What do you think computers will be like in ten years?

MournSanity

Diamond Member
Feb 24, 2002
3,126
0
0
I took a look at the ATi Radeon 9700 and thought of something: ATi is really gearing up for war. And I'm sure Nvidia will not stand for it. What this means for us is some serious competition, especially considering how Sis, 3dLabs, and other are getting into the graphics card war.

The same thing is happening over in the CPU camp. AMD is getting ready to unleash the clawhammer onto the world while Intel is preparing to take on all comers with Prescott.

With 3 GHz CPU's and Direct X 9 VPU's around the corner, the industry is gonna get really competitive and technology is going to advance really fast. Then I wonder what computers will be like in 10 years. I mean, imagine what they will be like. With new smaller form factor cases and tablet pc's coming out, I think the emphasis will be on size and portability.

Below is what I think computers will be like in 10 years.

I think that computer will evolve into a semi-light headset with high definition video and 3d sound built in, like a cool pair of glasses. You put it on and go. There will be a microphone where you speak to the computer and it's voice recognition softare automatically knows what to do. You tell it to "Open Quake 6 from folder Games" and it will automatically do it. You wear a glove or a ring on your index finger to control the mouse. If you want to play a FPS, you can get a "joystick" which is basically a small stick with buttons on it that relays information to the computer and moves you around in the game.

The games will be photorealistic and companies will start to focus on making games great instead of focusing on killer graphics. You can click on a Theater icon which is "floating" in 3d space that is your desktop and you can immediatly choose a movie to download and watch, for a fee or whatever.

The operating system will have to be really fast and stable, as will the hardware. The hardware will be a 2 Thz 256 bit chip with 256 gigabytes of ram. All software will now be on small SD card-like disks.

Surfing the internet will be a cool experience. Imagine looking around and seeing a bunch of browsers floating on your 3d desktop. You "touch" a chat room and you enter a 3d room with other people with photorealistic representations of themselves or characters they created all chatting with eachother in real time, with a log being kept at the top corner of the screen. All games of the future will have network play and online gaming will rule. Imagine playing wolfenstein or Quake with photorealism down to the last detail. Bliss...

Anyways I better get back to reality :p That probably won't happen but that's what I hope will. What do you think computers will be like in 10 years?
 

Fritzo

Lifer
Jan 3, 2001
41,916
2,156
126
Originally posted by: MacBaine
10 times more powerful and 100 times bigger.


[Frink]I believe that in the future, computers will be twice as powerful, ten times as large, and affordable only to the four richest kings of Europe...[/Frink]
 

RossMAN

Grand Nagus
Feb 24, 2000
78,855
355
136
10 times smaller and 100 times faster.

I want wireless everything, I'm tired of all these wires.
 

deftron

Lifer
Nov 17, 2000
10,868
1
0

Video Cards will be sold with those stickers that refridgerators have

that tell you how much power they consume...


which will be a lot


 

Kadarin

Lifer
Nov 23, 2001
44,296
16
81
Well, if Sen. Fritz Hollings (D - Disney) and the MPAA/RIAA have their way, computers will be very expensive dispensers of pre-approved DRM-enabled officially sanctioned pre-packaged entertainment. They will not be capable of any serious work, since the ability to copy bits will be severely crippled. Schemes like "Palladium" will ensure that the only content running on your PC will be Microsoft-approved, and open-source will be a thing of the past (unless you buy a Mac G-whatever, which by that time just might get around to running over 1GHZ on DDR-SDRAM, or not...)
 

Turkey

Senior member
Jan 10, 2000
839
0
0
There will be desktops, laptops, and PDAs... the biggest change will be that the "virtualization" of our world will have begun. Cameras everywhere, heat sensors, bluetooth nodes, local position sensors... for example there will be cameras everywhere in supermarkets, libraries, warehouses... you will be able to visit a terminal, query for the location of an object, and have a picture returned to you of where it is or where it was last (and the objects next to it). You will be able to determine the temp of your room, outdoors in the sun and shade, and all three of your classrooms for the day, then you can decide what coat to bring to class. You won't have to take notes if you don't want to, your presence in the classroom will be noted and the notes on the blackboard will be emailed to you, etc... there will be computers that are aware of their surroundings as well as the people in the surroundings and they will provide services to those people. It'll just be the very beginning in 10 years though. 40 years from now is when you can expect this to be mature, with all the bugs worked out.
 

kami

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
17,627
5
81
I hope they don't get micro-sized...cause there goes all the fun of building your own system. Who wants to assemble a system with a pair of tweezers?
 

Hamburgerpimp

Diamond Member
Aug 15, 2000
7,464
1
76
Think about the past ten years. Haven't got much smaller! Went from AT to ATX. Still big ass cases! Just quite a bit faster. At least in Windows.
 

