In a perfect world every device would sort of be a general-purpose GPU/CPU hybrid that you can chain via an optical link like Intel's Thunderbolt. In the real

In a perfect world every device would sort of be a general-purpose GPU/CPU hybrid that you can chain via an optical link like Intel's Thunderbolt. In the real world, no two devices are going to be compatible because every manufacturer is shipping an embedded OS with a locked bootloader that doesn't run the program you need to read your data. So you have to plug your smartphone in because you have no idea what OS is running on the monitor.