Jeff7
Lifer
- Jan 4, 2001
- 41,596
- 20
- 81
1) Improved solar panel technology, something more along the lines of 90% efficient panels would be nice.
2) Commercial nuclear fusion reactors
3) An upgraded power grid, which is not only able to distribute considerably more electricity (possibly enough for electric cars), but which is also a genuine GRID - the word "grid" implies inherent redundancy, which I have yet to see.
With that power infrastructure in place:
1) House Robots - various things that would make for truly smart appliances. For example, the Roomba, as I understand it, it just vacuums all over the place, and eventually it will cover everything. Make it smarter, let it know where it's been, and what hasn't been vacuumed yet. And possibly a general cleaning robot, like a modified Asimo, for tasks such as washing floors, or cleaning the bathroom. Train it to take out the trash, get the mail, set the table, or anything of that nature.
2) A smart lawnmower. Take it on a tour of the yard's perimeter, and let it explore awhile so that it learns where its boundaries are. It will be able to see obstacles, as well determine where it needs to go next. It could either use solar panels (some of those imaginary >90% efficient ones) and carry a silicon-nanofiber lithium-ion battery with it. It could also have some sort of theft detection should it find that it's somehow strayed beyond its perimeter.
3) Cellphones that don't lose reception when it rains, when it snows, when a truck drives past, or when a squirrel somewhere farts. Having cellphones that lack a 0.5-1.0 second lagtime would also be nice. I was curious about this once, so I called my home landline with my cellphone. It's a pretty long lag between saying something and it getting through. This makes it very easy to interrupt someone while having a conversation. The effect is made worse when talking cellphone to cellphone.
4) oLED displays
5) Improved fluorescent and LED lighting. Maybe with oLEDs, have a whole 2'x4' panel act as a single light source.
6) Electronic newspapers that don't suck. They'd be at least as large as a half sheet of newspaper, and would NOT feature any animated ads or popups. Every day, the paper is downloaded to the e-paper. It would feature a customizable touchpanel screen, and zoom options - a user could either simply press a forward/back button, or else swipe their finger across the "page" to turn it, as with a classic newspaper.
The comics page could also be customizable, to allow each user to produce their own arrangement of comics, either syndicated things like Garfield, or webcomics.
7) Electric cars
8) GLaDOS, a portal gun, and cake.
2) Commercial nuclear fusion reactors
3) An upgraded power grid, which is not only able to distribute considerably more electricity (possibly enough for electric cars), but which is also a genuine GRID - the word "grid" implies inherent redundancy, which I have yet to see.
With that power infrastructure in place:
1) House Robots - various things that would make for truly smart appliances. For example, the Roomba, as I understand it, it just vacuums all over the place, and eventually it will cover everything. Make it smarter, let it know where it's been, and what hasn't been vacuumed yet. And possibly a general cleaning robot, like a modified Asimo, for tasks such as washing floors, or cleaning the bathroom. Train it to take out the trash, get the mail, set the table, or anything of that nature.
2) A smart lawnmower. Take it on a tour of the yard's perimeter, and let it explore awhile so that it learns where its boundaries are. It will be able to see obstacles, as well determine where it needs to go next. It could either use solar panels (some of those imaginary >90% efficient ones) and carry a silicon-nanofiber lithium-ion battery with it. It could also have some sort of theft detection should it find that it's somehow strayed beyond its perimeter.
3) Cellphones that don't lose reception when it rains, when it snows, when a truck drives past, or when a squirrel somewhere farts. Having cellphones that lack a 0.5-1.0 second lagtime would also be nice. I was curious about this once, so I called my home landline with my cellphone. It's a pretty long lag between saying something and it getting through. This makes it very easy to interrupt someone while having a conversation. The effect is made worse when talking cellphone to cellphone.
4) oLED displays
5) Improved fluorescent and LED lighting. Maybe with oLEDs, have a whole 2'x4' panel act as a single light source.
