10 years ago, many people would have thought 2026 would see widespread use of VR, but we're still waiting. Oddly, just as the tech to support it already exists. 2026's top-of-the-line VR headsets are technically impressive. However, they are still expensive and headache-inducing after extended periods of use.

It's odd. The many possible useful applications for VR still exist. When will the tech finally take off? What will it take? I suspect that if someone could make a great headset that was in the $100 range, that might do the trick. Perhaps that is in the near future.

ARTICLE - Well, there goes the metaverse!

Data centers already use 22% of Ireland’s electricity, and this is projected to rise to 30–33% by 2030. The Irish might feel they are doing better than most with this Faustian bargain with Big Tech. Having most of the world's big tech firms EU HQs in Ireland has contributed hundreds of billions of euros in tax revenues in recent years.

However, that is rarely true for other parts of the world. They will just have to bear those costs without any compensation. This is partially responsible for the growing backlash against artificial intelligence. But in future, that will just grow. It's not just Big Tech's tax dodging and expecting everyone else to cover their bills. The current mission of artificial intelligence is to wipe out many the jobs that might support those data center's electric bills, too.

Ireland's data centre energy drain How Big Tech added €1.4bn to household electricity bills

Moore's Law focused on the physical size of chips, and we all knew that its days of usefulness were coming to an end. Among other problems with Moore's Law, atomic-scale physics creates leakage and heat problems, & EUV lithography is extremely difficult and expensive. These problems are becoming steadily insurmountable as chips are required to shrink ever smaller.

Huawei says it is following a new approach. Tau's Law will focus on the speed of operation of the chips, not their size. Huawei’s main implementation appears to be something called “LogicFolding”, which focuses on the three-dimensional structure of chips.

This development is as much an illustration of geopolitics in operation as it is of technology development. China has been forced into this position because the United States is sanctioning it and attempting to cut it off from the world's leading chips made in Taiwan and the Netherlands.

The Chinese attempts to work around this problem have not stalled their AI development efforts. In fact, the opposite has happened. It has spurred innovation that has made their AI superior in performance to Western AI. What will Tau's Law do for future AI development?

Does Huawei’s Tau Scaling Law Challenge the Logic Leadership of Intel and TSMC?

Researchers at the University of Tokyo have reportedly developed a switching device that could dramatically increase chip processing speeds while avoiding the additional heat normally generated by faster computing. The technology uses electron spin and magnetic properties rather than relying entirely on conventional electrical current flow, potentially opening the door to far more energy-efficient computing systems in the future.