# What should modern technology have accomplished by now, but didnt? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 12, 2010, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-modern-technology-have-accomplished-by-now-but-didnt/560415 "2010-11-12T14:08:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![MegaBee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f0a364/32.png) [@MegaBee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MegaBee)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2010, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-modern-technology-have-accomplished-by-now-but-didnt/560415/21 "2010-11-12T18:38:33Z")
We have any number of devices that are pretty much the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Modern technology is coming along just fine! ---
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2010, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-modern-technology-have-accomplished-by-now-but-didnt/560415/22 "2010-11-12T18:41:53Z")
> [@Yarster](#): > > I blame unions for the majority of these issues. I get the whole ‘working wage’ thing that unions provide for some industries, but when they stand in the way of obvious progress, especially the aforementioned healthcare, where prices have been spiraling out of control for years, we have a problem. Unions… for Healthcare? Pretty sure most of the hang-ups in healthcare have to do with laws and HIPAA and that whole bit about healthcare providers having to have licenses to practice medicine. Unions have nothing to do with that. ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2010, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-modern-technology-have-accomplished-by-now-but-didnt/560415/23 "2010-11-12T18:47:02Z")
a cure for the common cold. (sniffles, sneezes, coughs his way out of the room) ---
**Author:** ![MLS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MLS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MLS)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2010, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-modern-technology-have-accomplished-by-now-but-didnt/560415/24 "2010-11-12T18:53:41Z")
> [@Yarster](#): > > Greater automation all the way around. > … > The same goes for all the other “fill out this form and stand in this line” type jobs out there. If I have to fill out a form, and your job is to look it over, make sure it is right, collect my money, and then stamp it, your job shouldn’t exist. I’m looking at your Permitting offices and DMV… In NJ we can do most of this on line. The exceptions are when you have to present physical documents or have a photo taken. For example, if you want to register a used car you just bought, you have to bring in the signed title, which is a quite reasonable requirement. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2010, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-modern-technology-have-accomplished-by-now-but-didnt/560415/25 "2010-11-12T18:53:57Z")
[Needleguns.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Needlegun) ---
**Author:** ![ducati](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/cc9497/32.png) [@ducati](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ducati)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2010, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-modern-technology-have-accomplished-by-now-but-didnt/560415/26 "2010-11-12T19:48:50Z")
Better traffic control and flow. Really, how hard is it to use sensors and cameras to determine whether a car is waiting at an intersection and vary the lights for the best traffic flow? And why do we accordion to a stop and then go on the highway when there’s absolutely no reason for it? How about automatic pool chemical management? If some cross-eyed teenager with 7 teeth at my pool store can analyze my water sample & sell me 80 pounds of crap and tell me when to put it in, why can’t a machine in my shed constantly monitor my water & inject the necessary compounds automatically? Female aphrodisiacs. It’s past time to turn that “eh, maybe later” into “Now, dammit, now!” with an easy-to-[del]hide[/del] swallow pill! Two words: Jet Pack. CIWS for aircraft to prevent bird strikes. Use shotguns instead of 20mm cannons so we don’t disrupt the pattern…😃 ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2010, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-modern-technology-have-accomplished-by-now-but-didnt/560415/27 "2010-11-12T19:52:19Z")
> [@Yarster](#): > > The same goes for all the other “fill out this form and stand in this line” type jobs out there. If I have to fill out a form, and your job is to look it over, make sure it is right, collect my money, and then stamp it, your job shouldn’t exist. I’m looking at your Permitting offices and DMV… Our SecState (Michigan version of the DMV) has automated machines now. I was unable to renew my plates this year via internet (only home for a weekend), but the machines saved my hide. Oh, and when you don’t have to use something as archaic as a machine, you can do it all online. (What about the proof of insurance? It’s all linked electronically.) > [@](#): > > I blame unions for the majority of these issues. I get the whole ‘working wage’ thing that unions provide for some industries, but when they stand in the way of obvious progress, especially the aforementioned healthcare, where prices have been spiraling out of control for years, we have a problem. Aside from nursing, who’s unionized in the health care industry? That’s a serious question, and I only know about the nurses because they’re always going on strike. ---
