In the last 60 years we’ve seen amazing advances in computing, communications, gaming, and entertainment. Recently we’ve even seen the trusty old light-bulb get a facelift (as CF or LED bulbs). But all of these are dependent on power, and if you’re going to unplug from the wall, you have to have a battery.
How much has battery technology improved in 60 years? Well, sure, they’ve gotten smaller, and we have a lot more options in rechargeability, but we’re near the limit. Ultimately, a battery is a device that stores electrical energy as chemical energy, and there’s only so much chemical energy you can get out of an object of a particular size.
Unless we can make mini nuclear power plants the size of a D-cell, don’t expect much improvement on the battery side of things any time soon. There is no Moore’s Law for batteries, sorry. Longer battery life is really dependent on (1) less energy usage/wasteage from a device, and (2) getting energy or recharges from other sources, such as wearable solar rechargers, motion charging similar to some watches, or even a little mechanical energy from the user.
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