by Kris Koeckritz

Created on: May 17, 2009

Over the years, there has been wide speculation on the future of computing. Many people believe our future computers will eventually resemble something human, or something with the same capabilities. In my opinion, this is a rather premature guess, and that as fads come and go, the computer might as well be built into a robot one year and into a wrist-watch another. I look instead into the near future, in, let's say, ten years or less. I first would like to overview the Internet..

First created for the military in the sixties, it was more of a mass-communication effort. Starting in the seventies, and especially for use with C.E.R.N., in the eighties, the Internet was adapted for use with computers. Since then, of course, it has become the massive multi-billion-user entity it is today. Very recently, the Internet has started to adapt technologies never designed for its use. VoIP technology, for example, has started to draw a significant crowd from traditional phone services. My theory heavily involves this idea of merging technology. In the future, I imagine, all technologies will be connected. Just as 3G and wireless phone services are almost everywhere these days, they may be one and the same in the future. All computers,PDAs , cell phones, radios, everything wireless (and devices that once weren't) will operate on the same set of frequencies. My theory points toward a wireless future. This may be slightly disturbing to those of us who value our privacy; then again, privacy can't be kept forever, can it?

On the programming side, I think things have vast room for improvement. From the choppy, slow business code writing used to be, it has evolved considerably, into rich, simple (mostly), graphical interfaces. Already in use, the future will most likely involve an even more direct method of input, such as bio-feedback. For example: if a computer animation developer wanted to develop a character with complex movements, this would usually mean a nightmare of code, or at least a few sleepless nights on a graphical editor. With a system that receives its input from biofeedback devices. The programmer could then easily program his character through his own movements.

When the computer was in its infancy, possibly its biggest limitation was its storage capacity. Back then, the largest capacity was around 5 megabytes, and the hard drive wouldn't have been able to fit in anyone's living room! Think about that the next time you pick up your 8 gigabyte memory stick. Imagine that stick being 8 terabytes in the near future. At this rate, that improvement is more than probable. Truly, as solid-state storage becomes more popular, it may go out of use just as fast, to be replaced by an even more efficient design.

Finally, how will we manage all these improvements? With the ever-changing mediums technology is being manufactured with, how will we know what to buy? The cost of high-end devices today can be overwhelming. What will that mean for the future? Thousand-dollar cell phones with "million dollar" technology? I most certainly hope not. If we're ever to achieve wireless freedom, advanced programming, or terabytes memory sticks, we're really going to have to improve our pricing as well. And for those who value their privacy and right to not be irradiated by all the radio waves wireless technology brings, what can I say? We'll just have to wait and find out.

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