The Professor's trapped in the future, and he needs your help!

Use your knowledge of technology to repair the time stream and win a Christmas hamper, in association with Intel

Hop into the Professor's time machine and take a trip through the past 30 years of IT in the workplace. From crusty CRTs and office-bound server stacks full of tapes in the 1980s, to the PC-dominated 2000s and on to the smartphone-based mobile office of today, you can easily see the progression of technology from expensive, room-filling machines to a worker who can work anywhere, any way they like.

But what's this? In an attempt to visit the future and find out how our descendants will get their work done, the Professor's time machine seems to have developed a bit of a fault.

He's stuck at a junction in the time stream between three possible futures!

There's the #HologramFuture, where a deft mixture of augmented and virtual reality allows remote workers to physically interact in 3D spaces, overlaying their work on the walls, floors and anything in between. Working at home and being in the office become one and the same thing.

Or there's the #EmbeddedFuture. Here, the technology has got inside people, as they play host to sensors, servos, memory chips and advanced relatives of modern IoT hardware. These workers can literally save their data on their own DNA, becoming one with their IT.

Finally, the Professor gets a snapshot of the #AutomatedFuture. In this reality, us humans can kick back and relax, while our mechanical friends can handle most (or all?) of our daily duties.

Which future do you think is most likely? VOTE NOW by Tweeting #HologramFuture, #EmbeddedFuture or #AutomatedFuture to @Computing_News.

We'll reveal your verdict on the future soon, and please remember there's a massive Christmas hamper to be won by one lucky Tweeter*.

Good luck, and make your future a good one!

*winner chosen at random