Ever seen a two year old use a tablet? Don't be shocked if in ten to twelve years we have teenagers who can only use a touch interface and can't type or hate using a mouse.

That is exactly my grandchildren. My grandson is four and has been using smartphones for three years. He's had his own for one. Color me shocked when, at three, he asked me to connect his phone to my wifi. They're bright enough kids but far from exceptional/genius. Its just how it is now.

By the way, when you make the off/end button big and red, it is nigh impossible to convince a little boy not to press it. Over and over.

It's more fun when they try to swipe the TV and can't understand why it doesn't work the same way.

People laughed when in a Windows 8 keynote a Microsoft exec said, "To a kid, a screen without touch is broken."

I think that was pretty spot on. Touch is a very primal way to interact with things.

I've seen a toddler try to swipe on a magazine. It was both hilarious and enlightening.

I recently caught myself holding my finger on a paper book and waiting for the translation dialog to pop up. Guess too much time spent reading on a Kindle.

link: https://www.cnet.com/news/1-year-old-thinks-a-magazine-is-a-...

I sometimes do miss the functionality of touching/swiping my laptop.

I was about to comment, it is very annoying to write on a tablet for any kind of school length work. I would hate to write an essay on a tablet.

Then I realized I have installed Dragon on this computer, and there wasn't even a reason for me to type this reply. So I will risk a guess and assume that in the future essays will be spoken, not written. No doubt there will be an epic fight over this, as people try to defend why children of the future will have to learn to type. I will hazard one more prediction: they will lose.

Hello, computer.

Integer main open parenthesis void close parenthesis open squigly brace. Newline.

Bob, find some earphones and stop complaining. I'm​ not the one that pushed for open-plan.

Computer, please delete the previous paragraph.

Standard colon colon cee out less than less than double quote capital hello world exclamation point double quote semi-colon. Newline.

Close squigly brace.

See this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SkdfdXWYaI

> In a fast-paced live demo, I will create a small system using Python, plus a few other languages for good measure, and deploy it without touching the keyboard. The demo gods will make a scheduled appearance. I hope to convince you that voice recognition is no longer a crutch for the disabled or limited to plain prose. It's now a highly effective tool that could benefit all programmers.

Turns out it's doable, you just need to invent your own language.

That was horrible, but I couldn't stop watching!

A good voice ide would handle the boilerplate

Hello computer

new function returning void print hello world end function

You're assuming writing is a highly linear process, which has pretty much never been the case. When dictating memos was a thing, even that took practice. Anything more complex has always involved huge amounts of cutting and pasting--whether literally or digitally.

Given good enough voice recognition and good enough touch interfaces that work in concert (and ignoring the many situations where speaking is an issue), it's possible. But it's not an easy path.

Great, so in the future we're going to have to listen to people writing their pretentious novels in cafes. With any luck, I'll be deaf by then.

With any luck, they'll be subvocalizing.

Interesting - especially the using the mouse/trackpad part. They're going to want pro tablets. Some of those two year olds of yore are now seven - and elementary schools in the U.S. are still very tablet focused. It'll be interesting to see what happens in four or so years when they start middle school and are expected to use traditional laptops.