# 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:** 3
**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, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-modern-technology-have-accomplished-by-now-but-didnt/560415/41 "2010-11-13T02:05:08Z")
> [@Larry\_Borgia](#): > > what you wanted to say was “Ah so, honolable Spectle of Picathlopus. Me so solly! Me so solly!” I got a cousin in dry cleaning. He’ll totally hook your shit up. Hit me up for a bomb-shit rice recipe. ---
**Author:** ![RadicalPi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/radicalpi/32/9806_2.png) [@RadicalPi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RadicalPi)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-modern-technology-have-accomplished-by-now-but-didnt/560415/42 "2010-11-13T07:26:06Z")
The hypospray, like on Star Trek. That’s what I want. A replacement for needles. You shouldn’t have to suck it up and be a man when you’re already in pain. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2010, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-modern-technology-have-accomplished-by-now-but-didnt/560415/43 "2010-11-14T00:44:17Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > 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. I think you would be surprised how much technology is used in the legal processes. But yeah, for some weird reason, the last step is always to print it all out on paper. > [@supergalactic](#): > > 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 In all fairness, there are more Asians than any other group, period. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2010, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-modern-technology-have-accomplished-by-now-but-didnt/560415/44 "2010-11-14T00:46:34Z")
> [@QuarkChild](#): > > 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. I’d program it to give blowjobs on demand. My actual spouse can do that other shit.😃 ---
**Author:** ![Illuminatiprimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/illuminatiprimus/32/11520_2.png) [@Illuminatiprimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Illuminatiprimus)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2010, 10:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-modern-technology-have-accomplished-by-now-but-didnt/560415/45 "2010-11-14T10:34:40Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Screw the little whippersnappers! **I want** my couple of centuries. And it’s this kind of thinking that demonstrates that for the good of the earth and others around you that you shouldn’t get 200 years. 😛 > [@Yarster](#): > > Things like optometrists and pharmacists should not exist because they should have been automated long ago. There should just be a machine that looks at your eyes or that dispenses your drugs and tells you whether there are any precautions or side effects to watch out for. Have you been to a modern opticians? That’s pretty much what they do. Whereas in the past they had to manually go through a host of tests on someone now they just say “look into this” and a few minutes later you have a prescription. > [@chappachula](#): > > a cure for the common cold. > > (sniffles, sneezes, coughs his way out of the room) Awwww, poor lamb. However as the common cold is in fact a broad description of about 200 different viruses it’s unlikely that’s going to happen until we have a vastly superior ability to directly influence the body’s immune system. > [@rachelellogram](#): > > Fully functional eye transplants for blind people, and ear transplants for the deaf. We have cochlear implants that function the way you are proposing, but it’s still a pretty basic technology compared to what we’d like. Similarly with eyes, we already have the ability to do cornea transplants and recently a man had an implant into his eye that allowed him to regain a significant portion of his sight that had been lost to muscular dystrophy. > [@RadicalPi](#): > > The hypospray, like on Star Trek. That’s what I want. A replacement for needles. You shouldn’t have to suck it up and be a man when you’re already in pain. They have ultra fine needles that (according to my diabetic mother who uses them regularly) you actually can’t feel at all. But yes, hyposprays would be nice (speaking as someone who has to go for regular blood tests). 🙂 For me I’m surprised we don’t have fully immersive virtual reality yet. The practical and commercial applications are so staggering it would change our world forever. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2010, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-modern-technology-have-accomplished-by-now-but-didnt/560415/46 "2010-11-14T11:45:36Z")
> [@Mijin](#): > > 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?! Speaking as someone who has been forced to land an airplane in someone’s back yard due to weather… and another time experienced turbulence bad enough to leave bruises on my hips and shoulders from the safety harness…yeah, sometimes you really would prefer ground transport. But, um, yeah, I’d like a flying car, too. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2010, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-modern-technology-have-accomplished-by-now-but-didnt/560415/47 "2010-11-14T11:53:18Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Screw the little whippersnappers! I want my couple of centuries. > [@Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri](#): > > _“Of course, I plan to live forever, but barring that, I’d settle for a couple of thousand years. Even 500 would be pretty nice.” – CEO Nwabudike Morgan, MorganLink 3D Vision Live Interview_ As to the OP: Laser small-arms. There haven’t really been any incredible new developments in rifle/handgun technology since the Vietnam War, and that was around 40 years ago. You’d honestly think that someone, having seen _Star Wars_ once too often, would have said “There has _got_ to be a way to make a functioning blaster rifle” and gotten on with it, much as happened with automatic doors. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2010, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-modern-technology-have-accomplished-by-now-but-didnt/560415/48 "2010-11-14T12:16:07Z")
