Topic: Are physical buttons and switches becoming obsolete?

I bought a new lamp not too long ago. It doesn't have a switch or a button on it anywhere. There is simply a spot that you touch and that's what turns it on or off. There isn't even any different texture or a seam marking where the touch sensitive spot is. (Which has resulted in me groping the thing in the dark like some kind of lamp molester until I found the correct spot to turn the light on!)

Most modern smartphones have done away with a physical home button, and physical keyboards and dial-pads are almost entirely extinct. And I suspect as soon as Apple or Samsung figure out a way, even the lock button and volume buttons will be gone.

More and more technology seems to be pushing physical/mechanical input/control mechanisms away. I've even tried typing on a virtual keyboard - and I hated it!

Are we moving toward a future where everything is virtual/digital? Where keyboards, switches, buttons and the like are going to become obsolete?

With gaming there always seems to be this trend to do something different, motion controls, VR, touch screens, and who knows what's next? Is it possible someone is going to find something that kills off the traditional gamepad/Keyboard and mouse?

In the last couple of years I feel I've finally started to understand why my father continued to use his record players and 8-track tapes. (I wish he was still around to talk to about this sort of thing) For the first time I have started to feel like technology is growing past me. I used to love all the new toys. But many of the newer trends in technology I do not like. Most notably, this trend away from physical controls. I need that tactile feedback. Even after 6 years, I still find typing on a touch screen keyboard on my phone to be horribly slow and awkward. I only even initially upgraded to a smartphone because my provider did not offer an ordinary cell phone with GPS built in.

I'm only 27. I imagine that when I'm 54 I'm very much going to be the grumpy old man saying "back in my day!" all the time! (apologies to anyone in their 50s or older)

So what do you think? Is technology really moving away from buttons and Switches, or am I just imagining my own nightmare?

Tactile tech will always be complimentary to non-tactile tech I think. So long as human senses include touch and sound, tactile technology will continue to be sold and manufactured. People buy art to fulfil the desires of all senses quite often (framed pictures, fine foods, perfumes, etc), irrespective of whether these things can be replicated in a non-tactile way. Unless of course the end game is us all getting hooked into seamless VR spaces, at which point your concerns likely aren't misplaced!

@cryptologous Honestly if it were full immersion VR like something we saw in the Matrix or in Sword Art Online, I would be okay with that, because in that scenario, even touch is replicated. I played through the SAO games recently and found myself thinking that if VR of that nature ever existed, it would take over my life. I would only do the bare minimum of what I needed to in the real world, because I could do whatever I wanted in VR without concern or fear of injury, illness or even getting fat. lol

@Heavyarms55 It's certainly an appealing concept. I took it upon myself to try and attain a real world VR equivalent a few years back by training myself to lucid dream. While I'm not blessed with perma-lucidity like a few unicorns out there, without actively trying I'll still enter lucidity a few times a week and it's a pretty cool substitute. I'd take a tactile keyboard in a lucid dream over a touch screen keyboard in a lucid dream any day of the week all things considered!

No. Tactility is a must in certain situations. For example, the iPod Nano primarily uses the touch screen, but the buttons on the side can be used to adjust the volume, move to the next/previous song, and even read the artist name and song title, and all while my hand is in my pocket.

Likewise, many (I'd argue most) games do not lend themselves well to non-tactile input, hence why so many games do not translate well to mobile, and I also do not like using the screen as an input method as I would like to observe the entirety of the screen rather than have my hands all over it. While recent mobile ports of games such as DOOM seem like a nice idea in theory, I imagine that they would be damn near impossible to master with touch input.

The whole "Lamp without a switch" thing isn't new. An acquaintance of mine had one back in the mid to late 90s.

I certainly hope not. I still prefer buttons for gaming rather than touch screens. I never liked how the majority of DS games were all touch controlled. It made several games damn near unplayable. Plus i hate how you're basically rubbing your constantly oily fingers all over your screen. That's sick! I don't even use the touch screen to play switch games because there's no stylus. I'm not smearing fingerprints all over the screen by using my bare hands. Gross!

@Enigminator Well this is the first time I've run into it. And it was just an example that made me thing about it. Another is that I've a computer monitor that lacks any buttons at all. And many TVs have cut back to just a simple power, volume and channel button and lack any other controls. Some don't even have those.

Yeah I had one when I was a kid back in the early 90s. Had it for a few weeks till my dad got rid of it because our cats kept turning the thing on and off.

@Tasuki Funny you mention cats, she had around 20 of them...

And 2 dogs.

@Enigminator Lol we only had two, but every night it looked like a rave was going on in the room with that lamp.

@Tasuki That's honestly pretty hilarious!

My parents TV is like that, @Heavyarms55 .... No buttons on it at all but obviously there's a remote & that has them, so not really the same My monitor actually has 3 buttons & a little stick for navigating the menu, since it doesn't have a remote, though