Monday, 5/9

I shudder to think what I'll need—or even what the world will be like—in 2030.

I'm starting to think about someday replacing my 8-year old laptop. There's nothing really wrong with my current machine, other than the fact that it's running Windows 8.1 and, I'm guessing, someday soon Microsoft will stop offering updates for it. There's still more then enough hard drive space on it and it runs my video editing software like a charm, so it's not like I need a new one.

I'm just thinking about it.

I'm approaching this thinking that whatever laptop I may next get will (hopefully) last just as long as the one I'm currently using—eight years. Because of that I'd want to make sure that it has everything it'll need to fully function up to 2030 in terms of memory and processing power, but then that leads me to wonder--

Just what WILL computers be doing by 2030?

I'm sure I'm overthinking this. After all, the world hasn't technologically changed that much since 2014, when I bought my last laptop. It's still fully functional after eight years. And I'm pretty sure that whatever laptop I buy now will be just as fully functional in 2030. But there's a small part of me—a very small part, admittedly—that still thinks of a year like 2030 as “the future”, a time when cars fly, robots walk the dog, and you plug a jack into your brain to get the day's news.

Even though I know better than that.

I know computer (and all) technology will advance in the next eight years, but not so much that a laptop I get now will be obsolete by then. If anything, whatever technological advances do come will probably be most felt in the mobile area. That's where things are changing the fastest. Case in point—I'm using an eight year old laptop with no problem. My four year old phone? Not so much. I can't get many apps for it because it's “old”, I can't update the phone's web browser (once again, because the phone's so “old”) and the current browser can't handle some mobile websites, and it needs to get rebooted every few days to make sure that everything it can do is done properly.

So that's where I think technology will be changing the most by 2030. I'm sure whatever laptop I get now, especially because I don't spend 24 hours a day glued to it, will work just fine for the next eight years, and probably beyond. I'll be happy with it, I'll take good care of it and use it to its capabilities, and I'll forget all about the fact that I wondered if it would work that far into the future.

In fact, I'll probably forget all about everything like that until, in 2030 or 2031, I decide to get a new laptop/mobile computer/plug into my brain, and then start to wonder if THAT will last eight more years.

You know, until 2038 or 2039. And just think what things will be like THEN!

(jim@wmqt.com)