**Author:** ![supergalactic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@supergalactic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/supergalactic)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2010, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-modern-technology-have-accomplished-by-now-but-didnt/560415/28 "2010-11-12T19:57:02Z")
> [@Balthisar](#): > > What you describe is the problem! We want good aircraft that are also good ground vehicles, and that don’t need FAA licenses, flight physicals, or any intelligence to operate. Basically, like cars, except that they fly. We could call them flying cars. 😛 You’re both wrong. We will NEVER have a mass-produced flying ANYTHING. People can’t even operate their own cars on the ground, now you want them in the AIR??? Do you really wanna share the sky with Asians who can barely drive in the first place? Before you go apeshit and call me a racist, I’ve seen almost every race or color do something really stupid on the roads, and I’m certainly no different, but I see more Asians than any other group with terrible driving skills. I don’t think they earned that bad driving rap for nothing. Just because we can build them doesn’t automatically mean we should. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2010, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-modern-technology-have-accomplished-by-now-but-didnt/560415/29 "2010-11-12T20:03:21Z")
By now, all court procedures ought to be on-line. Instead, they still stick with paper documents. Procedures are carried out the same way they did in 1860. Trials take forever, no intelligence of any kind is used to speed them up. A medieval system unfit for the 21st century-but there is no way to reform it. ---
**Author:** ![QuarkChild](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/c5a1d2/32.png) [@QuarkChild](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuarkChild)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2010, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-modern-technology-have-accomplished-by-now-but-didnt/560415/30 "2010-11-12T20:03:24Z")
Humanoid Robots, as in the Asimov Robot novels. I want a humanoid robot spouse to do my dishes, laundry, and snow-shoveling. Even better if s/he can drive a car; I hate driving. ---
**Author:** ![Bearflag70](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Bearflag70](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bearflag70)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2010, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-modern-technology-have-accomplished-by-now-but-didnt/560415/31 "2010-11-12T20:05:47Z")
Everything we have now should have been done about 500 years earlier. Thanks a lot, Middle Ages! ---
**Author:** ![Yarster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/7c8e57/32.png) [@Yarster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yarster)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2010, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-modern-technology-have-accomplished-by-now-but-didnt/560415/32 "2010-11-12T22:59:35Z")
> [@Athena](#): > > Unions… for Healthcare? Pretty sure most of the hang-ups in healthcare have to do with laws and HIPAA and that whole bit about healthcare providers having to have licenses to practice medicine. Unions have nothing to do with that. Not from where I’m sitting **Athena**. I can only speak for Kaiser Permanente for my experience, but most of the medial care professionals are unionized with guaranteed raises built into contracts for years to come to adjust for inflation even if the economy takes a nosedive. In fact, I heard a big union contract was just renegotiated for the nurses and RTs at Kaiser with the expectation the co-pays for the union folks were supposed to go up to try to contain costs. One threat of a strike and bad press, and that threat disappeared and they got their sweetheart deal back. I’ll be the first one to admit that there are plenty of other problems in healthcare that make the costs skyrocket, and this was not meant to be a pit thread about unions. I would simply argue that unions are a facet of preventing technology progress in the name of saving jobs. Another facet is lawyers - the first time someone loads up the future ‘drug machine’ with the wrong drug on the back end and gives the wrong pill to someone, it will be Lawsuit-city USA for whoever implements those machines. ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2010, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-modern-technology-have-accomplished-by-now-but-didnt/560415/33 "2010-11-12T23:08:55Z")
Fully functional eye transplants for blind people, and ear transplants for the deaf. ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2010, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-modern-technology-have-accomplished-by-now-but-didnt/560415/34 "2010-11-12T23:38:56Z")
