Ask Hackaday: How Much Compute Is Enough?

A reflective piece questioning how much computing power is actually necessary, tracing the history of compute predictions from IBM's Thomas Watson to today. Modern iPhones now outperform 1980s Cray supercomputers by three orders of magnitude, and consumer GPUs like the RTX 5070 rival early 2000s supercomputers. The author argues that for most everyday tasks, current compute is already more than sufficient, and wonders whether the relentless push for more performance is truly delivering proportional value.