# What will replace smartphones **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [July 23, 2016, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-replace-smartphones/760700 "2016-07-23T19:12:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2016, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-replace-smartphones/760700/21 "2016-07-24T17:30:06Z")
I think disposable tech will be one of the next big things. Like for instance, when your toothpaste runs out. The empty tube adds toothpaste to the shopping list on your smart[er] phone. ---
**Author:** ![spamforbrains](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@spamforbrains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spamforbrains)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2016, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-replace-smartphones/760700/22 "2016-07-24T18:17:43Z")
> [@](#): > > And there’s also a lot to be said for convenience. I’m talking to a friend on the phone and we agree to meet for dinner at 5 at (name of restaurant). A little message pops up on my retinal display says “I’ve added to your calendar: dinner at 5 with (name of friend). Is this correct?” that I can confirm or not. Then it’s there in my calendar, ready to remind me, point out that I might want to leave early because of traffic conditions, ready to alert me if the restaurant is closed for some reason, linked to my friend’s phone and his smart car so that I’ll be able to instantly see if he’s running late, etc. so basically you want to buy a “nagger”? Just no. Besides, who eats dinner at 5? ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2016, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-replace-smartphones/760700/23 "2016-07-24T19:46:35Z")
I’m not sure if anything will replace the smartphone in our lifetimes. We still have the desktop computer 40 years after it became commercially available: ditto laptops (30) and cell phones (20+). However, the 10-year age of the smartphone does suggest by this list that we are due for another means of computing and communicating. Maybe Second-Life-style meeting rooms with virtual goggles? Complete with virtual whiteboard and computer screen, where you can see the person you’re talking to for better communication. Or other activities outside of work 😛 (I mean, _those_ activities are going on right now with VR, but I’m not sure if they can take place online with multiple people.) Then, after that, you could save office space by not giving everyone a keyboard and mouse, simply a very tiny cubicle and a set of virtual goggles. They could then type on a virtual keyboard! I’m not saying I’d like this, it would be pretty hard on my eyes, for one. But I could see places like call centers do this to cut down on costs. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2016, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-replace-smartphones/760700/24 "2016-07-24T19:47:48Z")
> [@spamforbrains](#): > > so basically you want to buy a “nagger”? Just no. Besides, who eats dinner at 5? Nagger? _Please_. ---
**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:** [July 24, 2016, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-replace-smartphones/760700/25 "2016-07-24T20:12:02Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#): > > Nonsense. No technology we currently have lets you be driving along a freeway in an unfamiliar area, say to your smart car that you’re hungry, have it read back to you several nearby options that it suspects correspond to your tastes (with the ability for you to say “give me all options”), read out the menu for you, let you place an order, then immediately navigate you to the restaurant, while also having the order ready for you just as you arrive, modified for traffic conditions. Actually, it is quite common along freeways for there to be signs advertising which restaurants, hotels, etc. are at each exit. Many of these establishments have set menus that are the same all over the country, and may not vary significantly all over the world. And while you’re listening to all this menu reading and deciding on dinner who is driving the car? How about a little less distraction and more paying attention to the road? Until we get cars that can actually drive themselves, of course, but despite recent advances I’m not entirely convinced that’s really around the corner. > [@](#): > > And there’s also a lot to be said for convenience. I’m talking to a friend on the phone and we agree to meet for dinner at 5 at (name of restaurant). A little message pops up on my retinal display says “I’ve added to your calendar: dinner at 5 with (name of friend). Is this correct?” that I can confirm or not. Then it’s there in my calendar, ready to remind me, point out that I might want to leave early because of traffic conditions, ready to alert me if the restaurant is closed for some reason, linked to my friend’s phone and his smart car so that I’ll be able to instantly see if he’s running late, etc. You can’t just _remember_ you’d agreed to meet for dinner at five _on the same day?_ Or remember to call or text if you’re running late? You can’t remember you’re meeting someone or who that is for a couple hours? I mean, sure, there are some unfortunates who have honest to Og memory problems who might need that, but the average person? Will your machines wipe your mouth when you’re done eating and powder your butt when you visit the rest room, too? Not that I’m entirely down on technology, but I feel there needs to be an occasional dissenting voice among all the cheerleading. Technology should serve us, not we serve technology. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2016, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-replace-smartphones/760700/26 "2016-07-24T22:49:53Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Technology should serve us, not we serve technology. I suspect that sooner than we think, the distinction between “us” and “technology” will be moot. After all, what are smartphone users if not pre-op cyborgs? ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-replace-smartphones/760700/27 "2016-07-25T00:36:23Z")
> [@coffeecat](#): > > Science fiction has suggested brain implants that would give us telepathic internet. I don’t like the possibility of malware crashing my brain, though. Then there’s the matter of visiting the local neurosurgeon every few years to upgrade to the latest brain implant. ---
