# What do you want to see invented this century? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 6, 2000, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-see-invented-this-century/6196 "2000-01-06T15:07:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2000, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-see-invented-this-century/6196/1 "2000-01-06T15:07:00Z")
The 20th century seemed to be the century of invention. Will it be the same in the 21st? Or will it just be improvements on what we already have? What would you like to see invented? * * * If you can’t convince them, confuse them. Harry S. Truman ---
**Author:** ![SoulFrost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f07891/32.png) [@SoulFrost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SoulFrost)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2000, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-see-invented-this-century/6196/2 "2000-01-06T15:15:00Z")
All the stuff they promised us LAST century. I want my damn flying car! -David ---
**Author:** ![anson2995](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@anson2995](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anson2995)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2000, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-see-invented-this-century/6196/3 "2000-01-06T15:15:00Z")
I’d like to see the opposite of a microwave oven – a device that will chill things rapidly. ---
**Author:** ![Lucretia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/13edae/32.png) [@Lucretia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucretia)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2000, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-see-invented-this-century/6196/4 "2000-01-06T15:26:00Z")
If it’s a question of what I would like to see invented, without reality having to factor in, I really want someone to develop the transporter from Star Trek. As a military family member, I move every 2-4 years, and I can tell you those trans-pacific flights will make you old. Many’s the time (especially when the kids were in diapers) that I longed to _just be there_. Now that we are back in the States afer 7 years straight overseas, we are living about 6 hours from my folks, so we try to get there as much as possible. Six hours isn’t much compared to where we were, but about four hours into it I still really want to be out of that car. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2000, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-see-invented-this-century/6196/5 "2000-01-06T15:27:00Z")
Anson…They have them already…we used them to chill warm beer in the Nam… doesn’t really count though… CO2 fire extinguishers… * * * If you can’t convince them, confuse them. Harry S. Truman ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2000, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-see-invented-this-century/6196/6 "2000-01-06T16:57:00Z")
How about a search engine that really works? ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2000, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-see-invented-this-century/6196/7 "2000-01-06T17:02:00Z")
Teleportation. Of all the science-fictional concepts out there, that’s the one that I think I dislike not having the most. * * * Chaim Mattis Keller [cmkeller@compuserve.com](mailto:cmkeller@compuserve.com) “Sherlock Holmes once said that once you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the answer. I, however, do not like to eliminate the impossible. The impossible often has a kind of integrity to it that the merely improbable lacks.” – Douglas Adams’s Dirk Gently, Holistic Detective ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2000, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-see-invented-this-century/6196/8 "2000-01-07T00:32:00Z")
Vastlt improved spaceflight tech; & the nuclear fusion to power it. * * * “Show me a sane man, and I will cure him for you.”----Jung ---
**Author:** ![Meow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@Meow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meow)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2000, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-see-invented-this-century/6196/9 "2000-01-07T01:49:00Z")
I say bring on a damn nuclear war!! Blast everyone and after a few million years the earth will grow back nice and green. With hopefully no PEOPLE this time! (Sorry, I’m having a really bad day today.) And a flying car. And the government should stop hiding space aliens, it’s time for the truth! Meow! ---
**Author:** ![Daniel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Daniel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daniel)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2000, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-see-invented-this-century/6196/10 "2000-01-07T01:59:00Z")
The Man Show had a lot of good ideas. Like the genetically engineered all-wing chicken; it has no body parts other than a countless number of wings! Just take it home, dunk it in the fryer and you’ve got enough buffalo wings for the whole family! (I _really_ like buffalo wings!) On top of that, I’d just like an affordable DVD player for my laptop. * * * “I’m just too much for human existence – I should be animated.” –Wayne Knight ---
**Author:** ![Daniel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Daniel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daniel)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2000, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-see-invented-this-century/6196/11 "2000-01-07T02:00:00Z")
the hell with the flying car; how about those personal jetpacks! or those things the characters on **ReBoot** fly around on. Nice and portable! * * * “I’m just too much for human existence – I should be animated.” –Wayne Knight ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2000, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-see-invented-this-century/6196/12 "2000-01-07T16:25:00Z")
I have to vote for feasible fusion power. With it, the stars might be in reach. ---
**Author:** ![StrTrkr777](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/fbc32d/32.png) [@StrTrkr777](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StrTrkr777)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2000, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-see-invented-this-century/6196/13 "2000-01-07T16:50:00Z")
I am not really sure, when it is invented I will let you know that that is what I wanted them to invent. Other than that the transporters on Star Trek. As a matter of fact, anything from Star Trek that does not currently exist today. Jeffery ---
**Author:** ![Moonshine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@Moonshine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonshine)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2000, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-see-invented-this-century/6196/14 "2000-01-07T17:06:00Z")
I want one of those rubber cars that makes parking so easy. ---
**Author:** ![smilingjaws](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b782af/32.png) [@smilingjaws](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smilingjaws)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2000, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-see-invented-this-century/6196/15 "2000-01-08T06:05:00Z")
I want engineers to invent a heating/cooling system that actually eliminates cigarette smoke (including the tar) from the air so when I go to a restaurant I don’t have to breathe in the stray smoke that migrates from the smoking section to the nonsmoking section! (Appleby’s is the WORST! They all STINK) ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2000, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-see-invented-this-century/6196/16 "2000-01-07T19:31:00Z")
I want them to invent effective anti-aging treatments before I croak. ---
**Author:** ![Surgoshan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Surgoshan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surgoshan)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2000, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-see-invented-this-century/6196/17 "2000-01-07T23:13:00Z")
Also on the man show was the woman with no opinions at all and a machine with a vacuum pump at waist height (yeah, I saw that episode too). I think what we really need is to design robotic morlocks so I can be an eeloin. (forgive my spelling) ---
**Author:** ![AzRaek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/azraek/32/16739_2.png) [@AzRaek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AzRaek)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2000, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-see-invented-this-century/6196/18 "2000-01-08T03:40:00Z")
Hear, hear for the flying car. Or at least a car that runs on water. Some kind of scanner that tells you if the person you’re talking to is an idiot, as you suspect. * * * “That was a hell of a thing.” ---
**Author:** ![DebiJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f08c70/32.png) [@DebiJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DebiJ)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2000, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-see-invented-this-century/6196/19 "2000-01-08T04:02:00Z")
I would like to see a good holodeck! That would definately beat out Playstation. * * * DebiJ “If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn’t be called research, would it?” ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2000, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-see-invented-this-century/6196/20 "2000-01-08T04:18:00Z")
Holodeck, eh? So that it won’t only be the lonely pasty guys wasting their time all evening alone with a machine? And you thought the net offered opportunity to whack off, mentally or otherwise… [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-see-invented-this-century/6196.md?page=2)