Ability to clone and force grow a new body to implant my brain in to avoid the health issues of my current body [or to get replacement body parts from that I don’t need to do the antirejection meds for] Make a robotic duplicate body for me that I implant my brain in to avoid the failing health of my current body, that retains my full identity and citizenship. The ability to have surgical modifications to survive underwater as an amphibian [gills, mainly] ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2010, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-modern-technology-have-accomplished-by-now-but-didnt/560415/49 "2010-11-14T13:15:34Z")
Teeth. Why do we have to be restricted to two lousy sets of teeth for a lifetime? I guess that problem also applies to eyes and ears. Why can’t we have induced regeneration for those parts of us that routinely wear out before the entire system shuts down? Is it possible for stem cell technology to be applied to regeneration? Why do we allow politicians to dictate scientific research and/or applications? Why do we allow politicians to allow superstition to interfere with science? ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2010, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-modern-technology-have-accomplished-by-now-but-didnt/560415/50 "2010-11-14T14:18:44Z")
> [@LouisB](#): > > … > Why do we allow politicians to dictate scientific research and/or applications? > Why do we allow politicians to allow superstition to interfere with science? Because most Americans are superstitious fools. And demand that their government follow at least part of their ancient superstitions. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2010, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-modern-technology-have-accomplished-by-now-but-didnt/560415/51 "2010-11-14T15:44:13Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > I would be content if we could master the technology to allow a computer to turn “on” and “off” like any other electronic appliance instead of taking 20 minutes to “boot up”. Complain to Bill Gates. My MacBook Pro boots up in less than ten seconds and is completely shut down within five. I understand the Macs with solid state drives are even faster. > [@Martini\_Enfield](#): > > As to the OP: Laser small-arms. There haven’t really been any incredible new developments in rifle/handgun technology since the Vietnam War, and that was around 40 years ago. You’d honestly think that someone, having seen _Star Wars_ once too often, would have said “There has _got_ to be a way to make a functioning blaster rifle” and gotten on with it, much as happened with automatic doors. There actually have been some significant developments, such as caseless ammunition, gyroscopically stabilized weapon mounts, laser rangefinders, high fidelity light gathering scopes, hammer forged barrels, et cetera. However, for the most part, these technologies haven’t been implemented in general production weapons because of cost and a perceived lack of necessity. Although not a part of the functional mechanism of the weapon, glass-filled epoxy composite material for frames, stocks, and forearms has become nearly universal in duty and service weapons. The reason directed energy weapons have not become available isn’t because the fundamental projection technology doesn’t exist, but because of the inherent low efficiency in lasers, particle beams, and rail guns. The power supply necessary to provide energy to such a weapon is far too large to be portable, requires a lot of cooling, and often uses toxic chemicals to boot. (Purely closed cell batteries and fuel cells just can’t provide the power input necessary to supply such weapons.) This is an energy storage problem, and for portable applications chemical potential energy and conversion by chemical combustion is the most compact and lightweight form of energy storage. > [@Lemur866](#): > > You don’t want a flying car, because the concept of a flying car is incoherent. A vehicle that flies is not a car, it’s an aircraft. And you can get an pretty inexpensive decent aircraft today. Except, any aircraft that is specially modified to allow you do drive it down your street and park it in your garage is going to be a shitty aircraft. And when you’re flying that shitty aircraft, the second you have some trouble, you’re going to wish you had a decent aircraft instead. When’s the last time you were piloting your light aircraft, and mused to yourself, “You know, this airplane is pretty sweet, but what would make it totally awesome is if I could drive it on the ground, too!”? You seem to be missing the point. When people talk about a “flying car”, they don’t mean a Pinto with wings, or a Piper Cub with road wheels; they want a vectored thrust vehicle that can transit in three dimensions, as seen in _Blade Runner_ or _The Fifth Element_. The problem there is, again, energy; aircraft obtain lift via conversion of forward thrust moving at a couple hundred miles and hour or so. This is reasonably efficient but requires both a large lifting surface (wings) and isn’t especially maneuverable. Using direct thrust burns through fuel like crazy. Until some future Nobel Prize laureate figures out controlled gravity or how to suspend a vehicle-sized mass on the flux lines of the Earth’s magnetic field, or some other manner of levitation in which energy is mostly conserved, it just won’t be practical to have something that looks any more like a flying car than a ducted helicopter. The control problem is another issue entirely; for mass use, you’d have to have some kind of automated control system as it just wouldn’t be practical or safe to have the average driver trained and licensed to operate a vehicle with helicopter-like controls. > [@ZipperJJ](#): > > Perfectly secure electronic voting. We could have that today. The same public key encryption methods used billions of times a day for secure online purchasing and banking could easily be used for an electronic voting system with unique, non-counterfeitable signatures. This would be vastly more secure and accountable than paper ballots, and far more robust than the current generation of on-line voting machines, and to top it off, could be done from any web browser. This is not a technological problem; it is purely a political one. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![thirdname](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@thirdname](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdname)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2010, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-modern-technology-have-accomplished-by-now-but-didnt/560415/52 "2010-11-14T18:08:41Z")
