I was passing by the desk of a colleague today and I saw a tangle of wires that was so astonishing I just had to take this picture. And it made me wonder.
As computer technology continues to advance, will we ever get to the point where our modern high-tech world no longer requires this tangled undergrowth of artificial lianas?
Imagine a digital future without all those wires. That’s a future I would very much like to see!!!
We’re there.
A modern iMac gets by with just a power cord (wireless keyboard & mouse, built-in speakers good enough you don’t need external ones, etc.).
You will need to sneak a cord out to recharge the peripherals every few weeks though.
I remember upgrading a relative’s computer to an iMac, and coming up quite a handful of cords to remove.
And of course, phones and laptops (the “computer” most use these days) are pretty cordless.
Ah yes. To misquote William Gibson:
Cordlessness is already here — it’s just not evenly distributed.