HACKER Q&A
📣 Fr0styMatt88

What new technology do you think won't make sense to you in 20 years?


Let's say there's a concrete divide between people that 'get' abstract thinking (through exposure and practice) and those who don't. Call it the difference between 'programmers' or 'engineers' and 'non-engineers'. I'm thinking of that nebulous thing that makes engineers different - systems thinking maybe? The thing that makes us inmates in the asylum, so to speak (referring to the book here) -- the thing people talk about when they say that programmers are bad at UI design.

Often as an engineer I catch myself thinking that given enough research, engineers can 'system-out' an understanding to almost anything. I expect to be doing that for the rest of my life; non-stop learning is part of the profession.

It does make me wonder (and this is the question I'm throwing out there) -- what do you all think the next divide is going to be? Do you think there's a technology you'll look at in 20 years time, with the same bewilderment that 'non-engineers' look at us with, while your kids who have grown up with it can't fathom why you can't understand it?

The closest I can think of for me is quantum computing; that seems different. I've read a fair bit about it and yet it still seems fundamentally alien to me. With regular programming, I can 'run the program in my head'. With quantum computing, I can't even seem to create a mental model of how it works or what you'd do with it.

So, what do you think the next fundamental shift in technology and thinking will be?


  👤 coder4life Accepted Answer ✓
Augmented reality 10G terabyte/sec connected contact lenses with microlasers that beam that this augmented reality right into the exact cone or rod (that's been mapped out by some super neural net ahead of time, or even continually?). An interface controlled by thoughts, also putting a second internal voice (bone conduction? modifying brainwaves?) for spatial audio

👤 verdverm
Biological, not Blockchain