When CPU Processors and other tech can't get faster...

[QuantumSlip]

Something I've been wondering is what's going to happen when things can't get any better? Is a bunch of people suddenly going to be out of work simply because they can't improve on things out there? Will society cease to function as it currently exists?

The Natives and other aboriginal groups proved that people can continue to live on without great technological innovation and with purpose, but will our Western society be able to? I hope it doesn't take a World War III to send us back to the Stone Age just so we can start over again.

 

[imported_LoKe]

Things can always get better. Do you think 20 years ago, they expected the average home computer to have 215MB++ of ram? 200++GB Hard drives?

 

[Powermoloch]

It's too soon to tell, if you look back at the previous 2 decades about the growth of technology, it went by pretty darn fast. Sky is our limit in my view.

 

[her209]

Technology growth is exponential.

 

[Eli]

Uh, no.

Why would it? Assuming we did run into a huge speed barrier, it wouldn't REALLY matter. They'd just keep producing CPUs at whatever the limit was.

 

[ultimatebob]

I noticed that this is already starting to happen with PC's. It used to be that you needed a new PC every 18 months to play the latest games, but now you can stretch upgrades out to 2 or 3 years.

Of course, people will ALWAYS be making minor improvements to existing products, and then using advertising to con people into thinking that it's the "next big thing" that you must have. Just look at the automobile industry... most cars built 10 to 20 years ago still work just fine if they were maintained properly, but people just gotta have those NEW cars with the 12 way power heated leather seats and those 10 speaker surround sound systems

 

[QuantumSlip]

well i guess that's true, but i'm sure a car can only go so fast, a plane so fast; i guess the barriers i see down the road seem impossible to break (transisitors unable to be shruken anymore, quantum computing providing all the power we ever need, etc.), but they always seems to be broken. but if one day we really can't get through...

 

[thirdlegstump]

I think the next technological move is to ditch hard drivers and go with lasers n stuff.

 

[Powermoloch]

Originally posted by: QuantumSlip
well i guess that's true, but i'm sure a car can only go so fast, a plane so fast; i guess the barriers i see down the road seem impossible to break (transisitors unable to be shruken anymore, quantum computing providing all the power we ever need, etc.), but they always seems to be broken. but if one day we really can't get through...

Heck man, I'm surprised when I look 100 years back when peopple traveled on horse carriages. Now, today there are commercial space flights (well...that's what "virgin" says lol). That's pretty amazing ~

 

[TheoPetro]

Originally posted by: QuantumSlip
well i guess that's true, but i'm sure a car can only go so fast, a plane so fast; i guess the barriers i see down the road seem impossible to break (transisitors unable to be shruken anymore, quantum computing providing all the power we ever need, etc.), but they always seems to be broken. but if one day we really can't get through...

well now the limitations on a car and a plane's speed are, 1) wind resistance and once thats overcome 2) c

there are many limitations on computing speed. it involves c also but in a different way. say we actually create a system to transmit info with lazers. say we make a computer out of this. the info will be transmitted at near c. whats to stop us from using parallel processing with 2 of these light computers.

my point is you can always add another. the upper limit on the "speed" of computers is infinate