The (Near) Future of Computing

We're still physically dealing with what amounts to be a legacy of how computers were used. We have computers: laptops, desktops, etc; and things that are almost computers: smartphones, tablets, etc. What is the natural state of what we can produce today vs. what we are doing?

Computing has reached the predictions going back more than 30 years: that computational resources and information are available independent on how you connect to them. People will carry around an interface to the internet: for some people this will be their phone, for others, a tablet or a small laptop depending on their needs/wants for roaming computation. The purpose of this device is to allow connectivity, not on-board computation. Since processors, memory, storage is cheaply small, these are limited by the size/technological limitations of the display and the keyboard or other points of interaction. With glasses, not only does display size become a non-issue, but this allows for augmented reality as well, which will clearly soon become how the world works. For input devices, we already have projection keyboards, touch screens, and other soft devices to allow for a wide possible frame of interaction not limited by size. The way of interaction, following this, will be true cybernetics: direction neural/computers interplay. This will transform more than just our day-to-day interactions with computers, so I'm limiting my scope here to talk about just short of that, though that will be a reality soon enough as well.

You will walk into someone's house with your portable device. You can use this to interact with their various household electronics -- screens, speakers, computers, video games -- wirelessly. Or you can use whatever input device your friend has lying around. Interfacing with devices will no longer be bound by which interface you are in front of, but what credentials you are granted by the agents of control.