the entirety of humanity was focused in reaching it like it was a religion.

But I like your optimism!

It IS a religion!

[phrostbyte]

It IS a religion!

Technological singularity? No, it's a state of existence. :)

[zmjjmz]

It IS a religion!

No, it's a theoretical state that can be reached within the constraints of physics.