# What do you think the next big invention will be? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 12, 2003, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-the-next-big-invention-will-be/206947 "2003-10-12T02:39:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![voguevixen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5ac83/32.png) [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2003, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-the-next-big-invention-will-be/206947/41 "2003-10-14T01:11:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by j\_sum1 \* > \*\*Rumour has it that electronic paper is not too far away. Thin and foldy like paper. Some kind of interface (plug??) and it’s a variant on a computer screen. You can keep it in your briefcase, and then when you want to you download your favourite newspaper, magazine or book so that you can read on the train. \*\* I just saw this on one of those “tech talk” type shows. Apparently Xerox is the company developing it. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2003, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-the-next-big-invention-will-be/206947/42 "2003-10-14T01:47:36Z")
> [@](#): > > All of us in our department were chatting a while back, and my boss said she thought everything that could be invented had been invented, and she didn’t think there’d be any “new” gadgets coming down the pike. Your boss said this? I’m curious what company NOT to invest in. It was said that some day “Every COUNTRY will have a computer”. And **Ranchoth** said it best - > [@](#): > > ivylass, I’ve heard a similar quote—“Everything that CAN be invented HAS been invented”—attributed to the U.S. Patent Commisioner…in 1899. My Grandmother, born in 1898, never drove a car, but I’m sure she was pretty good with a horse and buggy. She lived to see man land on the moon. I predict that in the next 100 years we will see more break-though inventions then we have seen in the last 1000 years. ---
**Author:** ![photopat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e95f7d/32.png) [@photopat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/photopat)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2003, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-the-next-big-invention-will-be/206947/43 "2003-10-14T03:38:18Z")
Hamburger earmuffs. If I can just work out the pickle matrix, of course. ---
**Author:** ![DEVA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@DEVA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DEVA)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2003, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-the-next-big-invention-will-be/206947/44 "2003-10-14T03:44:05Z")
Obviously, we’ve ALL missed the boat on this one: [http://www.imaginail.com/index.html](http://www.imaginail.com/index.html) :smack: ---
**Author:** ![photopat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e95f7d/32.png) [@photopat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/photopat)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2003, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-the-next-big-invention-will-be/206947/45 "2003-10-14T04:03:18Z")
Damn! And here I had my fingernail paint application device prototype nearly finished. (It started off as a model of a device for reaching other planets, then was briefly a coffee maker. Ah well, back to staring at birds.) ---
**Author:** ![capacitor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e47774/32.png) [@capacitor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capacitor)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2003, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-the-next-big-invention-will-be/206947/46 "2003-10-14T04:59:04Z")
Transportation for the most part has been very disappointing, truckers notwithstanding. I think what will happen soon is an alternative to Active X, as Microsoft don’t want to keep paying that guy who invented some of the technology underpinning the universal graphic driver/software/monitor interface. ---
**Author:** ![DreadCthulhu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/db5fbb/32.png) [@DreadCthulhu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DreadCthulhu)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2003, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-the-next-big-invention-will-be/206947/47 "2003-10-14T05:57:42Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by DMark \* > \*\* > > Artificial limbs that use a microchip to the brain. Studies already done and looks promising. > > \*\* Well, they have it working with [monkeys.](http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A17434-2003Oct12?language=printer) a human version shouldn’t be that much harder to do. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2003, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-the-next-big-invention-will-be/206947/48 "2003-10-14T06:19:38Z")
I’d like to see a process for fixing objects–eventually buildings and whole cities–to permanent fixed locations in mid-air. Also, a cure for sinusitis. ---
**Author:** ![SpectBrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a87d85/32.png) [@SpectBrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpectBrain)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2003, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-the-next-big-invention-will-be/206947/49 "2003-10-14T15:04:13Z")
How about an impact Dot Matrix printer head modified to create mass market tattoos? Invention isn’t always about new discoveries, it’s creative ways of applying existing knowledge to solve new problems. Like tuna fish in a pouch, ultra pasturized milk that can be stored in a cabinet at room temperature. Advances in my own field of nuclear medicine in the last ten years. Faster computers with large amounts of cheap RAM enable more effective automated diagnostics. This makes more accurate, detailed clinical information available to the treating physicians. A lot of inventions are embedded. Do you give much thought as to what happens when you turn the key in a late model car? A computer runs through a diagnostic checklist as the engine is started. The same computer constantly monitors the engine performance varying the air/fuel ration as well as the ignition timing to maintain optimum (we hope) engine performance. Various sensors in the engine supply feedback to the computer. Sensor technology is another growth area. They’re smaller and more intelligent. Car engines can go over 100,000 miles without a major tune up. IMHO I’d consider that pretty significant! ---
**Author:** ![Cluricaun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2003, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-the-next-big-invention-will-be/206947/50 "2003-10-14T15:12:34Z")
I’ll volunteer for the nanotech experiment that would give me animatronic hair. Speaking of hair, I can’t believe I’m the first one to chime in with a universal cure for baldness. Just like the weight loss one, this is an unlimited market that would make the inventor a trillionaire. Also, I guess that there would be some kind of actual penis lengthener, which would also make the inventor a trillionaire. ---
