[mcbits]

This is more GPU than CPU, but I want to infer 3D models from my security cameras in real time so I can do some CSI "turn left and look behind it" shit. And use the overlapping textures for superresolution so I can shout "enhance!" and read the license plate reflected in the perp's eyeball.

As for reading e-mails and so on, yeah, we've pretty much reached peak e-mail.

[barganzo]

If you can’t do that stuff right now with today’s CPUs, in sub-realtime, then throwing more/faster CPU at it won’t make it possible.

[mcbits]

I haven't described anything that can't already be done (well, reading a license plate in an eyeball was mostly an exaggeration). It just can't be done affordably in real time on a home computer. And it's just the first few out of many examples to come to mind.

I think people fall into the trap of conflating "this is what I do with my computer" with "this is what my computer is for." Obviously if computers are only for doing the things you can already do with them, then they won't benefit much from improvements.