If you haven’t already heard, the time-honored tradition of buying a new, marginally faster, more expensive computer every year of your life is soon coming to an end. Moore’s law, which in 1965 predicted with startling accuracy that computing power would double every two years, has also spelled out an end to this exponential process: 2023, or thereabout. You see, computers get faster every year by packing more microscopic transistors onto the surface of a microchip. But these can only get so small, and in 2023, they won’t be able to get any smaller. This event marks the beginning of the age of boring computers: can you imagine a new MacBook coming out every year with the same specs as the last one? Of course not. Luckily, as this fresh infographic explains (after a brief tour of modern computing’s history), there are some pretty mind-bending options for computers to take which might be just around the corner. Read it aloud and see if a familiar tune comes to mind. [Read more...]