6) Electronic newspapers that don't suck. They'd be at least as large as a half sheet of newspaper, and would NOT feature any animated ads or popups. Every day, the paper is downloaded to the e-paper. It would feature a customizable touchpanel screen, and zoom options - a user could either simply press a forward/back button, or else swipe their finger across the "page" to turn it, as with a classic newspaper.
The comics page could also be customizable, to allow each user to produce their own arrangement of comics, either syndicated things like Garfield, or webcomics.
7) Electric cars
8) GLaDOS, a portal gun, and cake.
He's lying, there is no cake!
look at me still talking when theres science to do.
jeff7, 2 sounds dangerous. I can see lawnmowers going rogue and mincing housepets.
Solar energy has to be the way forward [fusion and fission are tricky]. I wonder if we'll have solar panels in space, so some of the light isn't reflected by the atmosphere. Send batteries back and forth to Earth, or a perminent carbon nanotube powercable
I've always wondered why we can't store lightning. batteries not big enough?
ultimatebob
Lifer
- Jul 1, 2001
- 25,134
- 2,450
- 126
I'd just be happy if they found a way to wirelessly charge my laptop with microwaves or lasers or something. If they can't do that, how about a laptop battery that actually lasts for 6 hours of REAL WORLD usage?
But yeah... teleportation would be a nice thing to have!
But yeah... teleportation would be a nice thing to have!
Ohh...here's one: I want materials suitable for use for RAILS in RAILGUNS!!! Current materials have to be replaced every few shots...
Modelworks
Lifer
- Feb 22, 2007
- 16,240
- 7
- 76
Its not really something I want, but the next thing thats going to be huge is RFID.
Walmart is investing millions in it as are other stores.
They want to tag everything in the store with an rfid tag.
You would then just push your cart through a scanner and instantly the total for everything would appear. You wave your rfid visa card and its paid for.
Also the transmitting of power over long distances is going to be a huge thing.
Place like the desert are perfect for solar panels, and focused heat towers, but the cost of infrastructure to bring it back to where its needed has been a problem.
There are several companies seriously reviving the notion of placing solar panels in space then beaming the power back to earth.
Nasa has also been doing lots of research lately on the space elevator.
Place a station in earth orbit, connected to the ground by a long cable.
Need to send something up ? Eleveator rides the cable up and down, very low cost.
They could do 10 trips a day.
The only thing that was keeping them from doing it in the past is that the weight of the cable itself would be so large that it was deemed impossible.
But now carbon fiber nanotubes are making them think its possible.
Hyrdogen for cars in the form of aluminum pellets.
The pellets would be dropped in the tank where it reacts with water and instantly produces hydrogen, that is burned by the engine.
Walmart is investing millions in it as are other stores.
They want to tag everything in the store with an rfid tag.
You would then just push your cart through a scanner and instantly the total for everything would appear. You wave your rfid visa card and its paid for.
Also the transmitting of power over long distances is going to be a huge thing.
Place like the desert are perfect for solar panels, and focused heat towers, but the cost of infrastructure to bring it back to where its needed has been a problem.
There are several companies seriously reviving the notion of placing solar panels in space then beaming the power back to earth.
Nasa has also been doing lots of research lately on the space elevator.
Place a station in earth orbit, connected to the ground by a long cable.
Need to send something up ? Eleveator rides the cable up and down, very low cost.
They could do 10 trips a day.
The only thing that was keeping them from doing it in the past is that the weight of the cable itself would be so large that it was deemed impossible.
But now carbon fiber nanotubes are making them think its possible.
Hyrdogen for cars in the form of aluminum pellets.
The pellets would be dropped in the tank where it reacts with water and instantly produces hydrogen, that is burned by the engine.
Getting more suckers in debt faster & deeper
First it's no cash, then even no cc's!:thumbsup:
You'd have to drop Al in Hg first, THEN water. This way you don't even need pellets, it can be a chunk. BTW: Got a link on this?
StinkyPinky
Diamond Member
- Jul 6, 2002
- 6,990
- 1,283
- 126
A food that has the following properties
1) Tastes like chocolate
2) Cleans your arteries
3) Zero fat, zero sugar
A holy grail.
1) Tastes like chocolate
2) Cleans your arteries
3) Zero fat, zero sugar
A holy grail.