Something I learned a couple of years ago is that there are a lot of products that companies could have put out years before they did, but they waited until they could figure out how to profit from the item first. And then of course there are items that would cause a big profit loss if they were put on the market. Think of the drop in sales Duracell, Energizer, and Rayovac would have if there were AA, AAA, C, D, and other such batteries that came out that could last, let’s say a lifetime. Yeah, there are rechargeable batteries, but even then you have to replace them eventually. Anyway, my wife has muscular dystrophy. She has [FSH](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facioscapulohumeral_muscular_dystrophy) which shouldn’t effect her breathing, but it does. Because her Diaphragm and trunk muscles are weak, she has a trach and is on a home ventilator. I keep wondering why there isn’t an artificial Diaphragm yet. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2010, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-modern-technology-have-accomplished-by-now-but-didnt/560415/35 "2010-11-12T23:50:00Z")
A lot of things such as trips to Mars are a matter of money. In the 70s the budget for space exploration was really cut back. We could put a man on Mars, but we don’t have the spare money nor the real desire to do it. Most things a man could do could be done robotically. As another poster said, flying cars? Like George Jetson had? Unlikely, even with things like jet packs. Flying machines one wears on your back. We have those, the problem is they are very complex. You go up, down, back, forth, side to side, you the worst of all you can go into a roll. It’s too much bother. Other ideas, like seeding hurricaines to break them up, were abandoned due to potential lawsuits. What’s do-able is often just a matter of budgets ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-modern-technology-have-accomplished-by-now-but-didnt/560415/36 "2010-11-13T00:18:41Z")
Of course there are multiple ways to interpret the OP. I’m sure mankind’s biggest failures will be “unknown unknowns”. I can easily imagine extraterrestrials meeting us and saying something sounding like “Wait, so you guys know about lasers and antibodies, and yet you still haven’t cured cancer?! Curing cancer’s the most basic application of that knowledge!” * * * But anyway in the spirit of the OP, I’d say: AI: It turns out that the fantastic human brain is poorly suited to the task of understanding brains… Paralysis from severed nerves: C’mon guys, just glue 'em back together! And the obvious failing… Something better than an umbrella: You hold a big rag over your head, that gets blown about in the wind. Then you get to your destination and you have to find somewhere to put it where it won’t drip all over everything. Lame. > [@Lemur866](#): > > Do I really have to go through my patented “a flying car isn’t a flying car, it’s really a shitty airplane that you can drive down the street” rant? > > Because I will if I have to. \ That’s not what everyone means by flying car. Indeed I maintain that _most_ people mean “A flying version of \”. Like the jetsons, or star wars. It’s kinda annoying reading articles in magazines where they point out that cars and planes have different requirements. Why would I want to drive if I can fly?! ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-modern-technology-have-accomplished-by-now-but-didnt/560415/37 "2010-11-13T00:42:01Z")
> [@supergalactic](#): > > You’re both wrong. We will NEVER have a mass-produced flying ANYTHING. People can’t even operate their own cars on the ground, now you want them in the AIR??? Do you really wanna share the sky with Asians who can barely drive in the first place? > Before you go apeshit and call me a racist, I’ve seen almost every race or color do something really stupid on the roads, and I’m certainly no different, but I see more Asians than any other group with terrible driving skills. I don’t think they earned that bad driving rap for nothing. **Moderator Note:** OK, fine, you’re not a racist. But that is a prejudicial race-based remark which is not how we do things here. Don’t do this again. ---
**Author:** ![supergalactic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@supergalactic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/supergalactic)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-modern-technology-have-accomplished-by-now-but-didnt/560415/38 "2010-11-13T01:12:26Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > **Moderator Note:** > OK, fine, you’re not a racist. > > But that is a prejudicial race-based remark which is not how we do things here. Don’t do this again. Ok then. Being part Chinese, I apologize that we’re bad drivers. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-modern-technology-have-accomplished-by-now-but-didnt/560415/39 "2010-11-13T01:24:50Z")
> [@supergalactic](#): > > Ok then. Being part Chinese, I apologize that we’re bad drivers. what you wanted to say was “Ah so, honolable Spectle of Picathlopus. Me so solly! Me so solly!” ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-modern-technology-have-accomplished-by-now-but-didnt/560415/40 "2010-11-13T02:04:16Z")
> [@supergalactic](#): > > Ok then. Being part Chinese, I apologize that we’re bad drivers. The wife just apologized for the Thais being bad drivers. And someone should! Seriously. Optometrists were mentioned above. I am not a candidate for laser surgery, due to the shape of my eyeballs. There should be something they can do about that. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-modern-technology-have-accomplished-by-now-but-didnt/560415.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-modern-technology-have-accomplished-by-now-but-didnt/560415.md?page=3)