# What interesting technology can we expect in the next five years? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 30, 2002, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-interesting-technology-can-we-expect-in-the-next-five-years/130276 "2002-09-30T18:28:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![cainxinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7bcc69/32.png) [@cainxinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cainxinth)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2002, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-interesting-technology-can-we-expect-in-the-next-five-years/130276/21 "2002-10-01T19:32:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by NurseCarmen \* > \*\*I was out of town, could you please expand? (on the incidents, not you yourself) \*\* [Despite Fraud at Bell Labs, Chip Research Barrels Ahead](http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/01/science/physical/01BELL.html) ---
**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2002, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-interesting-technology-can-we-expect-in-the-next-five-years/130276/22 "2002-10-01T22:42:40Z")
> [@](#): > > In 5 years… > > Windows 2004 will ship. There will be bugs. And the SDMB hamster, 5 years older, will still be making perfectly innocent customers double post. 😃 This is really more an IMHO thing. ---
**Author:** ![Wearia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/13edae/32.png) [@Wearia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wearia)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2002, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-interesting-technology-can-we-expect-in-the-next-five-years/130276/23 "2002-10-02T00:22:13Z")
More non lethal weapons, phaser like weapons that stun targets. Long range semi automatic tazers. Net guns Very effective lubricants that could disperce riots (According too the magazine article I read the lubricants would be almost impossible to stand on, if you put it on a door handle you wouldn’t be able to open it, and it evaporates in 12hrs) Aren’t all TV signals going to be switched to HDTV signals at some point? ---
**Author:** ![Wearia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/13edae/32.png) [@Wearia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wearia)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2002, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-interesting-technology-can-we-expect-in-the-next-five-years/130276/24 "2002-10-02T00:25:22Z")
Spelling and grammar checkers will be cheap and effective… :smack: ---
**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 2, 2002, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-interesting-technology-can-we-expect-in-the-next-five-years/130276/25 "2002-10-02T01:10:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Bryan Ekers \* > \*\*In 5 years… > > Windows 2004 will ship. There will be bugs. \*\* You using it now? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2002, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-interesting-technology-can-we-expect-in-the-next-five-years/130276/26 "2002-10-02T01:11:50Z")
High speed wireless networking will be built into all PCs and notebooks and will be the norm for corporate and home networking - High speed net access will become ubiquitous- Cell phones and PDAs will continue to merge functions but will really take off when a sophisticated voice recognition and command based OS’s can be supported by these devices. The above described devices will be integrated into and dock seamlessly with car’s through a standardized interface. Satellite based car radio receivers will come as standard equipment - Most cars wil come will built in GSP navigation devices - Gas and electric hybrid cars will become more popular - The Segway personal transportation device will be everywhere - Portable death ray weapons will start to become technologically feasible - Practical fusion will still be just around the corner - Primitive bionic eyes and ears will begin to become practical - Primitive external wombs that will allow infertile women and gay male couples to grow a fetus to term outside the body will begin to be technologically practical - Safe and practical long term birth control devices will start to become available. This will have more real world impact by an order of magnitude than all the other innovations previously listed put together - ---
**Author:** ![username\_for\_rent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@username\_for\_rent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/username_for_rent)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2002, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-interesting-technology-can-we-expect-in-the-next-five-years/130276/27 "2002-10-02T01:38:14Z")
[I think these Solar Sails have potential](http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~diedrich/solarsails/) I was reading a magazine article about two years ago. It basically said that a solar sail launched around 2008 could catch up to Pioneer 10 in about 20-25 years. Not bad. It could really be a fast and cheap way to thouroughly explore the solar system. A 40-50 year mission might even be able to reach Alpha Centauri, though, that might take a bit longer than five years to make one reliable enough… ---
**Author:** ![Zenpea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Zenpea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zenpea)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2002, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-interesting-technology-can-we-expect-in-the-next-five-years/130276/28 "2002-10-03T21:20:11Z")
Not that I’m suspicious, but I just had to write an essay for a freshers’ competition at Cambridge: ‘how can innovative technology really change the way you learn… over the next five years?’ It’s funny how these coincidences happen. Yesterday, I read the name of a character called Stochastic Fats in a Top Ten Graphic Novel and wondered what stochastic meant. I looked it up on [dictionary.com](http://dictionary.com), and then saw it minutes later in the newspaper, and in the Freedom Force Sound Schemata editor. Then in the evening someone said it on the news. This sort of thing is happening more and more. -James ---
**Author:** ![cainxinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7bcc69/32.png) [@cainxinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cainxinth)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2002, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-interesting-technology-can-we-expect-in-the-next-five-years/130276/29 "2002-10-03T22:04:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Zenpea \* > **It’s funny how these coincidences happen. Yesterday, I read the name of a character called Stochastic Fats in a Top Ten Graphic Novel and wondered what stochastic meant. I looked it up on [dictionary.com](http://dictionary.com), and then saw it minutes later in the newspaper, and in the Freedom Force Sound Schemata editor. Then in the evening someone said it on the news. This sort of thing is happening more and more.** OT, but a Jungian would say you are tapping into the “collective unconscious” and experiencing synchronicities. A skeptic would say you used to see the word all the time but you’re only noticing it now because you just learned it. I say its an unknown mixture of both. Of course my theory could be stochastic. 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-interesting-technology-can-we-expect-in-the-next-five-years/130276.md?page=1)