**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:** [July 25, 2016, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-replace-smartphones/760700/28 "2016-07-25T01:00:45Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Am I the only one who finds that incredibly creepy? Why do I need a machine to mark my calendar or order for me, have I lost the ability to speak or move? You can _already_ order things over the phone and have them ready when you arrive, we’ve had that for decades, it’s nothing new. My understanding is that in the dim old days of the past even low level managers had someone called a secretary to do this for them. It’s not that I can’t do it, it is that having my app do it for me means I don’t need to do an extra step, and that I won’t forget to update my calendar. (Which has happened when ten things are going on at once.) As for ordering, your order might be ready before you get there, in which case it gets cold, or after, in which case you wait and waste time. Plus your phone will be smart enough to suggest things you like and have a conversation with you about it. No going to the website of the restaurant or pulling out paper takeout menus. Our entire culture these days is about being efficient and saving time. This will happen. You can always turn it off. > [@](#): > > Great - “enhanced reality” and we’ll see even more crap like with Pokeman Go with people walking into stuff or, worse yet, driving into stuff because they’re not paying attention to _actual_ reality. That’s why I said holographic. Looking down at my GPS is bad, but having my windshield tell me about an accident ahead helps. You can’t put too much stuff on there, but smarter phones™ can display only what is essential. > [@](#): > > Or it will be like Google Glass with a hearty “fuck you” to people who need prescription glasses. Tough shit! You must accommodate to our technology instead of technology accommodating you. I have prescription glasses. (I despise the thought of contacts.) I’m talking about being small enough to be build into my frames. After all, our smartphones with 100x the capacity of my first cellphone is even smaller than it was. > [@](#): > > Maybe they shouldn’t “get over it”. That boat has sailed. My younger daughter already shares stuff that I don’t want to and even her 5 year older sister doesn’t. Maybe kids today are the wave of the future, unlike us old fogies. ---
**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:** [July 25, 2016, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-replace-smartphones/760700/29 "2016-07-25T01:06:15Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > Well, there are some practical things that smartphones can do, too, but in general this observation correctly underscores two underlying assumptions running through this thread, and generally throughout simplistic ideas toward technology: > > 1. that the “next thing” must be smaller than the current thing. > 2. that we have to have only one “next thing” that will completely replace the current thing. > > For the same reason we don’t make human shoes smaller and smaller, there are ome electronic devices we don’t necessarily want to make smaller and smaller. Likewise, developed societies haven’t created houses with one single room, used for cooking, eating, sleeping and crapping, though it’s technologically possible. Over 20 years ago I went to meetings about cellphone designs which considered that the phones were never going to get smaller than the keypad, even if it was technically possible to make them so. But that not everything should get smaller doesn’t mean that everything won’t. My little grandson has a white noise generator with six choices the size of my hand. And don’t confuse the brains of a product with its input and output. I for one have done plenty of productive work on my phone, especially around work email or using it as a conference guide. I’d never want to make it my exclusive computer, but I’ve never understood people who like to watch movies and TV on their phones. But I’m an old fogey. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-replace-smartphones/760700/30 "2016-07-25T01:06:19Z")
> [@coremelt](#): > > Well the google glass wasn’t much of a success. Turns out people are not very happy with the possibility of you recording them at any time without their knowledge. > > I don’t think smart phones will get replaced any time soon. What they will soon get is much smarter versions of Siri / Cortana / OK Google via sending your voice to the cloud and getting much better responses. The problem with most other “wearables” or other ideas is screen size and practicality. I don’t think a glass based solution is going to go anywhere, it will take some other method of directly creating an image on peoples retinas before the smart phone is replaced. > [@asahi](#): > > I don’t see how you put the Google glass concept back in the bottle, though. Google Glass failed for several reasons, not just because of privacy concerns. Google Glass can be prohibited because people can immediately recognize that it’s, well, a Google Glass. But what happens when computer and communications technology becomes so interwoven into the fabric of daily life that it’s practically invisible? We have smart TVs, smart watches, smart phones…eventually it will all be put together in some sort of seamless ecosystem of smart computing, and it’ll be hardly any more noticeable than security cameras and CCTV. I suspect that this is where we’re headed: there won’t be one object that replaces the smartphone but rather multiple devices working together in tandem. We’ll probably use the television or something like it to integrate it all, like an interactive smart monitor with various stations. I pretty much asked this in here about getting used to big bro watching us [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=795698](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=795698) ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-replace-smartphones/760700/31 "2016-07-25T01:10:57Z")
