Amazing Inventions or Discoveries that are "just around the corner"

In My Humble Opinion
1

It may still be true but it was definitely true back in the 50’s and 60’s that all sorts of marvelous technology was just waiting in the wings. Surely you’ve seen those Jetson-looking futuristic kitchens, highways, office buildings, houses, cars, boats, etc. And indeed my lifetime has spanned some amazing accomplishments in that realm. The computer, for starters.

I have personally not seen all that many predicitions being made these days. New products, sure. New-fangled gadgets and gizmos that take ideas further and maybe even add features to make them appear more practical or less expensive. But in many cases the basic idea is an old one and the new device is just a dressing up of an old concept. Things like iPods, cell phones, DVR’s, DVD’s, the list goes on, are just basically repackagings of ideas that go back to the early decades of the 20th century – or earlier.

Assuming your reading or TV viewing includes articles or programs where there’s some measure of predicting what marvelous devices and techniques are just “steps away” from being readily available, this thread’s purpose is to serve as a showcase for those things.

I have none to contribute, just the question: are there some miraculous things we could expect to see before the year 2010? Inventions, discoveries, enhancements, advancements, you decide.

2

The two-way TV walkie-talkie wrist watch of Dick Tracy. Recall that as a kid and wanted one then. Where are they now?

Plus - still waiting for the Video Phone Booths that were shown off (I actually talked to my sister in the other booth) at the '64 World’s Fair.
43 years in the making.

3

Right you are. I can remember a set of walkie talkies my brother and I got in the late 40’s or early 50’s. Battery operated, hand held, with one little drawback: there was this 25-30’ wire that had to be connected to them. They served their purpose if we closed a door between us and talked softly enough not to be heard directly. I seem to recall getting equal-quality reception out of two tin cans, a length of string, and a couple of buttons that served as “diaphragms.” We could get far enough away from each other in the open air not to be able to hear ourselves directly.

After I was grown I got a pair of CB-band walkie talkies that had a range of maybe a mile over flat land. I think we used them a couple of times before deciding they were mostly a gimmick. And a few Christmases ago, my wife and I got a gift from her sister of a smallish pair that we could use when we went shopping so we wouldn’t get lost from each other. Whoopee.

All of this reminds me of the Verizon ad where the asshole is going various places with “Can you hear me now?” comments. That’s about all the communication I ever got out of mine!

4

Um, “video phone booth”? How retro. I need one of those along with a robotic bartender that’ll make me the perfect Presbyterian when I get home to my dome-shaped floating home. I don’t know about where you live, but 'round these parts we tend to carry our phones in our pocket, and yes, some are capable of video (albeit at a low frame rate).

Real amazing inventions or discoveries that are just around the corner:[ul]
[li]massively parallel multi-core processors[/li][li]holographic data storage[/li][li]high bandwidth wide area networks and “4G” wireless digital communications protocols[/li][li]cancer-inhibiting innoculation[/li][li]non- or minimially-invasive remote nanosurgery[/li][li]stimulation of controlled regrowth and repair of tissue via stem cell therapy[/li][li]cheap and effective solar and nanofiltration desalination[/li][li]inexpensive, high resolution, flexible liquid crystal displays of any size[/li][li]“self-programming” interpretitive computing environments [/li][li]automated computer graphic image generation[/li][li]fail-safe, power generating, fuel breeding nuclear fission plants[/li][li]digital “money” and trade not dependant on governmental fiat[/ul][/li]Real amazing inventions or discoveries that are not just around the corner, but on the horizon[ul]
[li]quantum computers[/li][li]machine vision rivaling that in nature[/li][li]true machine/artificial intelligence a la HAL-9000[/li][li]controlled, power-generating nuclear fusion[/li][li]a generic cure for cancer, “the common cold”, HIV, or any number of other infectious agents[/li][li]commercial space travel and exploitation[/li][li]nuclear fusion/high thrust ion propulsion[/li][li]the HURD kernel or its successor as a commercial operating system[/li][li]a sophisticated digital-to-neurobiological interface[/li][li]the ability to accurately characterize complex systems in quasi-deterministic fashion (i.e. predict the effects of global climate change)confirmation or falsification of the Higgs field[/li][li]comprehensive validation of the Standard Model of particle physics[/ul][/li]Real amazing invetions or discoveries that are unlikely, well beyond any credible estimate, or undesireable:[ul]
[li]manned interstellar travel or superluminal propulsion[/li][li]long-term cryogenic suspension[/li][li]flying cars[/li][li]“The Technological Singularity”[/li][li]psychology as a quantifiable science[/li][li]instantaneous communication via quantum entanglement[/li][li]the ability to agree on pizza toppings[/li][li]Peace between Windows and Apple enthusiasts[/li][li]A more boring sport than professional golf[/ul][/li]Stranger

