I'm curious as to what the BBS thinks. I'll post mine tomorrow so as to not influence too much.
I dunno. Let me hop in my time machine and check.
Augmented reality devices that are discreet and easily portable.
Biologically powered devices.
Organic computers that can be tattooed onto or implanted into the skin or clothing.
Always-on social networking with shared vision and sound feeds.
Programmable smart dust.
Portable communications devices. Like the telephones in your house but without wires.
Books on a flat computer screen of some kind. Something that could hold five or six books' worth of text without taking up the space of five books.
Computers that help with navigation when you're out driving rather than having to unfold a big map to find out where you're going.
Something that lets you change the channel on your television without leaving your chair.
1. Intelligent street cameras that can recognize people and track everyone in real time, creating a map of the whereabouts of everyone.
2. High-range RFID chips with unblockable signal that can be utilized in identity cards, allowing you to ensure that, for example, there are no child predators around you.
3. Huge SSD drives capable of storing years worth of voice or even video data, enabling your phone to constantly record everything so you can easily upload it to your social network account along with your GPS tracks and everything, along with an AI that categorizes, indexes and subtitles everything for you.
4. AI-powered cameras integrated in light bulbs that are capable of turning on the lights and alerting the police automatically when you're being attacked in your own home.
5. Algorithms that can predict criminal behaviour based on any readily available data with as few false positives as possible.
Honourable mention: Hand-held fusion bombs.
1. Practical humanoid robots
2. Naval railguns
3. Commercially-operated spacecraft/space stations
4. Self-driving cars
5. An off switch for children
1. communication nano machines from MGS
2. The hover board from back to the future
4. The DBZ scouter
5. Sonic screwdriver
When I think top five I think best five, not scariest five. All this always-on people tracking and social networking stuff is terrifying.
- Automated Cars.
- Hydrogen as a viable power source for said cars. (In tandem with electric engines)
- Several breakthroughs in understanding and manipulating DNA.
- "UltraCapacitors" replacing batteries.
- Augmented reality.
That's it, everything else is cancelled (or more likely vapourised).
I expect much more for the next 30-35 years, but the next 15 should make some rapid tech developments too...
1. Biotech...a combination of readily available advancements in biotech both for the bright motivated amateur and professionals will make for huge progress in the understanding of the human body and how to modify/change/treat it. This will make humanity able to grow along with it's tech.
2. AI...on the way to equivalent human intelligence, strong AI will finally reach its true potential. The physical form of AI, androids/robots also seem to be well on the way. See the recent DARPA announcement thread. This is the "brain" of the future.
3. Clean power technologies combined with possibly power cells and a potential development of type IV nuclear fission reactors. Solar power alone has more than enough potential to supply the world with all it's energy needs. Beaming it to Earth via laser may happen towards the latter part of the 15 year period. You can't have tech without power!
4. Portable and integrated computer technology/gadgets everywhere, including clothes, and even potentially more integrated with human bodies. Google has a pair of goggles (google goggles, ouch) which will augment reality, and may be as fashionable as ipods are today. 12 years ago the idea of people commonly wearing computers was scoffed at.
5. Nanotechnology..already a $2 billion a year growing industry, this tech will finally lead to nearly completely reliable machines, a medical revolution, and eventually foglets and smart matter. The implications for almost every field of human endeavor will make this transformative.
How do you know the motivation would be pettiness? As they say, we can't even comprehend things beyond the singularity.
Only Earth-centred technologies then, and with absolutely nothing revolutionary?
Sadly that seems to be the direction humanity is heading. Nobody cares about space, or expanding our horizons anymore. Society is turning inward, and all most people care about is more cable channels, and shinier,faster handheld gadgets and tech toys.
True, it's only one possible option. I was being facetious about the Skynet thing. There might be many different conflicting factions among uplifted humans. Vernor Vinge also postulated that the Singularity might be unrealisable in practice.
I tend to agree. the "singularity" in my opinion is happening all the time. For people from the 1700's it happened almost a hundred years ago.
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