# Computers of the future **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 3, 2002, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computers-of-the-future/130678 "2002-10-03T14:40:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2019, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computers-of-the-future/130678/41 "2019-03-30T08:23:44Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > I’m not saying it’s a good thing - just that it’s going to happen. We old people are not going to upgrade. It’s not so much I won’t upgrade as that I’m selective about upgrading - I don’t want to do it unless it has some benefit for me, as opposed to benefiting someone else. > [@](#): > > Who needs all the stuff in cars today? But we have it. You don’t have to use the new functions, but they’ll be there. The problem is that more stuff means more stuff to go wrong. Also, count me as another who thinks touchscreens in cars/trucks are stupid - with knobs and switches there’s tactile feedback that means you aren’t constantly taking your eyes off the road, touchscreens you HAVE TO look at, not a safe feature. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2019, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computers-of-the-future/130678/42 "2019-03-30T08:25:23Z")
> [@kopek](#): > > My general bet would be something like the old Star Trek; you say the word “computer” and pause and it answers you and does what you ask. And it really isn’t seen; just there. If you ask for display (such as say limitless porn) it will transmit said data to whatever screen you happen to be near. > > And it will probably happen sooner than 20 years. We’re starting to get there with Alexa and Hey Google. And having privacy concerns with machines that listen to us all the time that can be compromised. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Librarian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_librarian/32/402_2.png) [@The\_Librarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Librarian)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2019, 10:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computers-of-the-future/130678/43 "2019-03-30T10:22:32Z")
> [@NurseCarmen](#): > > Don’t make me quote you on this… > hmmmm, it seems I already have…😃 > I don’t see much of a change beyond the emergance of flat screens. Computers really haven’t changed much in the past ten. The applications get bigger, requiring more memory, requiring more storage, the small versions of RAM and HDDs cost more so everyone sticks to standard sizes. Things look like they might get smaller, then the apps grow again. by 2010 _Word_ will require 10 gigs of hard drive space, and an allocation of 2 gigs of Ram. It will still be buggy. Almost exactly right. 4 GB of disk space and 4GB of RAM. It is a little less buggy. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2019, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computers-of-the-future/130678/44 "2019-03-30T21:37:43Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > We’re starting to get there with Alexa and Hey Google. > > And having privacy concerns with machines that listen to us all the time that can be compromised. About ten years ago a friend of mine was editing a special on-line issue of a journal I’m involved with. The theme was security. He asked me to write one of my columns for it, and I wrote what I though was a joke column about how having internet enabled picture frames with voice commands be vulnerable to hacking, thus making “the walls have ears” literally correct. He said it could be a serious problem. Someone in England getting a recording that Alexa made of what someone else had said shows I was prophetic. I’m not buying anything that listens to me for me house. I never say anything interesting in the car, so the safety improvement from voice activated message reading seems worth it. ---
**Author:** ![Atomic\_Alex](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atomic_alex/32/175_2.png) [@Atomic\_Alex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atomic_Alex)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2019, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computers-of-the-future/130678/45 "2019-04-01T07:40:11Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > About ten years ago a friend of mine was editing a special on-line issue of a journal I’m involved with. The theme was security. He asked me to write one of my columns for it, and I wrote what I though was a joke column about how having internet enabled picture frames with voice commands be vulnerable to hacking, thus making “the walls have ears” literally correct. He said it could be a serious problem. Someone in England getting a recording that Alexa made of what someone else had said shows I was prophetic. I’m not buying anything that listens to me for me house. > I never say anything interesting in the car, so the safety improvement from voice activated message reading seems worth it. My google-fu is failing me but a couple of years ago an Australian _(I believe)_ politician was quoted as saying that it remains a problem that people still feel like they can say what they want within the privacy of their own homes. With a suitably authoritarian government and these ‘walls have ears’ devices that last bastion of privacy could be removed. I also thought that technology also facilitates that scenario in another way, a suitably advanced AI could be programmed to listen to any trigger words or phrases spoken and report the offender to the appropriate authorities. Kind of like what is already done with telephone lines but taken up to 11. ---
**Author:** ![DorkVader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/73ab20/32.png) [@DorkVader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DorkVader)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2019, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computers-of-the-future/130678/46 "2019-04-01T07:52:56Z")
Big Brother is listening to you…in the matrix! Wasn’t there a hullabaloo about Google doing that just “recently”? Being unlikely to ever own alexa/siri type devices, I remember something like that happening, but not any details. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computers-of-the-future/130678.md?page=2)