The Future of Computers

I'm doing a survey for school that requires many peoples answers, and from different age ranges. I figured ATS was the best place to find so many people.

OK, so here's how it goes. I make a statement and you just reply "strongly agree", "agree", "not sure", "disagree", or "strongly disagree". And don't worry if the questions are contradictory, I'm just trying to find out if people are really paying attention when they do this

1) Computers will still be using digitally based processors in 10 years.

2) We will have 10+ GHz processors in 10 years.

3) Computers, in 10 years, will be small enough to put in the pocket (minus the moniter), yet powerful enough to handle a very graphics-intensive game.

4) In 10 years, computers will no longer have less than 2 GB of RAM.

5) 10 years from now computers will use brain cells to compute data at unheard of speeds.

6) In 10 years, computer keyboards will be projected onto the typing surface by a small projector, and can detect keystrokes.

7) Computer moniters will have "Billions" and "Trillions" of colors as an option, in 10 years.

8) 10 years from now, computer moniters will have resolutions near 5120 x 3840.

Thanks everybody!

*Edit* I forgot to mention that you need to state your age with your answers.

[edit on 4/6/2005 by diehard_democrat]

[edit on 4/6/2005 by diehard_democrat]

1) Agree

2) Agree

3) Strongly Agree (it's already begun with Sony's PSP)

4) Strongly Agree (Just makes sense to me)

5) Disagree

6) Strongly agree (it's already being done!)

7) Agree, I suppose

8) Strongly Agree (Graphics technology is already taking quantum leaps, this one is quite inevitable)

1) Agree

2) Agree - I think 10ghz will probably be here within 3-5 years. Dual processors will be much more common. But GHz won't be used much when judging speed (just as AMD processor don't contain their actual speed). There are other important factors to consider fsb, cache.

3) Agree

4) Strongly Agree - 10 years from now you'll laugh at the fact you had less than 2Gb RAM

5) Strongly disagree - Don't think it will happen within the next 10 years, will take longer than that

6) Strongly Agree

7) Disagree - No points the human eye can only detect the difference in a limited amount of colours

8) Strongly Agree

Age: 23

1) Computers will still be using digitally based processors in 10 years.
Agree

2) We will have 10+ GHz processors in 10 years.
Disagree.
Now that companies are starting to use multiple cores in their processors they can get higher performance on lower GHz. However in comparative terms the processors will definatly be equivalent to or greater then 10 GHz in power.

3) Computers, in 10 years, will be small enough to put in the pocket (minus the moniter), yet powerful enough to handle a very graphics-intensive game.
Not sure.
The potential is definitly there but pcs have generally stayed the same size. Unless there is a push for people needing portable pcs ( not counting hand held gaming consoles ) I don't think this will happen.

4) In 10 years, computers will no longer have less than 2 GB of RAM.
Strongly Agree.

5) 10 years from now computers will use brain cells to compute data at unheard of speeds.
Disagree.
Science labs are starting to do this but I doubt it would be a commercial( home use ) venture for at least another 20 years.

6) In 10 years, computer keyboards will be projected onto the typing surface by a small projector, and can detect keystrokes.
Not sure.
Though it would be very cool. I think if this were to happen it would happen in the games console arena first. eg projecting the game screen, controllers etc.

7) Computer moniters will have "Billions" and "Trillions" of colors as an option, in 10 years.
Strongly Disagree.
Monitor colors are already at a point where the human eye can only just dicern bettwen the million of colors available. Increasing color depth would therefore be pointless.

8) 10 years from now, computer moniters will have resolutions near 5120 x 3840.
Strongly Agree.
Probably even higher.


[edit on 6-4-2005 by gold32]

1) Unless quantum computing makes some radical leaps forward by then, agree.

2) My response would be the same as nibiru's:

Agree - I think 10ghz will probably be here within 3-5 years. Dual processors will be much more common. But GHz won't be used much when judging speed (just as AMD processor don't contain their actual speed). There are other important factors to consider fsb, cache.

