>by Schoenfeld on 2009/1/4 19:38:17
>I predict that by 2019, only "classic cars" will have gearboxes. By then, all cars with an internal combustion engine will use a generator and electric motors instead of the mechanical gearbox.
Certainly electric cars could reduce the pollution which looks to inexorably increase heading toward 2019.
>Computer-wise, we'll see more integration, wider data paths, and despite all the integration (gfx, cpu and memory controller all on-chip), the distributed computing approach will be followed, resembling what nature teaches us: the world is designed as a parallel thing. Parallel computing is the logical step. Object-oriented programming is already going into the direction: Every piece of data has it's own piece of code that works on the data. This transformed to hardware will mean that memory and CPU power will melt, so in layman's terms, the data knows how to operate on itself.
There's rules defined a priori that allow data to operate on itself in any OOP set-up so no data is actually going to get a mind of its own beyond the rules and "know" how to operate on itself. I guess that's your sci-fi idea.
>Privacy will be a thing of the past. Encryption will be totally illegal. If you don't already own a mobile phone, there will be some law that forces you to have an electronic device - for your protection of course.
Yeah, one trend has been miniaturization which may lead to more feature-full cell phones. Perhaps lead to more ICD-9 diagnosis of E871.0 in hospitals if the devices get too small.
Really though, good guess for 2019 is take the trend at present and project it further-- more bloated OSes, more memory in systems, higher speed CPUs, etc. Only if someone makes some astounding new discovery does the wave change its course.
Perhaps, someone will make a simpler computer that works like DOS-based systems like Atari, Amiga, or older PCs and they will co-exist with the bloated ones and people can have competition/demos to see in which areas the simpler ones out-do the complex ones.
