Seismic Shifts By Decade
If you had to choose only one thing per decade that may have created the most important or most impactful change, what would that look like? Below is my attempt to reason what the biggest shifts has been for each decade.
DECADES TILL NOW
1970s - Personal Computing
This was the decade where the microprocessor was invented and led to the shift from large room sized computers in enterprises like IBM to personal computing that would forever change the world. This was the decade both Apple and Microsoft were founded.
1980s - The GUI
This was the decade the GUI was introduced to the world and forever changed how computing would work.
1990s - World Wide Web
We went online. It goes without saying, this forever changed how our world worked.
2000s - Mobile Computing
Touch computing and smartphones completely reshaped our world with the introduction of the iPhone.
2010s - Blockchains
An entire industry (putting aside how controversial this whole space has been for many) was invented creating trillions in worth and entire new economies and business models evolved out of this.
2020s - Artificial Intelligence
We're still early in the 2020s right now but AI is the new hotness and I believe it's the going to rapidly get better and better. It is absolutely insane.
FUTURE DECADES
I'm going to attempt to predict what I think will be the seismic shifts in the coming decades. I could be wrong, after all, predictions that far out are hard, but here are a few that I think will become reality.
2030s - XR
XR, an umbrella term for Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), and Mixed Reality (MR), is ramping up but its not quite there yet. Apple is getting ready to announce their XR headset and Facebook rebranded as Meta to showcase their serious commitment. I am one of those who believe the future of computing (putting aside metaverse or gaming or any of that) is the future. I think it'll take us another decade to see the tech catch up to deliver this vision.
Update: I was expecting this to take another decade to take off but seems like 2020s is when this will take off thanks to Apple and it's entry into the space with Vision Pro. And I love the term "Spatial Computing".
2040s - Terminal Cloud Computing
One of my dreams for nearly a decade now has been to see the future of computing move into what I call a Hybrid Cloud OS system that allows you to access your computer through any device because it mainly lives online. In order for XR to really take off, this needs to be a new paradigm where certain data continues to live on-device but majority of computing moves to be powered by data centers. There are other pieces that needs to improve such as internet speeds, realiability, more satellites and towers, and latency issues resolved, but once these are solved, I couldn't imagine why this wouldn't be how computing is moving forward.
2050s - Robotics
If sentient AI is in our future, I can't imagine not having robotics be part of that future. Putting aside concerns of terminator like events, building sentient robots can be helpful for advancing other innovations.
2060s - Quantum Computing
Quantum computers exist today but they are wildly impratical and expensive for the typical consumer. With computing moving to terminal cloud computing a couple decades earlier, moving to making quantum computing accessible can be a reality now.
2070s - Space Colonization
With robots, this makes colonizing and building cities on planets that don't support human life yet possible. It also gives us a few more decades to advance space tech to allow for human travel.
2080s and Beyond
I haven't figured out what comes after this. I'm not even sure any of my predictions will come true. I left out a big one, anti-aging advancements. But overall, this was a fun exercise to think about. And if any of these do come true, the question should be, what can you do to participate?
If you had participated in any of these over the prior decades, your life could have been vastly different. These are things that have shaped our world for better or worse. I know I certainly want to continue following where technology takes us.
