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What is the next technological breakthrough in our lifetime? (by 2062)

Zeze

Zeze

Lifer
That will transform our lives.

In my lifetime, mobile computing and Internet literally changed the world we live in.

What's next?

How about a breakthrough in energy/battery, that would lead to amazing portability.
 
Zeze said:
First yes, teleportation? No.
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I was reading an article somewhere that analyzed the concept of teleportation. And basically the energy involved in breaking down matter, transporting it, and reassembling it is greater than the Sun emits. Though this was specifically Star Trek style teleportation.
 
A lot of breakthroughs depend on a discovery we can't predict until it happens. Cheap, easy fusion either will be discovered or it won't. Room-temperature or close-to-room-temperature superconductors (which, among other things, would provide better energy storage) either will be discovered or they won't. Useful quantum computers either will be possible or they won't.
 
Cars that drive themselves.

Imagine the literally tens of thousands of deaths per year from driving while intoxicated, or under the influence of some drug, reduced to a mere handful from AI or a car part malfunctioning.

The first few iterations will have issues, but each evolutionary step beyond will continue to increase the capabilities of the AI within the car, to the point where traffic as we know it now will be transformed. This will bring huge increases in fuel economy, faster transportation to work, amongst other things.
 
I fully expect that in the next 40 years there will be more cars sold that are powered primarily off of batteries (or something other than dino-oil) than there will be gasoline.

New homes will start having high voltage charge stations as a standard option in the garage.
 
vi edit said:
I fully expect that in the next 40 years there will be more cars sold that are powered primarily off of batteries (or something other than dino-oil) than there will be gasoline.

New homes will start having high voltage charge stations as a standard option in the garage.
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charge station suicide becomes a relevant statistic 😱
 
Not one mention of improvement in humans themselves.
Just more of the same:
We'll have cars that drive our stupid drunk asses around by themselves granpa! YAY!
 
I would guess, like the movies Strange Days and Brainstorm, of full sensory immersion in our entertainment.

In other words, you experience in all ways what is being shown. You don't just see and hear it, you feel it as well. Imagine not just seeing and hearing what it's like to jump out of a plane but to feel all the sensations of it. Or even porn...

However who knows if we'll be around by 2062. America could collapse under the weight of it's own debt or the world might destroy itself in wars soon when oil starts to run short and countries fight to seize control of whats left of the oil.
 
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Finding an alternative to antibiotics before they are rendered utterly ineffectual and people start dying or being seriously ill from things that are trivial at the moment.
 
Beev said:
If that were an unfortunate side effect of misuse then I'd be absolutely ok with that.
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I'm just saying that having enough voltage "wirelessly" available could be significant health risk. Think of the concerns of having a cell phone by your head...but multiply that several times over...
 
I've been hearing something about "cold fusion powder", as a means of generating clean electricity...could be interesting.
 
Juddog said:
Cars that drive themselves.

Imagine the literally tens of thousands of deaths per year from driving while intoxicated, or under the influence of some drug, reduced to a mere handful from AI or a car part malfunctioning.

The first few iterations will have issues, but each evolutionary step beyond will continue to increase the capabilities of the AI within the car, to the point where traffic as we know it now will be transformed. This will bring huge increases in fuel economy, faster transportation to work, amongst other things.
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I don't think something like this will come to pass. At least not in the near future. People, imo, don't want cars that drive themselves. You have to consider a good amount of people enjoy driving. Cars that drive themselves would be contested greatly. Not to mention I doubt many people would put their faith into something like that so easily.

Maybe cars with the option to drive themselves but even then I don't see it. There's just too much to factor in a driving situation for a computer to respond to. Driving requires a lot of parrallel processing that brains are good at (minus human stupidity) unlike most CPUs which are good at linear processing.
 
Gorillas will acquire sentience and start WWIII. The world's banana supply will run dangerously low as they harvest potassium for their massive underground superweapons. The more human-like gorillas will infiltrate our rural cities and replace the neckbeards, one by one, disabling us from the inside-out.
 
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