I've been saying for years that the current model of computer —"television and a typewriter"— is ready to die.<p>OTOH the computer is the new boob tube, and people do love to lounge in front of it. Its not that we wish something would save us. We like sitting in front of it feeling productive and whiling our time away.<p>I was at my Grandmothers for a few weeks sitting there working with my laptop. Eventually she asked "so what is that thing ?" Totally reasonable question ! I watched films on it, showed her google earth, did skype calls. Why should she assume it was a computer ?<p>So in a way the computer has already disappeared. and that's not a phone in your pocket.
"Computers will die. They're dying in their present form. They're just about dead as distinct units.” ― Don DeLillo, Cosmopolis<p>even the word "computer" sounds hopelessly old-fashioned