The PC is here to stay, you say, but is it really
So you've grown fond of your PC, what with its Pentium speed, its multiple USBs, dual CD drives, internet ready and packed with bundles of software. When you bought it you were told it should be good for, oh, how about five years? Although you like your friend, the home computer, you've been a bit irritated that it isn't as fast as that one at work. The one at work is the latest PC. Wow! Is it fast. Maybe its time to get a new PC and retire the old one to the attic. If you get one now, that should last another five years. Some have lasted longer. Then you'll just get another one, that is if there is still a PC.
That's right, the time is coming when the PC as we know it will no longer exist. A new kid will soon be on the block, slimmer, yet more muscular than any PC we've seen to date. Thanks to nano technology, a whole new species of computers are poised to become the latest PC in the very near future, some say in about eight years (that'll mean you'll want your new PC to last just that long).
Chips keep getting smaller. The future latest PC chip will be recognizable only with a magnifying glass; they're shrinking at an incredible rate. They can't get much smaller then to the point that electricity will not pass through their silicon pathways. Ah! There's a limit, the chip will still be a chip. Right? Not exactly. A silicon chip will still be chip, but there will be a different kind of chip ready to replace it. This one will not even use electricity. Its circuits will be made of material that allows the passage of light. The processor, also a chip, might employ technology based on the never before used properties and behaviors of atomic particles. Let's hope computer remain visible.
The way we relate to our PC will also be different, although we can expect to see some traces of it in the latest PC that comes up between now and then. The user interface will be standardize, As commonplace as the keyboard and mouse (which will probably still be around), so too will be voice controllers and even gesture controllers. Cameras will still be used by your computer and will become standard PC equipment. The latest PC then will be, more or less (probably less), a virtual person.
Not only input devices are scheduled for replacement, your monitor, even flat screens, can be expected to take back seat to screens that will be as thin as a sheet of paper. And don't expect to see images presented on the screen as they have always been, in two dimensions; the new screens will represent all images in 3D. 3D display are already on the market. Holographs will be common too.
You may not even want a PC then, because thin client computing will be ubiquitous; your PC will be a dumb terminal, merely connecting to master servers that will provide you with every possible software application. You'll be PC free.
It's not here yet, but be prepared for the day the PC died.
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