3) Agree. Just as it has been for years, the most powerful machines of a relative 5-10years prior can fit in your pocket. Consumer machines however will probably still be as large as they are today, and were yesterday. Bigger box means more room to put "stuff" and lower component costs.
> Example: I recently designed and constructed a small computer for video order display in restaraunts. It uses a single board computer 486DX with 32mb ram and a flash drive. It replaces the previous model which was a 386 connected directly to a video processor. The size of the unit is a little smaller than two DVD movie cases. There is a lot of empty space inside.

4) Agree.

5) Disagree. Johnny Neumonic will not be venturing on virtual quests through smuggler land. Sorry

6) Disagree. People want to feel what theyre pushing, as has shown with the failure of nearly every "flat" keyboard concept. However we probably wont be using slow alphanumeric keyboards. Probably something based on only 12keys or so, divided between the hands, or maybe something not using any keys at all. Everything might even be touch "screen" and voice input only.

7) Disagree. No point. Our eyes dont work that well. Already there is no visual difference between 16bit and 32bit color (although Windows may force you to believe otherwise).

8) Agree, if the terms are even applicable.
> add to #8, what I mean is it is entirely possible there will be technology to directly paint the image on the retina, one rod/cone at a time. "Resolution" would be irrelivant.

>> Whoops, age group

BTW it's just either kids or adults, and kids are considered 18 and under.

Fetus.
24.

Might as well be fetus tho... everyone I know is like a geezer compared to me.

[edit on 6-4-2005 by apc]

1) strongly agree (I predict that computers will "think" in numbers for quite some time, more specifically in ones and zeros)

2) strongly agree (Moore's law, we might have computers somewhere close to the 30 GHz mark in ten years.)

3) strongly agree (we already have this technology)

4) agree (large amounts of ram will still be an option)

5) disagree (Brain cells being biological, I predict that they will be to unpredictable. Not to mention the problem of having someone come feed your computer while you are on vacation)

6) disagree (This technology is already available. There is nothing tactile telling you that you have hit the "key" and makes it difficult to use... or so I've read)

7) strongly disagree (The human eye can't distinguish anything greater than 32 million colors)

8) agree (sure, I'll take one right now)


EDIT 7) it has been argued that 16 million colors is the greatest the human eye can see. Maybe 32 bit is just psychological? I think it looks better.

Also, thinking about monitors... There may be 3D monitors available in 10 years. Oh wait, they have them now!

[edit on 6-4-2005 by Seth76]

29 in May.. sorry!

[edit on 6-4-2005 by Seth76]

1) Computers will still be using digitally based processors in 10 years.
agree
2) We will have 10+ GHz processors in 10 years.
disagree
3) Computers, in 10 years, will be small enough to put in the pocket (minus the moniter), yet powerful enough to handle a very graphics-intensive game.
not sure
4) In 10 years, computers will no longer have less than 2 GB of RAM.
agree
5) 10 years from now computers will use brain cells to compute data at unheard of speeds.
strongly disagree
6) In 10 years, computer keyboards will be projected onto the typing surface by a small projector, and can detect keystrokes.
not sure
7) Computer moniters will have "Billions" and "Trillions" of colors as an option, in 10 years.
agree
8) 10 years from now, computer moniters will have resolutions near 5120 x 3840.
strongly agree

age: 21

[edit on 6-4-2005 by alternateheaven]

1) strongly agree
2) strongly agree (the increase in the speed of computers is slowing down, but its still increasing according to moore's law, and if we can't do it with a single processor, we can just link a whole bunch of them)
3) strongly agree (my hewlett packard calculator has a higher clock speed than my first computer lololol. We already have palm pilots that have halfway decent graphics, at least compared to older computers.)
4) strongly agree (aren't they already up to at least one gig?)
5) strongly disagree (not a chance in heck this will happen in 10 yrs)
6) disagree (I don't see why it isn't technologically possible now, but I can't see it being very marketable; I mean, what's the point? Keyboards work at least as well already, and even laptop keyboards are hard to type on for me, I would never buy this)
7) disagree (billions maybe, trillions not a chance, plus as ppl have already said, no point, although I bet some would buy it anyway because they're dumb )
8) strongly disagree (that's a pretty big increase in pixel count) My comp is set on 1280x1024 = 1.3 million pixels, 5120x3840 = 19.7 million pixels.