5

Camera phones don’t count?

6

Nice work, Stranger On A Train. Thanks.

7

What about technologically aided costumed crime fighting?

8

Won’t it be terrible if the bad guys get their hands on these? :smiley:

9

Two way wrist radios? What the hell?

If you want to strap your cell phone to your wrist, knock yourself out. It may even be that there’s a brand of cell phone designed to strap to your wrist. I don’t know why wrist strapping is such a desireable feature though. Otherwise, with the important exception of wrist-strapping, cell phones beat walkie-talkies hollow.

Video phones are an interesting case study. We’ve had the technology to build video phones for decades…except no one really wanted one. Now that we’ve got the internet that allows transmission of any sort of data, you can get yourself a video phone if you like, anyone can, and they don’t cost too much money. Except most people don’t want them. Actually I know one person who has “video phone” service. My 13 year old nephew. Why does he have it? He’s deaf, and lots of his deaf friends have the same service so they can sign to each other.

10

Two-way wrist radios are already WAY out of date. Today, you can get a bluetooth cell phone that you just leave in your purse or pocket. A tiny in-ear headset will allow you to communicate hands-free. You can get a bluetooth watch that will display caller ID information when your phone rings and give you some functionality to control the phone. Almost all cell phones now have really good voice recognition. You can get them with GPS built in, cameras, games, video recorders…

Not only have we done better than the wrist radio, we’ve done better than the Star Trek Communicator. I can tap the little button on my ear and say, “Call XXX”, and my phone dials the number and connects me. We can transfer text messages back and forth. I can connect to the internet if need be.

Cell phones today are way more capable than anything science fiction could dream up 30 years ago.

Technology right around the corner -

Carbon nanotube materials. Some scientists believe that carbon nanotubes are going to kick off a revolution in materials similar to what plastics did. Their properties are amazing. Stronger than any known material (specific strength 300X greater than steel), able to function as light emitters and solar cells. They can store amazing amounts of electricity, making them super-capacitors. A carbon nanotube car body could absorb solar energy in the daytime, and softly glow at night to improve visibility. It would weigh 1/10 of a current car body. You might even be able to turn your car into a big flat-panel display, so you could change your car’s paint job on a whim like desktop wallpaper. These products are already appearing - a bike strenghtened with nanotubes competed in the 2006 Tour de France. The entire frame weighed 2 lbs.

Nanotubes are a fantastic heat conductor. You could see heat pipe applications with carbon nanotubes that revolutionize the way we heat and cool our homes and offices. They could also make heat pumps more efficient in energy-capture devices like ocean thermal power and geothermal power.

The electrical conductivity and high strength could mean a revolution in power transmission lines and electrical circuitry.

There are already medical applications - nanotube lattices have been used as ‘scaffolding’ for building up sheets of artificial muscle from stem cells.