One day we will have genetically modified ourselves so we nolonger have teeth or digestive tracks. We may keep out sense of taste, but only for pleasure. We will produce pills which contain everything our body needs with no waste, this will mean more space and reasorces can go to the people and science of the world. The past of eating food and defication will be seen as a barbaric primitive practise which greatly shortened our life span.
Or not
skulkingghost
Golden Member
- Jan 4, 2006
- 1,660
- 1
- 76
Originally posted by: ironwing
Originally posted by: JohnCU
i want a robot woman that looks/feels/smells like a real one
Marry a Lutheran.
I just spit out my soda all over my monitor! That was hilarious, having just got out of a relationship with one I wholeheartedly agree.
Jeff7
Lifer
- Jan 4, 2001
- 41,596
- 20
- 81
Partly because we don't have anything that can store several million amps at several million volts in a fraction of a second. Most things hit with that kind of power simply explode.
A laptop might use, I don't know, over 60 watts. You'd need either a 60W laser beam or 60W of microwaves shooting into the room. Forcefield-based fire suppression systems had better be standard by then.
Check out Youtube - a laser of 75mW can start fires.
Space Elevators: Yes, another good one.
The main problems I've heard of involve a cable itself that would be light enough, yet strong enough to resist not only the forces of the elevator and orbital station acting on it, as well as induced electrical currents, but also forces such as from a hurricane. The other issue is, what happens if the cable breaks? You're going to have one damn long piece of material collapsing down to Earth, possibly including the elevator carriage.
Hopefully they can start to clean up LEO, too. I've read that there's quite a bit of debris floating around up there. Even tiny things like chips of paint can gouge out craters in heavy shielding.
Distant future: humans can upload their minds into androids, and leave behind the organic shells of the past. Quantum + optical computing might be involved. It could allow for us to think much more quickly and more efficiently than ever before. That, or we become cyborg things, combining the best of both worlds to attain perfection.Originally posted by: QUOTH
One day we will have genetically modified ourselves so we nolonger have teeth or digestive tracks. We may keep out sense of taste, but only for pleasure. We will produce pills which contain everything our body needs with no waste, this will mean more space and reasorces can go to the people and science of the world. The past of eating food and defication will be seen as a barbaric primitive practise which greatly shortened our life span.
Or not
there was a game you could do that in...rise and fall, but that was only in campaign.
I think petro-free polymers, it has been done in a lab, it really is not in production yet.
Originally posted by: Jeff7
Space Elevators: Yes, another good one.
The main problems I've heard of involve a cable itself that would be light enough, yet strong enough to resist not only the forces of the elevator and orbital station acting on it, as well as induced electrical currents, but also forces such as from a hurricane. The other issue is, what happens if the cable breaks? You're going to have one damn long piece of material collapsing down to Earth, possibly including the elevator carriage.
Hopefully they can start to clean up LEO, too. I've read that there's quite a bit of debris floating around up there. Even tiny things like chips of paint can gouge out craters in heavy shielding.
Distant future: humans can upload their minds into androids, and leave behind the organic shells of the past. Quantum + optical computing might be involved. It could allow for us to think much more quickly and more efficiently than ever before. That, or we become cyborg things, combining the best of both worlds to attain perfection.Originally posted by: QUOTH
One day we will have genetically modified ourselves so we nolonger have teeth or digestive tracks. We may keep out sense of taste, but only for pleasure. We will produce pills which contain everything our body needs with no waste, this will mean more space and reasorces can go to the people and science of the world. The past of eating food and defication will be seen as a barbaric primitive practise which greatly shortened our life span.
Or not
Thanks for clearing that up.
Thats where carbon nanotubes come in [Is there anything they can't be used for
]Yeah, very distant. Fully mapping the human brain and interacting with the senses? I think genetic modification will be easier. The same goes for slave robots, I think genetically modified simplified humans will come first.
