Not Pie-in-the-Sky level stuff, things that would be GREEEEAAAAT to have, but most likely we won’t get – like time machines, or Faster Than Light space travel, or an OmniElixir that cures all ills.
Just smaller things, but things that would really improve life for many people, and that don’t seem really all that extreme to hope for.
My nomination: a simple preventative (or cure) for dental plaque, which hopefully would also greatly reduce gum problems and maybe cavities. Something like a once a year dental treatment your dentist can do, or maybe a fabulous new mouthwash that eats away plaque without harming tooth enamel. Sounds good, right?
What do you want some brilliant inventor to come up with?
There are about two hundred types of cancers (not including subtypes and extremely rare carcinomas); which one do you want a cure for?
Something we really need to ‘invent’, or more properly just develop, is medium density housing in mixed environments which are energy efficient, built from mostly sustainable materials, provide access to useful public transit and minimize the need for multiple personal vehicles in a household, and are flexible and adaptable to many living situations. Essentially, the opposite of car-centric suburban tract housing.
Properly seasoned carbon steel pans are very ‘non-stick’ and require a paltry amount of maintenance, and can also tolerate searing heat and abuse that no Teflon® cookware could withstand.
They should remind young people how little time it takes to donate blood. It only takes 10 minutes for me to squeeze out a pint. People act like they have to take 45 minutes to do it when really it goes a lot faster.
GMO foods that remove the allergens of the most commonly sold foods?
Yes, I know several people freak out about GMO and “Frankenfoods” but it’s an option that could help a lot of people.
Another similar point were my comments in a different thread about Golden Rice, although again you do want to be extremely wary of mono crops, excessively controlling patents, and other manipulation efforts.
But hey imagine cheap staple crops with a wider range of micronutrients becoming common! One could hope.
I had this idea after the nth baby dying from getting left in a car.
A device that you attach to a baby(wrist strap? ) If the ambient temperature where the baby is goes over a threshold, the parents are texted. If it goes higher than that, it calls 911
That would be trivially easy to develop, but people who leave babies alone in a car are not likely to be the type of person who consistently uses the wrist strap. Maybe something built into the car that detects whether there is a live person in the car, and sends the alerts when the temperature reaches a threshold. The person-detecting component would be the only nontrivial part, but it shouldn’t be too hard.
An AI program that can actually understand your wants, needs and desires, then research how to get your goals met for you and presents the info to you. I’m guessing this will arrive in the 2030s or so, I have no idea.
There is tons and tons of information in the world, but you have to know how to search for it to find it. And you have to have the creativity, motivation and skillset necessary to find that information. If you have a medical condition, chances are tens of thousands of scientific papers related to your condition have been written. Lots of patients have discovered therapies they worked with medical professionals on.
An AI that can actually take all the information in the world and actually know how to give you the information you need to achieve your goals without being prompted would be nice. Right now we lack that, because the end user has to do the actual work of digging up the information they need.
I just recently found there are software programs that can convert PDFs into MOBI and EPUB for example. These programs have likely existed for years, I just never thought to look for one.
A method for inducing regeneration in humans. We know it’s biologically possible since we see it in animals like salamanders, and in a limited form even in young humans (babies have been known to regenerate fingertips and such). And it would let us fix everything from lost body parts to paralysis caused by trauma.
Artificial wombs.
A method of turning off the menstrual cycle with no negative side effects.
Practical nuclear fusion power plants, ideally proton/proton fusion.
