What Happens When Hardware Reaches Atomic Scale?

Not a great deal of thought seems to have been expended about what the wider effect will be when hard-drives, SSDs, Processors etc reach their natural limits. Our storage devices go up in density (according to Moore's law still?) and our processors accelerate because with each new cycle they are further miniaturised - packing more TB in and reducing the distance travelled by electrons round a circuit. So what happens when they reach the molecular level? I'm thinking of two things here - 1. Whether or not a theoretical physical barrier exists and 2. If it does, what are the implications for human progress, the economy, society as a whole.

1. Is There A Physical Limit To The Speed & Storage of Computers?
- At first glance, you would have thought that things cannot be miniaturised past the atomic level. This may be true - or can smaller sub-particles support computation?
- Will there be work-arounds - for example Quantum Computing taking over from traditional Von-Neumann CPU architectures - out-of-the-box solutions that make increases in computational power possible through approaches other than miniaturisation?
- Will we care - e.g. can we just keep "progressing" technologically once the physical limits are reached by "adding more and more boxes"?

2. What consequences might there be if there are physical limits?
ECONOMIC
  • The boom in electronics slows as "maximum speed" devices become commodity items
  • Computers / phones / etc do not need to be replaced on a 2 yearly cycle
CREATIVE
  • Software and implementation becomes King - finding new ways of using the existing tools
SOCIAL
  • People become much less fixated on gadgets & tech in general. The Internet - after a full generation has passed - will just be "there" and commodity devices part of the background of life. Sure, a sophisticated life - but one with tech taken for granted. Perhaps we (or the majority of people) will no longer crave / aspire to these material goods as their appeal wanes. Let's hope so - and some of the wind of individual capitalism is calmed leaving people to re-engage with creativity and community...
????


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