What is next for computers?

[Puppy fam]

I am not asking like what you want your computer to do in the future. What I mean is the first computer ever made used all sorts of tubes. Now our computers use transistors. What will be next? I heard about quantum computing, does anyone understand this, or is there something else in the works? Also if there was a drastic change in the way computers operate, would Linux be able to adapt?

What do you know/think?

[-grubby]

I've heard of (and it will happen) silicon reaching it's limit so they would have to make another material for use. I've heard of DNA as that future substance

[Daveski]

There has been talk of organic components, computer that operate with light rather than electrons, quantum computing, molecular and DNA. Quantum computing seems to be the greatest shift in what is possible. Check http://www.qubit.org/

[TeaSwigger]

Well the first thing to go as far as I can really speculate right now would be the mechanical recording media, that is the hard drive. So more portable, instantaineous, etc. Linux in all likelihood will be there and kickin' despite the dominating presence of the proprietary end. I'm hazarding a guess that the basic "traditional" silicon "solid-state" etc tech will be carried through one more generation, but that's just a guess.

Once free of this mechanical aspect, having comperable substitutes in "chip" form, there would probably be the changes which lay the foundations for things such as organic and in nano scale etc, which are very sketchy to really predict yet. Integration with our bodies, unfortunately (in my opinion and in an organic not sci-fi Borg-ish way) appears to be down the road. Where Linux fits in all that is impossible to speculate, if it's even relevant. A lot really depends in how ingraned commercial (and other) control is in all that. Who can say.

[stmiller]

Optical cables, and quantum computing. Probably many, many years away.

[Frak]

I guess the next thing is to start playing with light. Nothing is faster than light, except certain other energy particles.

[p_quarles]

Where Linux fits in all that is impossible to speculate, if it's even relevant. A lot really depends in how ingraned commercial (and other) control is in all that. Who can say.
Well, if you're right about the integration of computers and organic material, then it will finally be possible to install Linux on a badger. :)

Quantum computing is a fascinating idea. I think it's still a long way off, but when it does get here, it could be a pretty crazy transition. One of the big things about quantum computing is that it's theoretically capable of quickly breaking almost any of our current encryption methods. The second a criminal gets his hands on a quantum computer, a lot of trouble could ensue.

[Frak]

Well, if you're right about the integration of computers and organic material, then it will finally be possible to install Linux on a badger. :)

Quantum computing is a fascinating idea. I think it's still a long way off, but when it does get here, it could be a pretty crazy transition. One of the big things about quantum computing is that it's theoretically capable of quickly breaking almost any of our current encryption methods. The second a criminal gets his hands on a quantum computer, a lot of trouble could ensue.
Bum bum bum.....

[Billy_McBong]

Well, if you're right about the integration of computers and organic material, then it will finally be possible to install Linux on a badger. :)
http://www.strangehorizons.com/2004/20040405/badger.shtml

im sure they will do something with light

[Adam_GUI]

In the future, you computer will be a "HUGE HONKIN' DESK!" in which you have a touch-screen. Have a bluetooth phone or a camera? Set it on the screen and drag files to and from it.

The downside? "IT'S A HUGE HONKIN' DESK!" that weighs a portable 68+ pounds! Try carting that around a college campus!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMIynrliB_g

Bring on the future!

[sp0onman]

in the near future id say that ssd will become the norm, hdd with moving parts will be phased out, whilst ssd's become cheap and large enough.

[Tundro Walker]

I agree with spoonman.

There making the jump to more solid-state components. They're exploring using crystals as storage medium, and they can hold tons of info in just a small crystal.

They're using computers to control machines to create micro-parts, and pretty soon nano-parts (which are being made in the lab, but nothing really large scale yet). They've pretty much tapped out Moore's law on fitting transistors to real-estate area of components. They're moving on to just adding more processors onto the board...more engines to the car.

I still stick with the notion that computers will decentralize...more and more "appliance" devices will fill the roll of your current computer. Folks with desktops today will eventually replace it with their portable devices that they do stuff with (phone, mp3, game player, etc...the usual), but those devices will do more, and be more robust (EG: provide better visual interaction...if they can just get the darn eye projection monitor things working good). What we use as a desktop today will turn into nothing more than a personal "server" that we dock our smaller appliances with at home for a hard-line to the internet...maybe to some storage.

We're reaching the point where technology and biology are starting to merge. I'd say in 50 years, your computer will probably have some organic components in it, and we'll all have some technical components in us. Not like "Ghost in the Shell" advanced, but getting there. Racism will probably not exist then, because Genetics will have advanced so far that you can alter your skin color, ears, tail, fur, etc (furry fans rejoice! ugh...) and biological traits by just visiting a "plastic surgeon". (Racism will go away and just get replaced with Socio-Economic stereo-typing, which is usually what folks are focusing on when they're being racist.)

In 100 years, some of our dwellings will probably not contain a toilet or kitchen, because folks will probably be able to get fitted with waste recyclers that let them survive for extended periods without food and water. I don't think these will be crude "cyber" things either...at the rate of genetic and nano advancement, I think folks will have their genes optimized and get nanos tossed in them to optimize them even further. Think "JC Denton" from Deus Ex. However, in 50 years, I think cybernetics will advance to the point where folks will actually willingly choose to get a physical limb replaced with a cybernetic one. Currently, no, but in the future, yes. And all this optimization and enhancement of the "haves" vs. the "have nots" will just make the socio-economic divide that much more noticeable and unbearable. Because, even if you have a very bright kid who's poor, rich parents can just spend money and make their dumb kid super-smart, attractive and physically superior. The poor folks, not matter how gifted, will no longer have some type of advantage to help them get out of their slump. Of course, a few wars will occur, and the poor folks will enlist, perhaps get some augmentation surgery or such, and that will give them an opportunity to even the odds. But, there will be increased cases of psychosis as folks lose their sense of identity when they can change their whole body on a whim.

But that's off subject...

I think there will be one more step before Quantum Computing becomes mainstream. Not sure what, but I think something will get explored and become main-stream, acting as an intermediate step to QC.

We're living in a very exciting time, and as much as folks grumble, Bill Gates helped make this possible.

[adam.tropics]

We're living in a very exciting time, and as much as folks grumble, Bill Gates helped make this possible.

...as did we all, by buying it!

[sp0onman]

...as did we all, by buying it!
i never bought any of his software.

[adam.tropics]

i never bought any of his software.

ah, the bank of bitTorrent!

[gn2]

Maybe the machines we know as computers are the building blocks of a new life form.

I believe that eventually something will happen that will allow computers to think and have consciousness.

They will be able to reproduce by simply building more of their kind and developing ever more powerful and efficient variants..

They will be able to travel through space because they will not need air or organic food.

I believe that the purpose of homo sapiens is to develop technology to a state when this can happen, at which point we are redundant and will become extinct.