1) Computers will still be using digitally based processors in 10 years.
agree

2) We will have 10+ GHz processors in 10 years.
Not sure, same reasons as above. The industry is moving towards paralell processing and eliminating current bottlenecks more than the oldschool clockspeed races these days.

3) Computers, in 10 years, will be small enough to put in the pocket (minus the moniter), yet powerful enough to handle a very graphics-intensive game.
Strongly agree, handheld technology with base stations should be the next big thing.

4) In 10 years, computers will no longer have less than 2 GB of RAM.
agree

5) 10 years from now computers will use brain cells to compute data at unheard of speeds.
strongly disagree, "Hey mom can you feed my computer while I'm at camp?"

6) In 10 years, computer keyboards will be projected onto the typing surface by a small projector, and can detect keystrokes.
disagree, same reasons as above... plus you can already buy these now

7) Computer moniters will have "Billions" and "Trillions" of colors as an option, in 10 years.
Strongly disagree, we are already at the limit of colors we can see... better shading yes, more colors NO

8) 10 years from now, computer moniters will have resolutions near 5120 x 3840.
strongly agree

Oh yeah sorry... I am in the Adult catergory


[edit on 6-4-2005 by Sugarlump]

1) Computers will still be using digitally based processors in 10 years.

Agree....Tech is moving fast, but not that fast.

2) We will have 10+ GHz processors in 10 years.

I believe we will. I also have my doubts. I bought a 2.4 gig authentic pentium 2 years ago and its still not that out dated...hmmmmm

3) Computers, in 10 years, will be small enough to put in the pocket (minus the moniter), yet powerful enough to handle a very graphics-intensive game.

I agree with this simply because of the keychain hard drives that are coming out. In ten years you will carry your hard drive with you, plug it into any machine you come across and the machine will have your entire system up and running in no time. You will carry your computer in your pocket.

4) In 10 years, computers will no longer have less than 2 GB of RAM.

I agree. I have 1024 mgbs now. Its the easiest and cheapest way to improve your computer. There is a market.

5) 10 years from now computers will use brain cells to compute data at unheard of speeds.

anything is possible, but I doubt it. simulated brain cells maybe....

6) In 10 years, computer keyboards will be projected onto the typing surface by a small projector, and can detect keystrokes.

Thats already been done. years ago.

7) Computer moniters will have "Billions" and "Trillions" of colors as an option, in 10 years.

I'm onboard with everyone else, no point since the human eye can detect only so much. I figure they will be 3D

8) 10 years from now, computer moniters will have resolutions near 5120 x 3840.

I think the res will be whatever you feel comfortable with and can afford.

Thanks everybody!

*Edit* I forgot to mention that you need to state your age group when you answer, either kid or adult. Kids are under 18, and there isn't a teenager catagory (sorry)

I'm 44.

Love and light,

Wupy

For those of you who continue saying we won't have "projection keyboards", I would just like to clarify that indeed we already have such devices: www.alpern.org...

Originally posted by iceofspades
"projection keyboards", I would just like to clarify that indeed we already have such devices.

I suppose the literal answer to this is "strongly agree", however I disagree because of lack of use. Although I can see how it would be practical to use with a PDA, however in ten years PDAs might be powerful enough to take dictation via voice recognition.

Originally posted by Seth76
Although I can see how it would be practical to use with a PDA, however in ten years PDAs might be powerful enough to take dictation via voice recognition.

