Charles Stross speaks on the future of hardware & gaming up to 2030

[Alatriste]

Very long, but very good

http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2009/05/login_2009_keynote_gaming_in_t.html#more

Executive summary:

we are going to hit a brick wall regarding miniaturization, as we have hit a brick wall regarding processor speed (due to heating) and Moore's Law will finally die. The good news is, bandwidth is going to grow. A lot, actually. And that applies specially to wireless connections.

The borders between computers, phones and TVs will become blurrier and blurrier

The iPhone has garnished a lot of attention. I've got one: how about you? As futurist, SF writer and design guru Bruce Sterling observed, the iPhone is a Swiss army knife of gadgets — it's eating other devices alive. It's eaten my digital camera, phone, MP3 player, personal video player, web browser, ebook reader, street map, and light saber. But the iPhone is only the beginning.

Add to that storage so cheap that it is almost free and a new generation of interface devices (like special glasses able to magnify, go infrared or work as a HUD to display maps, for example) and we will be able to do things like recording every thing we see and hear 7/24.

On the human side by 2030 we will be 20 years older, of course, but the important thing is all adults and even most retirees will have lived all their lives with consoles and computers, and thousands of millions of persons all over the world will have joined the ranks of those affluent enough to buy such devices. No longer will US, Europe and Japan be the main markets. China _OR_ India, alone, will possibly be bigger.

Oh, and so many elder gamers mean less agility, less coordination and slower reactions.

Welcome to a world where the internet has turned inside-out; instead of being something you visit inside a box with a coloured screen, it's draped all over the landscape around you, invisible until you put on a pair of glasses or pick up your always-on mobile phone. A phone which is to today's iPhone as a modern laptop is to an original Apple II; a device which always knows where you are, where your possessions are, and without which you are — literally — lost and forgetful.

Welcome to a world where everyone is a gamer — casual or hardcore, it makes little difference — and two entire generational cohorts have been added to your market: one of them unencumbered by mortgage payments and the headaches of raising a family.

Note: I considered posting this in 'Gaming HQ' but I think we all like to learn new things about hardware, etc.

[Josquius]

Indian games is a interesting thought; strange that there is none today.

[saskganesh]

... one of them unencumbered by mortgage payments and the headaches of raising a family

cool, I am a cohort from the future.

[Valmy]

unencumbered by mortgage payments

Meh my mortgage is pretty much the same as I paid in rent.

[Alatriste]

... one of them unencumbered by mortgage payments and the headaches of raising a family

cool, I am a cohort from the future.

Yeah, "we are the cohorts of the future" sounds... well, it's up there with "tomorrow belongs to us" 

[Valmy]

cool, I am a cohort from the future.

Yeah but those elderly gamers are therefore supposed to have alot of money to blow saved up from a lifetime of hard work and no rent from a paid off house.  We will see where you are when that time rolls around.

[saskganesh]

... one of them unencumbered by mortgage payments and the headaches of raising a family

cool, I am a cohort from the future.

Yeah, "we are the cohorts of the future" sounds... well, it's up there with "tomorrow belongs to us" 

hope and change, motherfucker. hope and change.

[saskganesh]

cool, I am a cohort from the future.

Yeah but those elderly gamers are therefore supposed to have alot of money to blow saved up from a lifetime of hard work and no rent from a paid off house.  We will see where you are when that time rolls around.

if that's the future, then I will be living in the past.

[Fireblade]

Indian games is a interesting thought; strange that there is none today.

Yeah, I can't wait to play Call Center Tycoon

[DontSayBanana]

Indian games is a interesting thought; strange that there is none today.

Yeah, I can't wait to play Call Center Tycoon

LOL CAN I BE: SPRINT?