Tripleshot

Elite Member
Jan 29, 2000
7,218
1
0
Wall sized gas plasma high definition digital input screens that combine VoIP and have high sensitive microphone with VOX and embedded surround sound wireless tachnology to power flat panal speakers in the room that also mask as pictures. Input to the terabyte CPU/HDD Ram sytem is completely wireless superchannel Rf combo keyboard/mouse in some wonderful new combination ergonomic design.

This will be the center point in the home, and becomes the home theater/game experience and web surfing center of the universe.

(I will be selling franchises next week. ;))
 

Calundronius

Senior member
May 19, 2002
225
0
0
Faster...and we will take their speed for granted. I'm using 2GHz to surf the web...less than 10 years ago it was 133MHz. Soon we will say, "2 GHz? How old is that damn thing?" And complain that our 2THz processers aren't fast enough, and that Toy Story-level graphics suck.

It'll be fun, though. Games will have physics so realistic that all the fun will be sucked out of them over a trillion times a second. :p
 

Freejack2

Diamond Member
Dec 31, 2000
7,751
8
81
I agree with you on a lot of stuff hypersonic5, but I think cpu technology won't be that fast. They have been talking about 64 bit processors for the consumer for ages but it won't be till late this year or early next year that a 64bit consumer processor will be available. (Yes I know high end stuff has 64 bit but that's not consumer level stuff). I think in 10 years 128bit processors will at best just starting to make their way into the home. I also think while cpu's will be in the high 100's in gigahertz I don't think they'll be even close to hitting 1Thz. I think you're right about the ram, though...In 92 I think maybe 4 - 16mb was common. Now 256mb - 1gb is common. It's only been a 64x increase which would mean 16gb to 64gb of memory. However I think things may accelerate faster than a 64x increase...
As for storage I think that mechanical hard drives will only be on very cheap systems and most systems will have multi-terabyte solid-state storage.

As for portability what you describe will definitley be the laptops of the future, but I think desktops will still be commonplace.

With the internet I think it will become a tightly controlled environment ran pretty much by corporations calling the shots.
There will be some hackers rebelling against this but they will be hunted like animals, fugitives from the law, unable to show their faces without risking arrest. When caught hackers will face jail times close to those of murderers.
Software will be controlled by palladium or whatever control systems there is. No software, music, or video will run unless the corporations allow it. Even freeware will have to be registered with the os makers or the operating system will delete it if the user tries to run it. Bypassing the protection will be nearly impossible and if a person does, it will be a felony crime.

Most areas the internet will be wireless but in rural areas it will be slow and it would be faster there to hook into a wired network.
 

Amused

Elite Member
Apr 14, 2001
56,839
17,643
146
Well, if we follow Moore's law, we'll be at 288GHz processors in ten years. That's not 2THz, but not as far away as it sounds. It will probably take about 15 years to reach 2THz.

And Moore's law (processor speed will double, on average, every 18 months) is expected to hold for at least another two decades, the last I heard, anyhow.
 
Jan 9, 2002
5,232
0
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Ten years from now according to NightFlyerGTI...

LCD screens will have flat-CRT quality and better- CRTs will be made obsolete in 2007.
AMD and Intel will still be duking it out over CPU wars, with each taking a performance 'edge' hit in 3 year swings... but with a new player now: nVidia
Optical disc drives will burn at a standard speed equal to that of 7200rpm hard drives of today (2002) for essentially instantanious burning.
- - floppy drives will no longer be supplied in OEM systems and go the way of the Dodo bird in 2004
- - CD-R/CD-RW drives fade off in 2007 with CRT screens, DVD-RAM becomes the industry standard medium for nearly all technological devices from portable players to home audio and video to computers to car audio and video.
- - DVD capacity steps up to 75GB per disc, at a cost of $.25/ea in spindle packs of 50.
Holygraphic storage reaches 1TB, and is popular in the new 26GHz Intel Xeon V. and AMD Opteron V+ systems. :D
In a shock to everyone, keyboards and mice are still in use, but voice activated dictation is seamless and very popular
ATZ form factor been the industry standard for 5 years; roughly the same size as present-day mATX motherboards.
- - computer cases based on the ATZ form factor are 25% the size of a present-day Antec SX-1030.
Advancing fiber optic technology and deployment from lower production costs and global adaptivity upon a new communications standard renders bandwidth congestion a moot point starting in 2009.
- - most new houses pre-wired with 1Gbit fiber connections at a cost of $20 per month
Color laser printers popular with consumers in the sub-$200 price range
Film cameras obsolete, as Canon releases new 21.6MP digital SLR cameras for $299.99 MSRP