The real problem that springs to mind is immortality. Assuming people can live more than 100 years [not going senile, as brain won't degrade] without going mad and wanting to comit suicide, would this mean no more people would be born? Would we have sex organs [for recreation
] or not? Would we fill the earth with current inhabitents who would then live forever, so no new children? Would we kill off the people who arn't creative/intelligent enough and replace them with children/copies of great thinkers to help move science forward, or would it be logans run and consioucness would be stored in PC's after X years, so people would live in a virtual community without any real interaction.Hang on, if the brain is digitised [for lack of a better word] than why have bodies at all, why not a volentary [The] Matrix [apart from machine maintenance and scientific experiments]? A total online comunity which feels as real [or more real] than the real world. Practically no limit to the number of inhabitants, learning resources, lifespan, interaction [you could have telikenisis, no more need for langauge]. Even time. If we could make brains which think faster than our fleshy prisons, whats stopping us from thinking faster. Making a day feel like a week, or more.
I think we may need a spin off thread for this subject.
Modelworks
Lifer
- Feb 22, 2007
- 16,240
- 7
- 76
http://hydrogen.ecn.purdue.edu/
It doesn't involve putting the Al in Hg, Instead its a process that combines Al with Ga.
when the alloy contacts water, even salt water, it produces Hg and heat.
Jeff7
Lifer
- Jan 4, 2001
- 41,596
- 20
- 81
But you've still got the issue then of a 50 mile nanotube cable. It's probably going to weigh several tons, and it'll have an elevator carriage attached to it. What happens if a bomb is set off at the base? Maybe the car is "only" 20 miles up. That's still a hell of a fall. And what happens to the cable? As I understand it, if there's no power flow, the orbital station won't be able to hold its position in orbit for very long, and not only will it then crash to Earth, but it'll bring down many tons of carbon nanofibers with it. It could be an unpleasant surprise for a select few in a straight line within that 50 mile radius.Originally posted by: QUOTH
Thanks for clearing that up.
Thats where carbon nanotubes come in [Is there anything they can't be used for
There would of course need to be means for reproduction. By the time this sort of thing was possible, I'd expect other advances to be made, such as in the field of genetic manipulation. "Humans" could be made to have a less-powerful sex drive, and less of this nostalgic obsession with preserving the past, thus opening more minds to the idea of embracing a new future, devoid of the classic notion of sex. (Yes, sure, if you really need to preserve the sensation of orgasms once you're in android or cyborg form, that could be integrated into the software so you'dthink you were having an orgasm that would last for 2 years.)Yeah, very distant. Fully mapping the human brain and interacting with the senses? I think genetic modification will be easier. The same goes for slave robots, I think genetically modified simplified humans will come first.
The real problem that springs to mind is immortality. Assuming people can live more than 100 years [not going senile, as brain won't degrade] without going mad and wanting to comit suicide, would this mean no more people would be born? Would we have sex organs [for recreation
Hang on, if the brain is digitized [for lack of a better word] than why have bodies at all, why not a voluntary [The] Matrix [apart from machine maintenance and scientific experiments]? A total online community which feels as real [or more real] than the real world. Practically no limit to the number of inhabitants, learning resources, lifespan, interaction [you could have telekinesis, no more need for language]. Even time. If we could make brains which think faster than our fleshy prisons, whats stopping us from thinking faster. Making a day feel like a week, or more.
I think we may need a spin off thread for this subject.
Genetic manipulation could also help eliminate laziness - as I figure it, some of laziness stems from an evolved "feature," a built-in urge to conserve energy. Way way back in the olden days, if you weren't finding food, having sex, or avoiding predators you were wasting energy. Now, at least in developed countries, food is easy to find, and (sadly/embarrassingly), the only predators we have to worry about are other people. (Add that to the list of genetic enhancements: Reduce inherent aggressiveness.) There's really no need anymore to conserve energy, as we have it in abundance.
The problem with the virtual world, the "voluntary Matrix," is that it would be just that - virtual. Why not network up, but make progress in the real world instead? Without various genetic and hormonal influences (in an android body, perhaps not the case with a cyborg), the idea of virtual this-and-that might become less attractive.
Bodies would enable individuals to manipulate the world around them. You can't do much if you're stuck in a box on a shelf somewhere.
