Computing in 50 years
For a slightly different take, see A pattern language for a new computing environment.
Vision statement. What's going to happen to computing?
- Computing has saturated all of reality. Every surface is a form of display, whether passive or active. Every device capable of computation. Malleable, interactive, networked, tactile. You can move things around as easily as carrying a book from your kitchen counter to the dining room table.
- Customizing a computing device (what we today call "programming" or "software engineering") doesn't require specialized skills beyond what can be learned by an enterprising 10 year old. "Programming languages" are a specialist tool used by the same proportion of people who developed compilers in 2020.
- Your computing environments responds to you instantly and reacts appropriately, but not always as you expect. There's no difference between edit, compile, and run. As you move things around, you see the results instantaneously. You take this for granted, like changing channels on a television. Sometimes your changes don't produce what you want, and you can easily observe the result, reverse the action or try something else.
- Your personal computing environment is always on, always persisted, and always with you. There's no off switch, no "clean install", no command-S. Your children will inherit your computing environment, just like inherited my grandfather's desk with it's funky pencil sharpener and day planner. You never think about "losing files", but things are always a bit of a mess, like your garage. To escape the futility of the perpetual mess, you "close the garage door."
- You think with your computing environment by idly "sketching" out possibilities. It's as easy and natural as drawing on a whiteboard, but it's dynamic. As you "draw", the possibilities play out before you. You use this for both specific problem-solving and exploration/play. It's interesting and idle enough that you treat it like a fidget toy, casually twisting and turning it just to relish the surprising results.
Computing in 50 years
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Computing in 50 years