Traditional land-line phones are cannibalized by cheaper, more stable and broader CD-quality cellular coverage nationwide
GPS navigation systems are options in nearly every car, most with voice command
Kit-planes made from a Lear subsidary catch on in popularity, with dealer prices starting at just $75k for a 4 passenger turbo prop.
Volkswagen A.G. becomes the world's largest automaker, surpassing General Motors and Ford, making some of the finest cars in the world.
- - average car is a four-door midsize sport sedan with a 300hp V6 starting at $29k
- - SUV trend dead for years, but real SUVs still produced.
The Buick division is finally killed off, after sales of only 106 units in its last month
Movie theaters introduce Dolby Digital 10.2 audio standards
Rock and Roll is about dead, and hundreds of electronica music variations abound and appeal to people of all ages
'The Big One' hits California's Bay Area, after a 10.7 magnitude quake devestates and destroys Berkeley, CA.
Enviromental changes big time as 10% of Antarctica has melted from the year 2002, New Orleans starts building retaining walls around downtown, and West Texas residents see green tumbleweeds and an occasional palm tree start to flourish, as annual rainfall percentages double to 22".

Elsewhere...
The United States of America, fully rebounded from the early 2000s War on Terror that was cleansed by 2008, has its economy double the Dow Jones at 22,860 and is the unquestionably strongest economy and superpower in the world. The job market abounds, and companies are seeking the youngest and the brightest in an Information Technology-controlled society. MBA starting salaries reach an average of $100k+. The European Union now includes all European countries and is a staunch ally for the most part with the United States, as is Saudi Arabia, Russia and Pakistan. China becomes democratic. Castro finally dies and a U.S. invasion promptly restores democracy to that region as well, as the citizens encourage the process saying, "we never liked that bastard anyway- but he and his undercover thugs threatened to behead any naysayers at any time in any place. He gave out free cigars, so we were just like, 'whatever- screw it.' ". South Korea invades North Korea in a surprise attack shortly after Cuba, and communism is wiped out. Democracy is the leading type of government in the world. Christianity is the leading religion world wide, Muslim is second. Central American and African countries rout out radical socialist rebel guerillas and become safe; growing in popularity are Spring Break invasions of U.S. college kids along Africa's Ivory Coast and Morocco. Afghanistan's rapidly growing economy grows to 2nd behind Saudi Arabia in the middle east, after Iraq is still trying to rebuild from a U.S. invasion in 2003, followed by a government, socioeconomic and infrastructure fallout. Millions move to Iran. The democratic party in the U.S. is frequently in defunct trends and hasn't won a major election since 2004 (which Cheney wins by a landslide), after Al Gore gets control of the Senate again after losing to the GOP for the 2nd time, and screws things up for the last time. Kay Bailey Hutchinson becomes the first female present in 2008 under the GOP and is the most powerful woman in the world. Ralph Nadar dies, along with the Green Party.
 

mattyrug

Golden Member
Sep 25, 2000
1,162
0
0
They will iron out all the bugs in file sharing programs, eliminate senseless pop-up ads, and the computer will get back to what it was really designed for - Downloading Porn from the internet!
:p
 

Willoughbyva

Diamond Member
Sep 26, 2001
3,267
0
0
It might be more than 10 years but I think that computers will be an implant or in close proximity to your brain. This will act similar to a stand alone machine today. But it will also be networked to a universe or other people and things, this is how people will share information. People will close their eyes and their mind will have its own display just like dreams while you are sleeping. You can also see and have data provided about the environment around you. LCD and CRT monitors are a thing of the past. No need for boxes/videocards/hard-drive (most of the physical stuff we uase today) since the mind is more powerful than most hardware people can manufacture. The sharing of ideas can be instentanious so will sharing of feelings if wanted. There will be different settings (kind of like degrees) to allow different people/things access. The key is to have most of it (it meaning someone elses thoughts, ideas, control) read only and not write. That way people won't have to worry about being overtaken by something that isn't right.

I am not a computer expert, but most of the things that are related to computers share charicteristics of how we do things as people and as societies. I guess it is because of how we think and what we are familiar with.

Most of this stuff has been the subject of many sci-fi writers works in the past. I can see it happening sooner than later. I also think that tapping into the mind will be more cost effective and effecent than how we use computers today. All we really need to figure out is how the mind works then we will be able to use a little technology to stimulate it to function in more prefferable (not the right word) way. I think a little of the technology might already be in a crude form, but understanding the brain is the key to achieving success. Current computer manufactures will not like this since it will reduce the revenues of computer hardware and upgrades.

Sorry if this is weird or something, but i think that this is where technology including computers will be in future. Today we have mostly external device that we internalize, but in the future things will be based on internal technology. In 10 years it will be more aparent if not possiable.