> [@spamforbrains](#): > > Just no. Besides, who eats dinner at 5? Old people. That’s why so many restaurants have special ‘senior’ discounts from 5pm-6pm or thereabouts. ---
**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:** [July 25, 2016, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-replace-smartphones/760700/32 "2016-07-25T03:16:42Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Actually, it is quite common along freeways for there to be signs advertising which restaurants, hotels, etc. are at each exit. Many of these establishments have set menus that are the same all over the country, and may not vary significantly all over the world. Only those places which pay the state to advertise at these exits. In fact one our our favorite places to eat when taking 101 from LA to the Bay Area doesn’t, and they are located up a hill so you can’t see them until it is too late going north. The phone is great at finding them - of course used by the non-driver. > [@](#): > > And while you’re listening to all this menu reading and deciding on dinner who is driving the car? How about a little less distraction and more paying attention to the road? > > Until we get cars that can actually drive themselves, of course, but despite recent advances I’m not entirely convinced that’s really around the corner. If a passenger does it, same problem - except that the phone will be tied into the car’s radar, and will stop when the idiot dive bomber swoops through three lanes of traffic right ahead of you. But I suspect menu decisions will only happen for familiar places. > [@](#): > > You can’t just _remember_ you’d agreed to meet for dinner at five _on the same day?_ Or remember to call or text if you’re running late? You can’t remember you’re meeting someone or who that is for a couple hours? I just have stopped working, but I still have conference calls for outside technical activities, and transitioning was tough. And I’m not all that busy. There have been times when a system like this would have come in handy, back when my days were full of meetings. No one is going to force anyone to use this, since, unlike phones, no one will really know if you have one or not. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-replace-smartphones/760700/33 "2016-07-25T04:25:16Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > You can’t just _remember_ you’d agreed to meet for dinner at five _on the same day?_ FFS. Obviously I chose a particularly simple example. But even so, you’ve never ever accidentally screwed up your scheduling… meeting one person for dinner when you’d agreed to pick someone else up at the airport? The thing about your objections is that any identical objection could be made about any advance in technology. “Why would you need google to tell you how to get places. Can’t you just read a map?” “Why do you need a website that helps you keep in touch with your friends. Can’t you just write them letters?” ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-replace-smartphones/760700/34 "2016-07-25T05:06:20Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#): > > FFS. Obviously I chose a particularly simple example. But even so, you’ve never ever accidentally screwed up your scheduling… meeting one person for dinner when you’d agreed to pick someone else up at the airport? > > The thing about your objections is that any identical objection could be made about any advance in technology. “Why would you need google to tell you how to get places. Can’t you just read a map?” “Why do you need a website that helps you keep in touch with your friends. Can’t you just write them letters?” I agree with your general sentiment, though some of the applications I find to be superfluous or downright anti-social or counterproductive, but in general you’re quite right. When PCs were on the horizon but before they were really developed, some pundits wondered what on earth people would do with them in their homes, since computers were seen as business and scientific machines. One of the most common predictions is that they would be used to “keep recipes”! The prediction business seems to suffer from severe lack of imagination! And I must admit that I myself once ridiculed GPS for cars, because I was familiar with marine GPSs and could obviously see their utility on aircraft, but why would you need a GPS in a car when you have marked roads and maps? Now, if I’m going anywhere unfamiliar, I consider it pretty much essential, in part because it works so incredibly well. I still make it a point to get an overall feel for the route by checking a map, but even then, it’s always a Google map. But hey, I’ll give the pundits credit. I think among the terabytes of information I have on a handful of different computers and tablets, somewhere in there is a recipe for potato salad! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![TheSeaOtter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ed655f/32.png) [@TheSeaOtter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheSeaOtter)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-replace-smartphones/760700/35 "2016-07-25T05:38:09Z")
> [@coremelt](#): > > Well the google glass wasn’t much of a success. Turns out people are not very happy with the possibility of you recording them at any time without their knowledge. > > I don’t think smart phones will get replaced any time soon. What they will soon get is much smarter versions of Siri / Cortana / OK Google via sending your voice to the cloud and getting much better responses. The problem with most other “wearables” or other ideas is screen size and practicality. I don’t think a glass based solution is going to go anywhere, it will take some other method of directly creating an image on peoples retinas before the smart phone is replaced. Google Glass got people upset for a bunch of reasons - it was obvious, it was new, it was limited to technology early-adopters - people with disposable income who don’t mind looking silly. Tech keeps moving forward, though - and in particular it keeps getting smaller, and thus easier to make subtle. Wearables are going to follow that trend, getting harder and harder to identify. At some point, it’s going to be really hard to tell whose wearing ‘smart glasses’, and who just likes to use bulky frames for their actual glasses. Hard enough to tell that you’d have get up in someone’s face - rudely - to be sure. And then, people will get used to them, just like they got used to smartphones, and cell phones, and telephones, and every other invention that affected how people interact with each other and with the world. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-replace-smartphones/760700/36 "2016-07-25T08:11:41Z")