And hey, while we're at it, with android or cyborg bodies, something else would be possible: no more sleeping. Your brain, and most life on the planet, evolved in an environment where, for about 1/3 of the time, it was dark. Thermal energy was low, as was light, so hey, conserve energy. It quickly reached the point where most life would start to simply shut down if it didn't get this daily dose of rest. I wonder sometimes what a planet would be like in a binary star system, or perhaps a planet which had a very slow rotation rate, such that a slug could easily outrun the approaching terminator. There, I'd imagine that most life on the bright side would just be able to stay in the light as a result of searching for food, and thus there would be no dark period. The regeneration we associate with sleeping would happen on the fly. Why not integrate such a thing into our own makeup? A cyborg would require augmentation to overcome the need to sleep present in the organic component. But an android body would lack the hormonal influences which bring on a feeling of tiredness, and thus, would never need to sleep. Indeed, without the evolved urge to conserve energy present either, a person in an android body would not only never need to rest, but would not have any problem with this either.
Shurely if the bomb is at the bottom of the elevators anchor wire, the whole array will fly off into space? Still not good, but probably better than crashing to Earth. Ive got a model in my head. someone swinging a yoyo in a circle. The hand is the earth and the yoyo is the top of the elevator. if the string is cut the yoyo will fly off. If the sting is cut next to the yoyo, the yoyo will fly off and the string will still spin around, but not as well. I'm shure thats flawed.
Youve gotta be careful with reconstructed orgasms. If you can have one on demand, it's kindof self defeating. My main reasons for shared virtual reality is practically no limit to population. Robots take space. If perception is already synthesized [cameras instead of eyes, microphones instead of ears], why not go all the way.
Sorry, correct me but arn't you saying this whilst interacting in a box somewhere? The point would be everyone would be in 1 box. Want to talk to the worlds leader in X field? It'll take a few seconds to ask him and go visit his virtual house.
I love the idea of changing behaviours which we elvolved with. Less agression, no want for things that don't matter, no lazyness and no sleep. This should fit nicely with my idea of speeding up the rate that we think so time feels like it passes more slowly. If we double the speed we think and react, Humanity automatically advances twice as fast. Obviously It won't make any differences to us personally as we won't feel the difference, but everything will seem to last longer [energy, robot bodies, the Earth, The Sun, the Universe, but thats pushing it].
IMO apart from our view of time, and an individuals life time [1 person being able to spend 1,000's of years rather than 60 working on a subject, and someone having to pick up where he left off] the single biggest positive will be removing language.
OK, lets look at education through the ages shall we?
Person A learns something, he then tries to teach Person B by pointing and grunting at it. The next breakthrough is stick figures. The negetive is person B may not understand and the knowledge will be lost.
Person A learns something, he then talks to Person B and he learns it. The negative is if these people die before telling someone, the next generation has to start from scratch. same as above.
Person A learns something, he then writes it down on paper. Now anyone who can read that langauge and see's that book can learn what he learned and continue the work. Negatives are different languages and books can burn.
Person A writes something electronically on the internet. It gets stored forever and anyone can view it anytime. Same problems as above except it can't be destroyed.
OK, now this is what I'm trying to get at. When we reach the level of robotic brains [or just understanding the brain 100%] we can invent telepathy. No more words, no more phrases. You comunicate in ideas, not limited by a set and prearanged series of words which were designed to teach someone how to kill a deer. You want to tell someone you love them, you show them exactly how your feeling. You want to explain a model, you show them your mental picture and the concepts of it's design. This could also break our way of thinking with limited dimensions. We used to say atoms looked like little solar systems, now we know that couldn't be further from the truth, but our minds and preconceptions can't handle it any other way.
Person A learns something [/has an emotion], he then places the idea online [/present's to Person B]. Everyone can understand it instantly and with 100% accuracy, the information never gets destroyed.
Youve gotta be careful with reconstructed orgasms. If you can have one on demand, it's kindof self defeating. My main reasons for shared virtual reality is practically no limit to population. Robots take space. If perception is already synthesized [cameras instead of eyes, microphones instead of ears], why not go all the way.
