The Death of Physical Space

I've had this idea in my head for a long time: the idea that all computers could be abstracted to cloud computing. When I see computer kiosks, or tech kiosks in general, I cringe at the site of all of the hardware. The idea that anyone needs multiple devices for any kind of computing work is false. That, of course, automatically makes me a hypocrite because I am an owner of multiple, likely too many, different devices. The other truth is that consumer hardware hasn't been developed to support this one device mentality. In fact, it's likely the opposite.

Cloud computing has changed everything. You can go online and purchase a virtual machine that is hosted in some sort of data center somewhere, likely managed by a big tech company. I'm going to propose a scenario of what I think the future of personal, as well as corporate, computing can look like. It relies heavily on spatial computing (virtual/augmented reality) being widely available and developed, for the "one" device that people use in this scenario is a headset.

In this scenario, personal computers, such as desktops and laptops, no longer exist. Smartphones don't either. Instead, the most convenient, practical device to own is a headset. Software is developed with three-dimensional interaction in mind; legacy applications universally fall under the second dimension. Further, if a user needs another device, it is delivered in the form of a virtual machine.

For example, a user obtains a new clerical job at a large company. Instead of physically receiving a corporate laptop (which likely contains far more computing power than the user will need) like they would today, the user is instead granted access to a virtual machine where they can connect safely to corporate services. This virtual machine, using principles of least privilege and cloud computing, can be adapted to how much work the user actually does. It only supplies the resources that the user needs, nothing more. Further, it can be accessed from anywhere, as long as the user still has their headset.

In a different kind of scenario, where physical space is still important (or maybe where physical security is essential to a given occupation), a virtual machine could only be accessed from a certain area in the real world. If spatial computing is advanced enough, it would be like having a virtual machine locked to your desk at work. The flow would be very much the same as it is today: you walk into work to unlock your corporate PC, because it's the only place where your PC can safely access corporate systems. In this scenario, it is exactly the same, except you don't physically have your device at your desk.

I think that all of this is entirely possible to accomplish today. It's why I loathe the sight of so many physical resources being spent on devices that people don't actually need. The unfortunate truth is that the global economy is built on that sort of lifecycle of consumerism. If we dropped everything today and made everything digital, many companies would fall apart. It constantly grinds me gears that this sort of digital revolution in spatial and cloud computing seems entirely feasible, but the digital and cultural infrastructure just hasn't been developed. It is a highly more efficient way, from my perspective, of distributing computing to people. In some cases, it might be more dystopian, since people really only have a choice of one kind of device, and companies in general will have finer control over what people do with their devices.

Despite that, I still think that it would be a better world than the one we have today. To me, it seems that more and more hardware is being produced, at the cost of the Earth's precious resources. People only end up buying these devices because they think that need them. If only people had a better understanding of how the Internet and how these new technologies actually work, then maybe it would all be different. That's a big ask, considering that most people choose to remain ignorant to how their computing devices actually work.