I was thinking about technology, and how many of the things we use daily were designed for military use. Things such as GPS and the Internet struck out at me. So now I’m wondering what those crazy lab guys are working on now, that we’ll be commonplace in 10 to 20 years. Any facts or predictions?
Predictions:
Zero Gravity Propulsion.
Teleportation.
Bionic-Human Enhancers.
Personal Flying Devices.
Smart Camoflage(sp?)
more wide spread retnal scans
I would say miniaturization of commonly carried items, but that already seems to be happening. Most of the advances seem to be communication based, so I will add video phones.
Thermal Imaging: Already in use by firefighters, sportsmen, and on some higher-end automobiles.
Image recognition routines.
Space Tourism (Maybe 50 years for this one.)
Sorry to say though, am not sure how much more really. Millitary research is way down these days, most of it being farmed out to contractors and megacorps (Boeing, Northrop, Lockheed etc.). Why is this bad, because these corps won’t take the risks that gave us such things as the internet, and their costs are way higher. So expect new things, just not as many.
Go to Montana and you can see lots of military hardware in use, all in expectation of the eventual collapse of the Federal Government.
Yep, them M-16s’ll sure come in handy.
Better fish-finders (sonar technology).
Anti-collision sensors on car bumpers (sonar or low-energy microwave).
Night vision.
dead0man
I worked for three-and-a-half years on a project to convert US Army C3I radios – which let soldiers exchange text messages, and let central command track where they were – for an automated subway train-control system in San Francisco. If you stick a radio on each end of the train, and stick more radios along the track, then you can get real-time information on the train’s position and velocity and give it speed commands, route assignments, or delays (so a preceeding train could get further ahead and avoid a crash).
The system got sold off to a private rail company when management decided they wanted to stick with making things explode. 