The micro processor was evolutionary, the Internet - revolutionary. No one could really have even imagined the Internet as we see today. What do you guys think the next major unimaginable thing would be? For sake of the argument pretend you can imagine an unimaginable thing. I can imagine transporter technology. I can imagine cold nuclear fusion. What is something I cant think of?
Most likely the Glarphon or the Telemobulator.
The Fnord Fn-250
The revolutionary idea is the harder one to think of. Personally, on the evolutionary side I think it will be some kind of cheap or free energy/ transmittable power. You know, the kind of thing where no matter where you are in the world with any kind of device, there will be a way to wirelessly power it at low/no cost. This will lead to the use of previously power limited devices in all kinds of new ways and locations where it wasn’t possible before, which includes the “I can’t think of it yet” revolutionary device everyone will have 20 years from now like a cell phone or iPod today. Based on the way the Internet works today, it will probably be some kind of portable virtual reality porn device where you can have virtual sex with anyone you can think of.
What do you mean no one could’ve imagined the Internet? Revolutionary as it may seem, it’s still just an evolution of local computer networks.
I think the next big thing will come from the combination of nanotechnology and genetic engineering – the programming of biological machines. Of course, nothing unimaginable about that either… probably overimagined, if anything. Gray goo FTW!
The Cylon.
Next big thing will be serious implants that augment your biology. When they can integrate computer access into your thoughts, the possibilities are endless.
OLEDs.
Yeah, just imagine all the p3n15 enl@rg3mant ads beamed directly into your brain.
That’s so 21st century. Imagine a p3n15 the size of the new neurointergalactinet. The future is all orgy, all the time.
Soft electronics is my usual nomination - not completely revolutionary because the scientific principles are with us already AFAIK, but will require a technical revolution to bring into being. It’s basically the idea of replacing solid state circuit boards and components with soft materials like paper, fabric etc. Think of a TV screen printed on a piece of cloth that you could roll up and put in your back pocket - it will completely change how we use materials to build / shape our world, with a corresponding change in our use of computers.
It is also wrapped up in **New Beginning’**s point of integrating biology with computing, as it is likely that non-silicon approaches will be needed to construct the bio-PC devices.
I don’t know if it will be the “next” thing, but one of the largest advancements in the future will be virtual reality. Ultimately the real world and it’s laws of physics are a hindrance to most of what we do day to day outside of agriculture. Eventually the real world is going to be a computer simulation.
I used to joke that, because of all the typing errors I made, I needed to have a SCSI port installed in my temple so I could directly interface with the computer. Now, I’m thinking that wireless interface between the human brain and a computer network will reduce the need for electrical energy to a fraction of what it is now. We can go online, receive all the media input we want, watch movies, even have one-on-one conversations without even talking and while we engage in pseudo-survival activities like gardening, baking bread and woodworking.
Maybe I shouldn’t be wired up.
Non Fossil Fuelled Airliner?
I believe it will take off from a treadmill
The Cylon is evolutionary, Caprica Six and Boomer are revolutionary.
Great, I already have a “Junk” folder in my brain, I guess this means I’m going to have to formalise the arrangement.
Honestly? I can’t tell you.
Most of the minor breakthroughs that come in the next decade are things people are already working on, and known to the general public at large. Personally, I can’t see a whole new technology that will change the world coming anytime soon. There will be advances in science of course, but there’s nothing on the menu yet to suggest, at least to lesser minds like me, that there will be another epoch defining moment like the computer/software pairing.
Wetware, microtech, and other such trendy fields that are in the forefront of geeky minds have a long way yet to come before they’re going to change the world.
It’s just my opinion though, and I’ve been wrong before, like when I thought the internet would never be a business tool.
One word: Chuck Norris.
Seems likely to be true. The real revolutions, like AI, are probably way off (read, past my life on this world).
However, I still have some hope that that computer-brain integration can happen in my lifetime… At least to some extent. They have already demonstrated being able to (very rudimentary) scan through and interpret a person’s visual memory; it doesn’t seem that far-fetched to think that we might eventually be able to “project” visuals into the brain as well. And of course we have monkeys already controlling robot arms with their brains so it seems likely that the brain can adapt naturally to make use of an input control that we give it… Combine with miniaturization and maybe we don’t need AI, since we’ve got the best of both worlds inside a human being.
In the near-term, very improved batteries. While many implications are obvious, others are probably beyond our guessing.