Standardized power supplies. I have a box of old AC adapters in my basement that I can’t throw away because they might go to something I’ll want to use again in the future. A lot of them aren’t even labeled to tell you what product they came with, so I can’t throw them away even if I might not have the thing they came with. A lot of low-powered devices are standardizing on USB, but why do they have to have so many different kinds of USB plugs? Can’t they just have one large and one small? I have to keep a grocery bag full of different USB cables because of that. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2010, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-modern-technology-have-accomplished-by-now-but-didnt/560415/53 "2010-11-14T22:32:25Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > There actually have been some significant developments, such as caseless ammunition, gyroscopically stabilized weapon mounts, laser rangefinders, high fidelity light gathering scopes, hammer forged barrels, et cetera. However, for the most part, these technologies haven’t been implemented in general production weapons because of cost and a perceived lack of necessity. Developments which aren’t getting used don’t count, IMHO. I’m aware of caseless ammo etc but the fact is it’s not getting used beyond an experimental scale and so isn’t really a “Development” because the stuff on the market is still the same (with minor exceptions like laser rangefinders and sights) the same as it has been for a long time. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2010, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-modern-technology-have-accomplished-by-now-but-didnt/560415/54 "2010-11-14T23:15:45Z")
> [@Martini\_Enfield](#): > > Developments which aren’t getting used don’t count, IMHO. I’m aware of caseless ammo etc but the fact is it’s not getting used beyond an experimental scale and so isn’t really a “Development” because the stuff on the market is still the same (with minor exceptions like laser rangefinders and sights) the same as it has been for a long time. Yes, but the reason it isn’t being used isn’t because the technology isn’t sufficiently mature for deployment; it is because governments don’t want to or see the benefit in investing in converting to a new weapon system and support the logistical chain. The distinction should be made against technology that didn’t develop as anticipated (flying cars, interplanetary travel, et cetera) and technology that has developed to or beyond expectations but hasn’t been implemented for fiscal or political reasons. Stranger ---
**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:** [November 14, 2010, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-modern-technology-have-accomplished-by-now-but-didnt/560415/55 "2010-11-14T23:26:57Z")
> [@](#): > > It’s the 21st century! Why aren’t I snorting vitamin enriched coke off the tits of my sex robot? – the late Greg Giraldo ---
**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 15, 2010, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-modern-technology-have-accomplished-by-now-but-didnt/560415/56 "2010-11-15T04:26:05Z")
> [@Illuminatiprimus](#): > > And it’s this kind of thinking that demonstrates that for the good of the earth and others around you that you shouldn’t get 200 years. 😛 Well, I’m going to shoot for it. We’ll see which one of us is laughing 140-odd years from now. ---
**Author:** ![FordTaurusSHO94](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f07891/32.png) [@FordTaurusSHO94](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FordTaurusSHO94)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2010, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-modern-technology-have-accomplished-by-now-but-didnt/560415/57 "2010-11-15T05:52:03Z")
I want my replicators, transporters, and faster than light travel! ---
**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:** [November 15, 2010, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-modern-technology-have-accomplished-by-now-but-didnt/560415/58 "2010-11-15T06:45:56Z")
A way to adjust the volume in TV commercials to be the same as the program. Or a way to skip them entirely. ---
**Author:** ![antonio107](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7ea924/32.png) [@antonio107](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/antonio107)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2010, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-modern-technology-have-accomplished-by-now-but-didnt/560415/59 "2010-11-15T06:52:44Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > Or a way to skip them entirely. Tivo? Or if you mean “without having to hit the FF button,” I had a VCR that boasted this ability, but it wasn’t perfect. ---
**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:** [November 15, 2010, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-modern-technology-have-accomplished-by-now-but-didnt/560415/60 "2010-11-15T07:10:16Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > A way to adjust the volume in TV commercials to be the same as the program. Or a way to skip them entirely. Both the Senate and the House have passed versions of the **Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act**. They are expected to be reconciled in short order for the President’s signature. Unless one of the parties changes its mind now that the election is past. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-modern-technology-have-accomplished-by-now-but-didnt/560415.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-modern-technology-have-accomplished-by-now-but-didnt/560415.md?page=4)