What will personal computers do for us in 2100?

Just thinking about life today....

What will be the nut we are trying to crack in the future? My guess is that on teh humanity wide scale we will really be trying to crack theoretical physics, cosmology, and heath/genetics. We will create and use Quantum computers or Photon computers to solves how teh universe works 0 to make warp engines or how to stop cell death/aging. Harness space/time and our own biological bodies.

Nevertheless, as everyday people on the smaller scale of problems, what computer will do for us? What is the everyday person's use case for computing? I think our computers will still be for communication , data research, and gaming. That won't stop, we still will need that. However, the big new use could be to regulate our bodies. Our smartphones will monitor our bodies very closely and will work in conjunction with "biological devices" and "sensors" to very finely tune our bodies and minds. This will even allow for more control over our minds and bodies to be more productive.

Most people want to be healthy & fit, right? We want our bodies to look good and feel good, whatever our idea of 'looking good' means. But were just silly naked apes with 500,000 years old hardware run by basic wetware programming. Its takes thought and will to do anything with your body, and once you do something wrong we have very limited "corrections" we can make. So why not have just add some special organs and that have a control mechanism inside our bodies that are controlled by the supercomputer in our pocket. We all KNOW what we could do to become fit; but we don't often have the will and human support to do it like a rich movies star does. However , what if we COULD just tell our bodies what to do, while influencing our mind to do it more proactively. An automatic pilot for our body where we mind goes into a hypnotic fugue state where all doubts and procrastination are swept away. The automation system would have safeguards of course; yet, there is probably a safe way to nudge of minds and bodies to DO what we plan to do.

To make this happen we woudl of course need to study our minds and bodies far more than we have so far. But, in 80 more years I think we will have systems like described above for most people. And why not do it for everyone because productive humans make life better for themselves, others, and human society in the Solar System.

Our smartphones will monitor our bodies very closely and will work in conjunction with "biological devices" and "sensors" to very finely tune our bodies and minds. This will even allow for more control over our minds and bodies to be more productive.

Isn't this already a thing? I am not diabetic and I do not have heart problems, but can't diabetics use their smartphones to check insulin levels and people with pacemakers do... something with a smartphone to keep track of things? There are a lot of question marks here because, uh, I don't know and don't know where to ask. Other than vague Google searches which may or may not get me to a correct answer.

It is also worth noting that, as far as productivity and managing your life goes, a smartphone can do a whole hell of a lot for you if used correctly. Note-taking apps, apps that help you track your diet, apps that help you track how much exercise you get, apps that track your spending habits, apps that track what you're doing with your time, all of this stuff exists and if you put work into it, you can get a lot of ideas about what you could be doing better out of it. Potentially, anyway, here's another big disclaimer that in reality I use my phone for browsing shitposts on Reddit and thumbing through Giantbomb forums.

As far as what humans will use computers for in the future... who knows? I don't think quantum computers will ever be a normal fixture in a person's home. Classical computers are still getting faster, still getting better, and we're at the point where you can do basic home computer tasks with a computer the size of a credit card, and relatively cheaply as well. I don't really see this going away anytime soon. Potentially, we could have computers in our brains and bodies and we won't need things we hold in our hands... but I wouldn't hold my breath on that sci-fi concept, I have a hard time believing that good old green PCBs and processors will be gone or even uncommon in 2100. Meanwhile, quantum computing is still in its infancy and still incredibly expensive and takes up a lot of room.

I hope that your average person will be more computer literate by then. I've worked in tech support before and there's nothing quite like the despair you might feel when trying to figure out how to explain to someone that the monitor and the computer are not the same thing, and that just because the screen is off doesn't mean the computer is off.

In any case, I'm pretty sure that a hundred years from now, some nerd will be sitting behind something resembling a keyboard, mouse, and monitor, browsing something that looks a lot like a forum, posting bullshit about something that could be called video games. Maybe he'll be doing it with some kind of headset on, .hack style, or maybe it will be on a monitor that's paper thing and 64k resolution, or maybe it will be streamed straight to his glasses or even his eyeballs, but ultimately it won't be all that different.

But also we can't forget that a hundred years ago, computers didn't exist and the people laying the groundwork for their existence certainly weren't thinking about carrying a supercomputer in their pockets.

Not only that but the supercomputers in our pockets are mostly used for leisure. Charles Babbage would be running into the nearest wall in disgust.

It's astonishing to think how far we have progressed in AI over the last 10 years with deep learning applications like AlphaGo, AlphaFold, and GPT-3, so it's hard to imagine what it will be like in another 80. I'm not overly concerned with AI risk or The Singularity or whatnot; however, I'd bet that by then (or much earlier) there will be AI sufficiently convincing in the Turing Test that there will be a serious campaign for AI rights. (personally I think those people will be wrong. I'm more interested in human well-being.)

As far quantum computers, who knows, but I imagine they will become very important for certain applications like simulating quantum chemistry and we'll have to switch to quantum-proof cryptography. I don't know if you will be able to carry one around in your phone, though.

I have resigned myself that global warming will likely prove catastrophic enough that technology is not worth speculating about past 2050.

They'll make a damn fine pizza, that's what.