Google Glass might have tanked, but I still reckon some form of Augmented Reality will eventually become mainstream. Possibly coupled with that tech they have for tetraplegic people where electrodes “read” your mind and use your brain’s electric patterns as computer inputs. With smartphones we’re already hooked on the interwebs at all times and checking all kind of minute information on it 24/7, might as well make it permanent and controlled by thought. “When’s that guy’s birthday ? What’s the definition of that word he used ? Oh, that reminds me I need to buy some milk on the way home. Where’s that reference from ? Is he lying to me, wait there was an article on body language…” Plus I can think of worse things than everybody having a permanent audiovisual log of every encounter they have with everyone. Keeps all the good memories, and proof of the bad ones (police encounters, anyone ?) ---
**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:** [July 25, 2016, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-replace-smartphones/760700/37 "2016-07-25T13:02:52Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > I suspect that sooner than we think, the distinction between “us” and “technology” will be moot. After all, what are smartphone users if not pre-op cyborgs? Clueless idiots? Seriously, if you can’t walk and text at the same time choose to do one or the other and not both at the same time. ---
**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:** [July 25, 2016, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-replace-smartphones/760700/38 "2016-07-25T13:11:05Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > My understanding is that in the dim old days of the past even low level managers had someone called a secretary to do this for them. It’s not that I can’t do it, it is that having my app do it for me means I don’t need to do an extra step, and that I won’t forget to update my calendar. (Which has happened when ten things are going on at once.) Are you a manager? Do you require a “secretary” for your _personal_ life? > [@](#): > > As for ordering, your order might be ready before you get there, in which case it gets cold, or after, in which case you wait and waste time. YOU see it as “wasting time”. I see it as a break from the road. In fact, I prefer to park and go inside to eat even when a drive-through is available because resting is a good thing. > [@](#): > > Plus your phone will be smart enough to suggest things you like and have a conversation with you about it. Why the _fuck_ do I want to have a conversation with a _machine?_ It’s supposed to be my servant, not my best friend. > [@](#): > > Our entire culture these days is about being efficient and saving time. This will happen. Of course, it totally sucked/sucks for the _human_ secretaries that are now unemployed, or will be unemployed. Who will then be dumped to the bottom of the pecking order and despised for not having employment. But hey, keep cheer-leading machines taking over human jobs until it affects you personally. Sure, people can be retrained or start up a business but more and more it’s too many people chasing fewer and fewer jobs. > [@](#): > > I have prescription glasses. (I despise the thought of contacts.) I’m talking about being small enough to be build into my frames. So, you missed that press conference where Google Glass stated that not only did they not have a model compatible with prescription eyeglasses they had no interested in developing one? Think they later backpedaled on that but it was a clear case of “fuck you” to anyone who didn’t fit the same demographic as the developers. > [@](#): > > That boat has sailed. My younger daughter already shares stuff that I don’t want to and even her 5 year older sister doesn’t. Maybe kids today are the wave of the future, unlike us old fogies. Or maybe the pendulum will swing back the other way at some point. That’s what usually happens. ---
**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:** [July 25, 2016, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-replace-smartphones/760700/39 "2016-07-25T13:14:23Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#): > > FFS. Obviously I chose a particularly simple example. But even so, you’ve never ever accidentally screwed up your scheduling… meeting one person for dinner when you’d agreed to pick someone else up at the airport? No. I have never done such a thing. Which is why I have trouble understanding people who find this a difficult task. > [@](#): > > The thing about your objections is that any identical objection could be made about any advance in technology. “Why would you need google to tell you how to get places. Can’t you just read a map?” “Why do you need a website that helps you keep in touch with your friends. Can’t you just write them letters?” Actually, I do still use maps. Google has it’s uses, but it’s not always correct. I both use the internet and write to my friends. As I said, I’m not a Luddite but I don’t believe technology is an unalloyed good. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-replace-smartphones/760700/40 "2016-07-25T13:18:35Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Or maybe the pendulum will swing back the other way at some point. That’s what usually happens. No it doesn’t. Technology isn’t cyclical. When in history have human beings ever stopped using a technology without a better technology replacing it? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-replace-smartphones/760700.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-replace-smartphones/760700.md?page=3)