Greatest Undiscovered Invention

[MrPickins]

Unless we can get a robot to program it.

Skynet, here we come!

 

[amdhunter]

The ability to manipulate our genetics so that everyone has perfect health and beauty, and high intelligence.

Banning religion would take care of the intelligence part.

 

[JoeKing]

high temperature super conductor or better yet one that wouldn't need any type of external cooling whatsoever.

Think about it, this would solve so much of our energy needs. Like build a few big ass dams (maybe one or two per time zone) with loads of generators, have a nuclear reactor pump the released water back into the dam at night during low peak time.

Come to think of it how about an efficient way to store power instead. Like a super battery technology that works large and small scale. There's tons of energy to be made, and is made, but no good way to store it.

 

[dighn]

A problem with autonomous vehicles is that it had to be programmed by a human, so there will always be a margin of error and a chance for accidents to occur.

true, but humans behind wheels probably doesn't make it any better, except for the sense of control I suppose.

teleportation would be huge, but my vote is for direct brain to machine interfacing. it opens up many possibilities.

 

[Minjin]

The thing about cheap sustainable energy is that it is like light travel. It will be good for the continuation of our species but I don't think it would affect our lives all that much. Let's say that electric bills went down to 1% of current cost. Just how much would that affect everything? Obviously, stuff would get cheaper, but by what amount? I don't think the electricity to produce a good for most things is that large of a percentage. If we assume that the energy source is portable and doesn't depend on the wired infrastructure, that changes things but again, by how much? I think cheap sustainable energy would be very useful in its ability to maintain our current energy rich lifestyle after fossil fuels are gone but I don't see it affecting our lives all that much. The only way I do is like yoyo said in that it may allow us to do some very large projects that aren't currently possible.

 

[edro]

Cure for all cancers and disease.

 

[gorcorps]

I'd say sleeping. If we could condense sleep to 15 minutes and feel refreshed as if we slept 10-12 hours that would be revolutionary.

I know it's not the same, but when I dislocated my ankle they gave me something which knocked me out cold for 10 mins or so while the reset and taped my ankle. When I woke up and shook it off I felt like I had been asleep for hours. I felt great, and I wasn't even on strong pain killers... just whatever knocked me out.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

The thing about cheap sustainable energy is that it is like light travel. It will be good for the continuation of our species but I don't think it would affect our lives all that much. Let's say that electric bills went down to 1% of current cost. Just how much would that affect everything? Obviously, stuff would get cheaper, but by what amount? I don't think the electricity to produce a good for most things is that large of a percentage. If we assume that the energy source is portable and doesn't depend on the wired infrastructure, that changes things but again, by how much? I think cheap sustainable energy would be very useful in its ability to maintain our current energy rich lifestyle after fossil fuels are gone but I don't see it affecting our lives all that much. The only way I do is like yoyo said in that it may allow us to do some very large projects that aren't currently possible.

Maintaining our current unsustainable lifestyle is a huge benefit of basically unlimited energy. We (as a species) will be in massive trouble in 100 years (probably much less) based on our current energy technology.

Teleportation technology isn't going to help us if we have nothing to power it with.

I think it's a matter of not having our standard of living going down by a lot, and I think that's something that affects our everyday life, by definition.

 

[Minjin]

Maintaining our current unsustainable lifestyle is a huge benefit of basically unlimited energy. We (as a species) will be in massive trouble in 100 years (probably much less) based on our current energy technology.

Teleportation technology isn't going to help us if we have nothing to power it with.

I think it's a matter of not having our standard of living going down by a lot, and I think that's something that affects our everyday life, by definition.

Oh, I agree and I already said as much. I'm just trying to stir discussion and maybe get some "outside the box" ideas.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Oh, I agree and I already said as much. I'm just trying to stir discussion and maybe get some "outside the box" ideas.

"outside the box" = death

Unless you mean "communication device to contact benevolent and vastly technologically superior aliens"

 

[Paratus]

Cheap abundant energy
Cheap effective biological immortality. Ie. Body rejuvination or replacement.
FTL

 

[Minjin]

"outside the box" = death

Unless you mean "communication device to contact benevolent and vastly technologically superior aliens"

On that note, I still think active SETI is dangerous. The potential downsides way outweigh the potential upsides in my opinion.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_SETI

If you're in a silent jungle and you don't hear any noise, it might be because anything that makes noise dies.

 

[KeithTalent]

Yeah, where the fuck is my flying car.

After that I would like IcebergSlim's suggestion. Sleep just gets in the way of stuff I want to do; get rid of it.

KT

 

[Nik]

I agree that that would definitely impact our species' future. And by that definition it could be the greatest undiscovered invention. However, I don't think it would affect our daily lives and I think that's what I'm leaning towards here. Things that would profoundly change our lives for the better.

The ability for humans to control movement and do so at the speed of light would change every single dynamic on the planet. Everything.

 

[l0cke]

Current batteries suck. Electric cars could be totally awesome right now, but the batteries are horrible.

Either some better batteries or a tiny super power generator.

 

[Meghan54]

If it hasn't been discovered yet it is not an invention.

To be precise, invention and discovery describe two completely different things.

Discovery refers to finding something previously unknown but always existed. Example: Columbus "discovered" America. Before he arrived, "America" as a continent land mass already existed but was unknown to the Europeans...sorta. But you get the idea.

Invention refers to the creation of something that's never existed before. Examples: Alexander Bell "invented" the telephone or Edison the functional light bulb. Before each invented the thing, it never existed.

So, you cannot discover an invention. Either you discover something that's always been there, or you create a new thing that's never been before....invent.

 

[shortylickens]

Something that actually improves the QUALITY of life as opposed to simply enabling a higher pace of life.
Its been many years since we've had an invention like that.

 

[PsiStar]

First, if I thought that I had an undiscovered invention I would not make it public.

If crap was being teleported, why not put it *in* the nearest star?

Ok, I'll cave ... an invention to help the human race? Automatic stress relief which includes a metric of the stress experienced. I don't even care about identifying the causes of stress as there are those requirements of life that are stressful. Just let me shed it. Thus, there is no argument or assumption of agreement of what is stressful == more stress!?!?!

AND this would only be programmed by humans. Or what, my cat? Or of course the always omnipotent and vastly superior alien ... who doesn't give a crap about preservation of my species? Or is an alien considered "natural"?

Unsustainable lifestyle? That suggests taking the wobble out of the earth's rotation, eliminating sunspots, and definitely volcanoes must be capped. Or, just tell me where to live to have the best life given the uncontrollable ... work on predicting a little better.

 

[Minjin]

The ability for humans to control movement and do so at the speed of light would change every single dynamic on the planet. Everything.

So what exactly are you envisioning? People with cars that travel at the speed of light? How are you going to handle traffic? I just did a calculation to see how long it would take to reach the speed of light at an acceleration that the body can comfortably handle for a period of time: 1g.

30,000,000 seconds. Or 8,333 hours. Or 347 days.

Long story short, for interstellar travel, it might be good. But it's not going to work on our planet.

To be precise, invention and discovery describe two completely different things.

Discovery refers to finding something previously unknown but always existed. Example: Columbus "discovered" America. Before he arrived, "America" as a continent land mass already existed but was unknown to the Europeans...sorta. But you get the idea.

Invention refers to the creation of something that's never existed before. Examples: Alexander Bell "invented" the telephone or Edison the functional light bulb. Before each invented the thing, it never existed.

So, you cannot discover an invention. Either you discover something that's always been there, or you create a new thing that's never been before....invent.

I'm fully aware of the semantics. It was the easiest way to get the point across. What should I have said? Greatest invention not yet invented? What I have works just fine.