Yeah, I think that's right. Voice recognition will take place of all keyboards within the near future, IMO. The technology just needs a LOT of perfecting to make it worthwhile.

*Imagines a Microsoft-powered Star-Trek-like computer voice program:

"Computer: Initiate Self-Destruct Sequence!"

Computer: "Acknowledged. Activating Coffee Replication System."

Errghh...that would get annoying.



[edit on 6-4-2005 by iceofspades]

*Imagines a Microsoft-powered Star-Trek-like computer voice program:

"Computer: Initiate Self-Destruct Sequence!"

Computer: "Acknowledged. Activating Coffee Replication System."

Hahaha... Damnit Jim Im a doctor not an MCSE.

I think the future of desktop computing power can be easily pictured as whatever the power of present day supercomputers are.. the ones cooled by liquid nitrogen and all that fun stuff. So far that seems to be the pattern, given enough room to wiggle.

Age 34

1) Computers will still be using digitally based processors in 10 years.
Commercial computers, yes. Agree.

2) We will have 10+ GHz processors in 10 years.
Disagree. Largely unnecessary with the move to multi-core. Commercial companies won't stop fussing with silicon until they've done everything they can do with it, speed gains have largely been halted. Other substrates are currently faster but not used for commercial devices like P4 CPUs.

3) Computers, in 10 years, will be small enough to put in the pocket (minus the moniter), yet powerful enough to handle a very graphics-intensive game.
Agree. SONY PSP has done just that, go check it out and be amazed. But you should see what the hackers are doing with it. Nuff said.

4) In 10 years, computers will no longer have less than 2 GB of RAM.
Agree. XP 64 on 64 bit CPUs should be able to address up to 16 GB of memory.

5) 10 years from now computers will use brain cells to compute data at unheard of speeds.
Disagree. No consumer would need that much power. But the human brain has been clocked at around 400MHZ, but because of its massively interconnected architecture it seems way faster.

6) In 10 years, computer keyboards will be projected onto the typing surface by a small projector, and can detect keystrokes.
Agree. They already have them.

7) Computer moniters will have "Billions" and "Trillions" of colors as an option, in 10 years.
Disagree.

8) 10 years from now, computer moniters will have resolutions near 5120 x 3840.
Agree. They may offer software that can super render detail sort of like satellite photography and offer gigapixel or terapixel densities.

Strongly Agree
1.) Naturally all computers will use digitally based processors as long as they continue function out of logic. I do understand the nature of the question, so to be more specfic, I'd say that binary procs(electric gateways) will still be around, but trinary procs that use quantum/chemical gateways are also probable ten years from now. binaries would of course be relatively cheap compared to trinary machines though..

Strongly Agree
2.)Yes, I would certainly hope so. Naturally other additions to the design and fabrication of processors woudl also advance, namely data pipelines, optics in place of some electric gateways, perhaps even an extended register set other than what would be available from the IA-64 and AMD-64 instruction sets, much larger on-die(L1) cache as well buffering cache(L2 & L3).

Agree
3.) Handheld PC market will continue to grow, Desktop systems and terminals that we are familar with will also remain (gotta have some way to manage a home theater ) Not a strongly agree since I feel that both are still going to be around.

Somewhat Agree
4.)In general and off the shelf most likely, however handmedowns that have less will also be around as more and more folks involve themselves with computers. The draw and lure of the Internet constantly inspires or encourages others to obtain a home computer, though other reasons are also just as likely. Pretty much anything from a 486 and up can handle ethernet and either win98 or linux, so that would probably be the threshold between users and internet capable users. The old machines will still be around in some form or anouther. *cough* cheap homemade routers using linux *cough* lol

Mildly disagree
5.)Perhaps at major universities for research, or even gov'ts for planning complex scenarios of strategic warfare, several labs for various scientific stuidies. Everyone else ranging from n00bs to regular joe users to power users to 733Ts. not very likely if at all. Maybe in 25 years or so.
Quantum/chemical/optical computing seems to be a much more probable at this point in time.