**Author:** ![White\_Ink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c0e974/32.png) [@White\_Ink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/White_Ink)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2003, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-the-next-big-invention-will-be/206947/51 "2003-10-14T18:41:05Z")
Water. I think the next big thing will involve water. Whether it’s cleaning it, creating it in desert environments, de-salinating it on a large scale… OF course maybe it will be something to further polarize the haves and have nots. ---
**Author:** ![sultana\_of\_slash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@sultana\_of\_slash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sultana_of_slash)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2003, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-the-next-big-invention-will-be/206947/52 "2003-10-14T19:02:04Z")
I don’t want an artificial limb that moves because of a microchip in my brain. I want an artificial computer planted inside my skin that I can access with my brain. I want it to be in a convenient body cavity where no one will notice it, but where I can get put under anesthesia to get it removed and a new one installed every few years (up the terabytes you know). I want it to draw power through some sort of distance receptor (we’ll figure one out), and access the Net the same way, like WiFi all the time. I want to be able to see the screen when I look high up to the left and sideways, and I want to be able to murmur to it when I would rather talk than type to it. Just think. I will never again forget any datum I want to know. I will know every word in French that I can’t think of, every birthday, every date important in history, every spread of products available at every cost from every company. I won’t have to keep this stuff in my head; I’ll just call on it when I need it. Oh, and I want the computer to have a decent real translation program in it, so I can talk to people in Chinese while my mind and mouth are moving in English, and hear them talking in English to me while their minds and mouths are moving in Chinese. ---
**Author:** ![Janie\_Jones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/13edae/32.png) [@Janie\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Janie_Jones)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2003, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-the-next-big-invention-will-be/206947/53 "2003-10-14T19:06:05Z")
Robotic monkey butlers. (Or so I hope.) ---
**Author:** ![JustPlainBryan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/57b2e6/32.png) [@JustPlainBryan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JustPlainBryan)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2003, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-the-next-big-invention-will-be/206947/54 "2003-10-14T19:32:55Z")
Genetic Engineering is the wave of the future. I say the craze will really hit when scientists develop the first glow-in-the-dark plants. These plants would be as bright as a night-light and be relatively inexpensive to grow and maintain. They also would come in different colors of light, probably green and red to begin with. Something like that would be a tremendous fad. The dollars from this would only go to creating even more interesting GM applications. ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2003, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-the-next-big-invention-will-be/206947/55 "2003-10-14T20:18:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Bluesman \* > \*\*I think the airborne car (not an airplane, not a helicopter) is almost ready. [The Moller Skycar](http://www.moller.com/) has been ‘just around the corner’ for thirty years, so hopefully… \*\* Great, because us piddly humans don’t have enough troubles traveling in 2 dimensions. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![lokij](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/5e9695/32.png) [@lokij](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lokij)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2003, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-the-next-big-invention-will-be/206947/56 "2003-10-15T07:39:00Z")
I believe we’re in a plateau period, but a relatively brief one. We’ve crested the electronic age, we have years and years of refinements and improvements to make and it’s effects will continue to trickle down for the next few decades. The next truly revolutionary advances are in biotechnology and nanotechnology. We’ll see things in material’s science, robotics, medicine, agriculture, mega-scale engineering, computing, entertainment and work that we can only guess at now, much like somebody contemporary with Edison or Marconi could only guess at what life today would be like. I personally would like to see very efficient and dense power storage, a space elevator, cloned organ replacements and vat grown meat, implanted computer/user interfaces, AIs, robotic servants, cheap and widespread desalinization, cloned extinct animals, designer organisms and engineered immortality. ---
**Author:** ![West21](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c67d28/32.png) [@West21](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/West21)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2013, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-the-next-big-invention-will-be/206947/57 "2013-01-18T14:28:26Z")
hey! a teleport elevator!!! save the Hassel of confusing airport. Get loaded in one and zip in the chosen country planning to visit. Hey bt one that would check all baggage’s nd scan you. hehe!! ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2013, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-the-next-big-invention-will-be/206947/58 "2013-01-18T15:32:55Z")
Well, who would’ve predicted back in 2003 that zombies would be so popular today?? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Indian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@Indian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indian)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2013, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-the-next-big-invention-will-be/206947/59 "2013-01-18T15:39:38Z")
Zombie resurrection will be available on commercial scale. ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2013, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-the-next-big-invention-will-be/206947/60 "2013-01-18T19:16:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Zombie resurrection will be available on commercial scale. > … > Well, who would’ve predicted back in 2003 that zombies would be so popular today?? Hey, this is one topic where a zombie thread is actually preferable! It gives us an opportunity to see how wrong we can be: For example, look at post number 6: > [@](#): > > Hologram films, followed by hologram television type displays. They have already begun. > > Voice recognition keyboards…don’t have to type anymore, just talk. Already invented, waiting for easier/cheaper way to do it. > > Flat screen tv’s that are so thin, you can roll them up. Already done and **you will see them in the next couple of years.** > > Weight loss shot using natural hormones from the body. Study just came out that said it will be **only a few years away.** It’s been a full 10 years since this somebody typed this…and the number of correct predictions contained in the post is: zero (but,on the positive side, at least he didn’t make any claims about nuclear fusion, or jet-packs…) 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-the-next-big-invention-will-be/206947.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-the-next-big-invention-will-be/206947.md?page=4)