Comment by 10ren

- Spherical displays ("you inside")

- Multi-core, with identical cores, is abandoned in favour of highly specialized cores (like organs in the body, or firms in the economy, due to the same pressures: "transaction costs" - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Coase#The_Nature_of_the_...)

- The first real AI is created, but isn't taken seriously until it comes up with a revolutionary way of promoting soap powder, which advertising executives describe as "blindingly obvious" in hindsight. However, its success is tragically short-lived, as advertising is mmediately redefined as not requiring genuine intelligence. The search for real AI continues....

- a formal theory of the "good life", that maximizes human happiness - joy, contentment and satisfaction - is proposed. To almost universal chagrin, it is experimentally tested... and verified. A virtual reality game is created, based on the theory. Massive hoards of users are anticipated, but no one plays it. A competitor then creates a version with the suffering and pain removed. It's a runaway hit.