The Future...

[Boerseun]

...and no, this is not a Leonard Cohen song.

But talking about the future, technologically speaking, what's in the pipeline?

My grandfather saw the first cars and airplanes. They were such profound innovations that now, barely a century after their invention, the world will completely and utterly grind to a halt without them.

My father saw similar innovations, amongst them colour television, microwave ovens, people landing on the moon, etc.

The only groundbreaking things to happen in my lifetime, so far, has been cellphones, and the advent of the Internet. Linking together a bunch of computers over phonelines to create this global spider's web of connections and information. But was that really so profound? I mean, both computers and telephones existed before the internet.

...and that's my whole point. The internet is 'physically' nothing new. The novelty lies in integrating existing technology in new ways, and I'm sure without the internet, plenty companies will go down and "Life as we know it" simply won't be possible.

But what lies in the future? Renewable energy sources to power cars won't be groundbreaking nor earth-shattering, because we've had autos for more than a century, and powering them is simply a technical matter. The concept of a "car" won't change. I don't see flying cars anytime soon, because instead of only using energy for propulsion, they'd need energy to keep aloft as well, making them more energy-inefficient than existing cars.

So how would "integration" revolutionize our world?

I think the "next big thing" will be biotechnological integration. Imagine, for a second, that they can perfect neuron-to-metal connections, and the brain's wiring can be mapped to the extent that its possible to implant electronic devices straight into your brain. There's enough space between your two brain hemispheres to house quite a few gigs worth of RAM, plus possibly a processor to make mental calculations a breeze. They can possibly be powered by directly tapping into your bloodstream. Taking the integration thing a little further, wireless connections like bluetooth would be perfectly possible, once the details of implanting these units are sorted out. With the result that two people can communicate without saying a word, or you can download movies to watch in your mind. You can lie in bed with your eyes closed, surfing the web at the same time. Remembering reams and reams of data will become a cinch, and technical training would take a few minutes of flash download instead of years and years at college.

With advances being made in prostethics, where physical connections between nerve endings and actual wire is being made, the technical side of this would probably be quite possible within a few years. The biggest hurdle would be mapping the brain so that the connections are made to the right nerves. But technically, this would be quite feasible within the next two to three decades, I guess.

But coming down to Earth for a while, and leaving these heady dreams for a while, what do you see as the next "big thing", and with "big", I mean something that'll revolutionize the world, and be indispensible within a very short time?

Things that did this in the last hundred or so years, which became indispensible very quickly, would be, amongst others, the following:

Automobiles,
the Radio,
Television,
Airplanes,
Electronics,
The telephone,
Cellphones,
Computers,
Handheld calculators (!)
Desktop publishing

(AND TOBASCO SAUCE!!!)

Any thoughts? Is there a specific need in the world that can only be addressed by some completely new technological marvel? Or are we bound to be integrating what we have for the next hundred or so years, without coming up with something fundamentally new?

[PedroH]

Boerseun,my father some weeks ago said to me something like that "Back in my time I thought there was nothing more to invent,nowadays I see how I was wrong".It tells me that we never know when the next revolutionary invention may happen,or what it'll be.
Lots of inventions may be cogitated,but we don't even are sure if they will be trully possible to function.Some people say that,timetravelling,androids rights,floating and a drive itself cars(like in "I,robot"^^),cure of cancer or fix some organism function by using cell steem studies and other things, will be possible;... But the truth is that we never know.
Ps:It would be nice to have some device that turn water into wine

[Turtle]

Something in the genetics arena is my guess. Things like no disease, higher intelligence, stronger bodies, and lifespans in the hundreds of years.

[InfiniteNow]

I want to be a centaur with electronically assisted telepathy and telekinesis who can teleport.

[wine]

Originally Posted by InfiniteNow

I want to be a centaur with electronically assisted telepathy and telekinesis who can teleport.

I suggest you exercise your dreams.

[HydrogenBond]

Necessity is the mother of invention. It is greed propels the invention into the market place. The market place, in turn, lead to economies of scale and lower prices so inventions become useful on a wide scale. For example, the development of the atomic bombs and the space race led to the need for many of the inventions of today, such as computers. Capitialists saw the profits that could be made (Bill Gates), with free market forces driving down the price and making the invention better and cheaper.

What we need is necessity. Global warming is trying to create that urgency, which create the necessity to invent alternative energy, more effeciency, etc. Stem cell research is not necessity, but starts at the greed level and may not lead to innovation at the fastest rate. The govenment is horrible at free market stuff. Beaurocracy is optimized for war and gets lazy and fat during peacetime. Stem cell reseach is better left for the free market. What we is an alien invasion so the beaurocracy can kick into high gear and invent the impossible.

[Turtle]

Originally Posted by HydrogenBond

Necessity is the mother of invention. . ...

While clever and oft repeated, that little proverb is simply false as an absolute. No end of inventions have nothing to do with necessity. No doubt in the future it will still be prattling about.

[infamous]

Originally Posted by Boerseun

...and no, this is not a Leonard Cohen song.

But talking about the future, technologically speaking, what's in the pipeline?

What should be in the pipeline are technologies to deal with our population and overcoming limited resources. If these problems are not dealt with, the future will be increasingly more difficult.

Energy supplies...............Bio fuels, wind, solar, and exploration
Food supplies..................Intelligent farming of the seas
Housing..........................Govenment funding and private sector cooperation
Better control of enviornmental hazards...............Individual citizens taking greater interest!

Good science can give us solutions to all these problems but unless government acts on them, things will not improve.

Pessimistically speaking...............................Infy

[Turtle]

Originally Posted by InfiniteNow

I want to be a centaur with electronically assisted telepathy and telekinesis who can teleport.

I was thinking I would ask for gills and grossly enormous eyes so I could explore the deep oceans. But hey, if ya got an extra set of those electra-whaza-macallits I can keep in touch with you at your stable.

Now in the case that this genetic designing needn't only occur before birth, but at any stage of life, then perhaps one day a googly-eyed fishuman, the next a strapping hoofy galloping around. Yeh...that's the ticket.

[TheFaithfulStone]

Materials Science.

Particularly CNTs. Everything that we've ever though "Wouldn't it be cool if we could...., but we can't make it that (small, light, tough, cheap)" becomes a reality.

Seriously, as big as metal and plastic. Only cheaper, better, and easier.

On the other hand if people saw "revolutionary" technologies coming they wouldn't be revolutionary would they?

TFS