We like and need Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) for data
processing. This is measureable in the exponential growth of data processed by
ICT, e.g. ICT for cryptocurrency mining and search engines. So far, the energy
demand for computing technology has increased by a factor of 1.38 every ten
years due to the exponentially increasing use of ICT systems as computing
devices. The energy consumption of ICT systems is expected to rise from 1500
TWh (8% of global electricity consumption) in 2010 to 5700 TWh (14% of global
electricity consumption) in 2030. A large part of this energy is required for
the continuous data transfer between the separated memory and processor units
which constitute the main components of ICT computing devices in von-Neumann
architecture. This at the same time massively slows down the computing power of
ICT systems in the von-Neumann architecture. In addition, due to the increasing
complexity of AI compute algorithms, since 2010 the AI training compute time
demand for computing technology increases tenfold every year, for example in
the period from 2010 to 2020 from 1x10^{-6} to 1x10^{+4} Petaflops/Day. It has
been theoretically predicted that ICT systems in the neuromorphic computer
architecture will circumvent all of this through the use of merged memory and
processor units. However, the core hardware element for this has not yet been
realized so far. In this work we discuss the prespectives for non-linear
resistive switches as the core hardware element for merged memory and processor
units in neuromorphic computers.