Sorry, correct me but arn't you saying this whilst interacting in a box somewhere? The point would be everyone would be in 1 box. Want to talk to the worlds leader in X field? It'll take a few seconds to ask him and go visit his virtual house.
I love the idea of changing behaviours which we elvolved with. Less agression, no want for things that don't matter, no lazyness and no sleep. This should fit nicely with my idea of speeding up the rate that we think so time feels like it passes more slowly. If we double the speed we think and react, Humanity automatically advances twice as fast. Obviously It won't make any differences to us personally as we won't feel the difference, but everything will seem to last longer [energy, robot bodies, the Earth, The Sun, the Universe, but thats pushing it].
IMO apart from our view of time, and an individuals life time [1 person being able to spend 1,000's of years rather than 60 working on a subject, and someone having to pick up where he left off] the single biggest positive will be removing language.
OK, lets look at education through the ages shall we?
Person A learns something, he then tries to teach Person B by pointing and grunting at it. The next breakthrough is stick figures. The negetive is person B may not understand and the knowledge will be lost.
Person A learns something, he then talks to Person B and he learns it. The negative is if these people die before telling someone, the next generation has to start from scratch. same as above.
Person A learns something, he then writes it down on paper. Now anyone who can read that langauge and see's that book can learn what he learned and continue the work. Negatives are different languages and books can burn.
Person A writes something electronically on the internet. It gets stored forever and anyone can view it anytime. Same problems as above except it can't be destroyed.
OK, now this is what I'm trying to get at. When we reach the level of robotic brains [or just understanding the brain 100%] we can invent telepathy. No more words, no more phrases. You comunicate in ideas, not limited by a set and prearanged series of words which were designed to teach someone how to kill a deer. You want to tell someone you love them, you show them exactly how your feeling. You want to explain a model, you show them your mental picture and the concepts of it's design. This could also break our way of thinking with limited dimensions. We used to say atoms looked like little solar systems, now we know that couldn't be further from the truth, but our minds and preconceptions can't handle it any other way.
Person A learns something [/has an emotion], he then places the idea online [/present's to Person B]. Everyone can understand it instantly and with 100% accuracy, the information never gets destroyed.
Muse
Lifer
- Jul 11, 2001
- 41,236
- 10,410
- 136
I saw a blurb on TV news a week or two ago about a new battery technology that's coming down the pipe (2 years? Lithium of some kind?) that will give you ~50 hours on your laptop. How's that?! I didn't catch the whole story but that got my attention.
Not too far out in terms of feasibility or fictional status is highly integrated, multifaceted, sophisticated, easy to use control systems, in particular for the home. I think there's a newsgroup dedicated to automation, perhaps home automation itself. I've seen or heard a few things about what's available now and obviously this is an area that's currently growing by leaps and bounds and will continue to do so.
Muse
Lifer
- Jul 11, 2001
- 41,236
- 10,410
- 136
Originally posted by: skulkingghost
Originally posted by: ironwing
Originally posted by: JohnCU
i want a robot woman that looks/feels/smells like a real one
Marry a Lutheran.
I just spit out my soda all over my monitor! That was hilarious, having just got out of a relationship with one I wholeheartedly agree.
It was quite a wise crack. Not that I know what Lutherans are like. In any case that two liner is, I think, worthy of being a signature.
Why would that be a problem? For all we know we are 'virtual' at the moment, it's not exactly life-limiting. When we're able to separate the mind from the biology (and it's really not as hard as it might first appear), which is inevitable as I see it, why bother with the 'real' world? The 'real' world is harsh and unpleasant and prone to failure. If we can make our own world and live within it, we can do a whole lot better for ourselves.
Muse
Lifer
- Jul 11, 2001
- 41,236
- 10,410
- 136
IMO this is very much in the realm of science fiction and I have major, major doubts that a mind/body separation will ever occur, ever in the future of the human race. You guys don't have enough respect for the sophistication of the human brain. Maybe read Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything. You may have doubts concerning whether or not you are virtual, however I realize that without my body I do not think. It will always be that way with humans.
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