disagree
6.) Steering wheels on cars haven't gone anywhere anytime soon, however like steering wheels I suspect that more features may be added. Some projection types may exist, in addition to spill proof keyboards, character arrangement or even features like port hubs(firewire,usb1&2) are likely to be around also. Wireless would be also quite common as well, perhaps in combination. (probably already out..)

mildly agree
7.)I wouldn't say colors though. This has already happened. 24-bit and 32-bit modes for example are more than just red,green, and blue triplets, an alpha channel is included in both for transluceny purposes. I suspect that the granularity between translucency and opacity(actual colors) would increase. Perhaps even a controllable gain/loss of gamma(brightness) for each of R, G, B, and Alpha... Perhaps even a 'table' of common colors used for almost instant antialiasing done at the color table level perhaps.. scratch that, that's been a domain of gfx controllers anyways.. Maybe, there will be something extra in additon to levels of Red,Green,Blue,Alpha, and Gamma...

Strongly Agree
8.)How else is one going to watch their next gen UHDTV?(Ultra-High Definition TV)? Modes that high would either be impractical for desktop mode or the size of graphical controls would have to be increased to compensate. (think 512x512 icons, scrollbars,etc) The higher modes may also be helpful in the antialiasing of 3d objects to a much more smoother look in regards to desktop computing. In short DirectX12 may be needed to just get your desktop going from 2d mode at 1280x960 to full on 3d mode. 8P (Though I am sure 3d gfx buses and cards are going to give quite a large hand with this.) Word has it that *BlackComb*, Longhorn's sucessor may be an actual 3d Desktop os..

Geez, imagine all of this with Gigabit ethernet & broadband on the cheap, ten years from now...

currently 30.

Sorry forgot to add my age... 20

Also found this, resolutions upto 19200 x 2400 with 200" screen size
www.go-l.com...

Unfortunatly i can't find a price, not that i would be able to afford one anyway

"strongly agree", "agree", "not sure", "disagree", or "strongly disagree".
1) Computers will still be using digitally based processors in 10 years.
agree

2) We will have 10+ GHz processors in 10 years.
agree

3) Computers, in 10 years, will be small enough to put in the pocket (minus the moniter), yet powerful enough to handle a very graphics-intensive game.
strongly agree

4) In 10 years, computers will no longer have less than 2 GB of RAM.
strongly agree

5) 10 years from now computers will use brain cells to compute data at unheard of speeds.
disagree

6) In 10 years, computer keyboards will be projected onto the typing surface by a small projector, and can detect keystrokes.
strongly agree

7) Computer moniters will have "Billions" and "Trillions" of colors as an option, in 10 years.
strongly agree

8) 10 years from now, computer moniters will have resolutions near 5120 x 3840.
strongly agree

1) Computers will still be using digitally based processors in 10 years.
Agree

2) We will have 10+ GHz processors in 10 years.
Strongly Agree

3) Computers, in 10 years, will be small enough to put in the pocket (minus the moniter), yet powerful enough to handle a very graphics-intensive game.
Agree

4) In 10 years, computers will no longer have less than 2 GB of RAM.
Not sure

5) 10 years from now computers will use brain cells to compute data at unheard of speeds.
disagree

6) In 10 years, computer keyboards will be projected onto the typing surface by a small projector, and can detect keystrokes.
Strongly agree - They already exist

7) Computer moniters will have "Billions" and "Trillions" of colors as an option, in 10 years.
Not Sure

8) 10 years from now, computer moniters will have resolutions near 5120 x 3840.
Agree

I'm 17

Thanks everybody so far who participated!

I'm going to need some more people to take this so I can get different age groups to do it, so far it's been mostly people over 18.

I already have about 30 (I got some of them from school, parents, etc.) and if I get 10 more people to take the survey then I can finally be done!

Thank you so very much everybody!