TechnotheocracyFollow

Where technology leads, so to goes the fate of civilization. The strength of will of a people derives at least in part from their infrastructure and how well they interface with that framework.

This is the thread where I throw out some ideas of where I see things going in the near future, and we see how far off I truly am, and laugh uproriously. haha. Like that. Only with more esclamation points. You get the idea.

The driving technology of the west will continue to be electronics, mainly computers for the time being. The next major advancment in computer speed and power will not be a bazillion core processor, or a new generation of ram, or even an optical computer. No, the next speed increase will come when the computer moves away from rotational data storage. You can only spin a chunk of metal so fast while still keeping it cost efective. While I would not be too terrably suprised to see 20,000 RPM or 30,000 RPM drives in the next 5 years, sold state hard drives are the future. There remain 2 issues to deal with currently, Cost, and longevity. A solid state memory device can only be written to so many times before it starts having problems, but that's due to those devices being designed as small as possible. In 2-3 years, the degredation issue will not be any concern. The other issue has been cost effectiveness. Currently, a solid state hard drive is possible, and there are a few prototypes out there for high end servers in the $75,000 range, but they are slow and cobbled together from memory stick cores. I see a shift to true hard drive scale memory blocks, designed from the ground up to work with the full bandwidth available to the SATA II interface. The limiting speed at that point will truly be the system bus, not the speed of rotation.

Transfer media will lag behind, as DVD's are simply too cheap to toss out as a format, even if they are physically limited in rotational speed due to their construction. Expect to see a shift to reinforced DVD's of some sort, perhaps slightly thicker with a metal structural layer to prevent shattering, maybe a harder plastic. Eventually, larger memory sticks of today will drop in price to the point where they become competative again, allowing game manufacturers to shrink their packaging down even further to the size of the memory stick, not the DVD which is the current limiting factor. 5 years out on this one

Obviously wireless will continue to be a strong technology, however bandwidth and frequincy muddying will begin to be a concern in the long run. To get around this, I see a modular wireless interface. Instead of a multitude of hardwired devices, Audiovisual perephrials, monitor cables, etc, Everything will be wireless through a centralized bandwidth point. Your computer will have it's own broadcast hub, and you'll just tie anything you buy to your computer at time of purchase. Hardlines will be limited to secure data, Power, and extremey high bandwidth devices.

Power will remain a concern. Your high wattage device power utilization curves will fall over time, but more importantly more and more devices will become efficient enough that they will be able to run off of tiny embedded solar cells and ambiant light. Higher end devices will use specialized frequency light not visable to the naked eye, and beamed directly so that there is no danger to the computer operator. A power grid for a computer will consist of multiple such power points, spread out in a wide area so that a physical obstruction of most of the points does not lead to an outage. Battery backups will be integral, and on screen monitoring will ensure that at least several of the power points will be avialable when the computer is in use.

The interface devices, Keyboard, Mouse, etc will continue to evolve, but remain essentially the same. Computer mice will continue to improve in responsivness. I see the next improvement to mice as a true position sensing capability. Current mice measure travel distance and direction, but they don't know where they are on your mousepad. I see the addition of an optical scan processor that will read your motherboard surface anduse that image in combination with standard laser sensors to massivly increase sensitivity.

The biggest change to interfacing will come out of the Ipod / Cell Phone / Memory stick pocket clutter dilema. The PDA was limited in the amount of storage and upgradeability it posessed. The cell phone works well, but not so well when coupled with a PDA, as most are too bulky. Ipods and similar devices work well, but they are limited for the bulk they take up in the pocket. I see a single unified device for all 4 needs. A device slightly larger than your typical Ipod, with a screen and a slide out interface keybord. It will have at least a 100GB capacity, high end audio capability (surround 7.1) and a processor at least as fast as a Pentium III 1 GHZ in its own right. It will be designed to dock with your main computer, and your files, songs, e-mails, will go with you. it will be your phone, and you will have broadband data capabilities.

Monitors will change too. Instead of a heavy panel, you will have a thin piece of plastic, available in pretty much any size or shape. One edge will require an interface strip, but beyond that, any surface can become a monitor. Even curved surfaces.

The electric car by itself will not come along soon. Americans like our loud engines too much. However hybreds will continue to advance. With the advent of the new cheap water driven hydrogen fuel cells, and cylender level engine gas controlls, large SUV type vehicles will eventually reach the fuel eficiency of today's economy car. Plaid will become the next big car color, and spoiler wings will start sprouting winglets.

Thats enough future sillyness for today.

Where's our flying cars, instant food hydrators and Mars vacation colonies??

We were lied to!

I disagree on the note that CDs will continue to be used because they are so cheap. Look at the current trend for music players: IPOD, etc. I beleive the media industry will move completly away from physical mediums as the digital industry determines more secure ways to transfer and sell infomation.

As for computers, look toward biological developments and nano-electromagnetic computation.

I would like to start seeing more funding for genetically engineered viruses as well, to help fight many of humanities ailments on an active lvl.

Future Prediction:

Man slowly develops technology while still acting wholy destructive: Early Primate to current time.

Man determine religion to be cause of most suffering: Near to Distant Future >.>.

Man aboloshes religion, unites in world peace, and discovers scientific route to immortallity: A few days after aboloshing religion.


Yes, i tied stupid as religion argument to science debate, as many of the scientific funding needed to accomplish these tasks are inhibited by christian morality(stupidty).

I'm trapped in a world before later on, I'm trapped in a world before later on,

Where's my hovercraft? Where's my jet pack? Where's the font of acquired wisdom that eludes me now?

We're trapped in a world before later on, We're trapped in a world before later on,

Where's our telray? Where's our space face? Where are all the complications we won't see around?

God, every time that site gets mentioned, my brain catches fire.