Plug-in Hybrids - Just around the corner. Soon you’ll be able to buy a hybrid car with an enhanced battery that will give it 20-40 miles of range on electric only. Plug it in at night, and if your commute is less than the range of the car, you’ll never start the gas engine. For many people, their gas engine may only start on rare occasions - like once a month or so. Plug-in hybrids will be on the market in 2009-2010.

In our lifetime:
Imaging of planets in other star systems - There are currently plans to launch several telescopes that will be capable of detecting earth-like planets orbiting the nearest stars. We will also be able to measure their atmospheres for oxygen and bio-markers. In the next 40 years we may also get a telescope array big enough to directly image some of those planets, showing us features the size of oceans and continents.

Diving into Europa - We may have a lander on Europa that digs or melts its way through the crust and into the ocean below, sending back imagery and data.

11

Hmmm…couple of the ones I would have said have already been mentioned…but let’s see:
Wearable computers I’m not talking those god aweful things of the mid-90’s, but I believe that you’ll see processors small enough that the palmpilot and blackberry’s will be going away. You’ll have all your basic computing needs built into devices that can be stored in your clothing. Communicating via bluetooth, or whatever the next gen wireless format is, they’ll allow you to access functions much more intuitively and interactivly than right now.

Augmented Reality I’m not sure if this one is just around the corner, or a bit farther down the block. But with things like google earth, and live and the ability of regular people on the internet to upload current images and tag them with information, I don’t think it will be long before a heads-up like display will be able to be worn that doesn’t interfear with a person’s normal vision, but that will pop up additional information about a location or person when it’s looked at.

I firmly believe that we’ll start seeing more and more commercial interests encroaching on what had previously been government only efforts…space flight I think will be the break in the damn…although again, I see this becoming more commonplace around 2015-2020 than at 2010.

12

Sort of covered by some items on Stranger’s list, but: digital creation of physical objects.

Not Star-trek style replication, initially, but 3D printing of real things is imminent. It’s already present at the industrial level and only barely-obscene price points. I’d be surprised if consumer ones aren’t within the next half-decade.

13

Just a funny note: I’m browing while chatting with my roommate, and I got this thread mixed up with the “skills every man should have” one… so when I skimmed Stranger’s list, and I thought I was still reading the other thread, I saw, with increasing confusion and good-natured skepticism, “massively parallel multi-core processors?”… high-bandwidth wide area networks?? … nanosurgery???" I thought to myself, “all human beings should know nanosurgery?? well, there goes my self-perceived intelligent, functional humanity…!”

:stuck_out_tongue:

14

Are you kidding me? The Star Trek Communicator got crystal clear reception through the entire atmosphere. It worked inside buildings, caves, the core of planets, you name it. My cell phone cuts out if I hit a tree-lined dip in the road. :wink:

15

There’s lots of interesting stuff just on the cusp of becoming realistic in the pharmaceutical arena (and becoming a reality to some extent right now).

For one, scientists are getting closer and closer to being able to model cellular-level activities – a virtual cell. This implication of modeling such high level activities is pretty interesting: a pharmaceutical company will be able to run virtual assays on large quantities of compounds to find active compounds, without the current overhead of robotics machinery and such to do the physical processes. They will be able to test compounds that no one has ever made as well. Better still, if they model a cell, they do not need to target one specific mechanism for inhibiting a given receptor (for example) – they simply see if the substance causes any interesting chain of events that results in the proper inhibition. Current modeling techniques are more low-level, dealing with molecular docking and such, and are more narrowly focused.

Certainly, they will not be pumping out drugs that came straight from computer models (at least in the foreseeable future), but these models will provide better and better candidates to feed into the current drug pipeline.

That’s going to be sweet. My brother-in-law works at a place where they just bought one of those fancy machines and it came with a whole mess of demo files. One of them was for a crescent wrench. Once the boss wasn’t looking, they “printed” out a crescent wrench. He said that it did a good enough job that the adjustment mechanism actually worked.

I want one of those 3D-printed wrenches for my office toy shelf.