# What future innovation are you sad you'll never live to see? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 9, 2014, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-future-innovation-are-you-sad-youll-never-live-to-see/692716 "2014-07-09T16:03:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Marlonius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@Marlonius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marlonius)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-future-innovation-are-you-sad-youll-never-live-to-see/692716/21 "2014-07-10T03:15:27Z")
Clean energy for all. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-future-innovation-are-you-sad-youll-never-live-to-see/692716/22 "2014-07-10T03:50:22Z")
> [@MOIDALIZE](#): > > Detachable penis. You realize you can already buy one, right? Oh, you mean your own? Can’t help you there. ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-future-innovation-are-you-sad-youll-never-live-to-see/692716/23 "2014-07-10T03:52:03Z")
> [@Werekoala](#): > > Interstellar travel within a reasonable fraction of a human lifetime. > Effective immortality. Well if we get the second, the first would be a lot easier even if FTL travel is impossible. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-future-innovation-are-you-sad-youll-never-live-to-see/692716/24 "2014-07-10T03:55:26Z")
Extraterrestrial life. We’ll see it eventually, but the odds of it happening in my lifetime are close to zero. ---
**Author:** ![Neidhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Neidhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neidhart)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-future-innovation-are-you-sad-youll-never-live-to-see/692716/25 "2014-07-10T16:05:47Z")
Nanobots that live in your body, maintain you at a physical age of 18, repair organs which begin to degrade, and destroy pathogenic organisms and incipient cancers. IIRC Eric Drexler predicted this for the early 21st century in Engines of Creation. Maybe in 300 years or so. Fully-immersive virtual reality which can’t be distinguished from the real world. (mostly for the pornographic possibilities.) VR seemed to be making progress in the mid-'90s but I haven’t heard much about it in a long time. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-future-innovation-are-you-sad-youll-never-live-to-see/692716/26 "2014-07-10T16:28:32Z")
A cure for cardiovascular disease. I expect eventually a pill will easily keep arteries clear of plaque. I imagine we may only be 30 or 40 years away. Imagine heart attacks and strokes pretty much a thing of the past. ---
**Author:** ![MostlyClueless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@MostlyClueless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MostlyClueless)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-future-innovation-are-you-sad-youll-never-live-to-see/692716/27 "2014-07-10T17:41:37Z")
> [@Neidhart](#): > > VR seemed to be making progress in the mid-'90s but I haven’t heard much about it in a long time. Check out this thing called “oculus rift” sometime. Still very much in beta, but it seems like the tech has finally caught up with what the 90s promised. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-future-innovation-are-you-sad-youll-never-live-to-see/692716/28 "2014-07-10T17:49:57Z")
I was working in the virtual reality industry about 15-20 years ago and from what I’ve seen of the Oculus Rift, there’s no great improvement in the technology, aside from relatively light weight and higher resolution than we could get in the 1990s. I’m amazed that Facebook paid so much for the company. ---
**Author:** ![Absinthe\_Anecdote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f6c823/32.png) [@Absinthe\_Anecdote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Absinthe_Anecdote)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-future-innovation-are-you-sad-youll-never-live-to-see/692716/29 "2014-07-10T17:53:59Z")
Developments in neuroscience that allow us to fully understand how the human brain codes information, making digital communication with the brain possible. If we get that far, there is no telling what it could lead to. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-future-innovation-are-you-sad-youll-never-live-to-see/692716/30 "2014-07-10T17:55:49Z")
> [@Neidhart](#): > > Fully-immersive virtual reality which can’t be distinguished from the real world. (mostly for the pornographic possibilities.) Followed by a complete halt in human progress as we all retreat into our own virtual fantasy worlds. ---
**Author:** ![CheshireKat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheshirekat/32/1207_2.png) [@CheshireKat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CheshireKat)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-future-innovation-are-you-sad-youll-never-live-to-see/692716/31 "2014-07-10T18:10:16Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Followed by a complete halt in human progress as **we all retreat into our own virtual fantasy worlds**. Some of us do this already, and special equipment is not needed. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-future-innovation-are-you-sad-youll-never-live-to-see/692716/32 "2014-07-10T22:17:09Z")
I’m sad I probably won’t live to see chemical encoding of memories in the human brain, and by extension the ability to upload and download memories to other people. Can you imagine being able to share a memory? Or download someone elses memory? I think it would be a game changer! (Yes I realize this is pie in the sky scifi nonsense no where near reality, sue me!) ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-future-innovation-are-you-sad-youll-never-live-to-see/692716/33 "2014-07-10T22:18:40Z")
A decent web application framework. ---
**Author:** ![Absinthe\_Anecdote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f6c823/32.png) [@Absinthe\_Anecdote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Absinthe_Anecdote)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-future-innovation-are-you-sad-youll-never-live-to-see/692716/34 "2014-07-10T23:24:06Z")
> [@grude](#): > > I’m sad I probably won’t live to see chemical encoding of memories in the human brain, and by extension the ability to upload and download memories to other people. > > Can you imagine being able to share a memory? Or download someone elses memory? > > I think it would be a game changer! > > (Yes I realize this is pie in the sky scifi nonsense no where near reality, sue me!) What you are talking about might be a century or two away, but the first steps are being taken. I watched one of Michio Kaku’s lectures on future technology, and he said that researchers in Kyoto have already been able to translate the optic signals of the human eye to a digital format. So far, they have had a test subject hooked up to sensors and have successfully been able to replicate crude outlines of shapes on a TV monitor of what the test subject is looking at. That’s along way from translating memories into a digital signal, but it is a step in that direction. I think it is entirely plausible that we could one day figure out how the brain codes and stores information. ---
**Author:** ![Barking\_Dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Barking\_Dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barking_Dog)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2014, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-future-innovation-are-you-sad-youll-never-live-to-see/692716/35 "2014-07-11T00:45:44Z")
Star Trek style replicators. ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2014, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-future-innovation-are-you-sad-youll-never-live-to-see/692716/36 "2014-07-11T01:00:46Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > Immortality. Winnar! ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2014, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-future-innovation-are-you-sad-youll-never-live-to-see/692716/37 "2014-07-11T01:40:53Z")
Anti-gravity. It is proven to exist in some form, since galaxies are accelerating apart rather than decelerating. I want an anti-gravity flying suit. Also… the elimination of the penny. Somehow, that seems less likely. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2014, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-future-innovation-are-you-sad-youll-never-live-to-see/692716/38 "2014-07-11T05:06:52Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > I may see 2050. I was born in 1954, just barely, and my grandmother lived to be almost 108. I’m actually looking forward to 2026, the 250th anniversary of the USA. I had to spend most of 1976 out of the country, in Korea, and I really missed all the hoopla. I spent most of 1976 in Africa and the rest in Canada. I almost took up believing in Gold, just so I could thank Him for letting me be out of the country for all the hoopla. As for living to 108, my mother lived to 98, her last months in my home with me, and that is an indignity I’d rather be spared. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2014, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-future-innovation-are-you-sad-youll-never-live-to-see/692716/39 "2014-07-11T12:35:13Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > But they still won’t have a cure for baldness in the 24th century. The famous rejoinder is “In the 24th century, everyone will have grown up enough to realize it doesn’t matter”. > [@jtur88](#): > > I spent most of 1976 in Africa and the rest in Canada. I almost took up believing in **Gold** , just so I could thank Him for letting me be out of the country for all the hoopla. You cannot serve God and Mammon. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_T-Cups](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Sir\_T-Cups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_T-Cups)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2014, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-future-innovation-are-you-sad-youll-never-live-to-see/692716/40 "2014-07-11T12:44:03Z")
> [@grude](#): > > I’m sad I probably won’t live to see chemical encoding of memories in the human brain, and by extension the ability to upload and download memories to other people. > > Can you imagine being able to share a memory? Or download someone elses memory? > > I think it would be a game changer! > > (Yes I realize this is pie in the sky scifi nonsense no where near reality, sue me!) Think of how this would revolutionize the judicial system. “Did you kill that man” “No” “Let’s go to the tape!” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-future-innovation-are-you-sad-youll-never-live-to-see/692716.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-future-innovation-are-you-sad-youll-never-live-to-see/692716.md?page=3)