The invention of the 2000's (2000-2010) is in my opinion the iPhone For the 2020's I believe it will be the 3D printer What could be the invention of the 2030's 2040's 2050's 2060's 2070's 2080's 2090's 2100's? One invention for each decade. I'm trying to generate creative sci-fi ideas because I'm running out of them. Thanks!!!
2020s or 30s I'd say might be an amped-up Fitbit, something that's on (or in) you constantly and monitors a wide range of health and fitness indicators. That is, unless we have WWIII and end up looking to reinvent knapped flint or something similar
But yeah, I don't see 3d printers becoming popular as there's not much demand/use for them publicly beside novelty. And I'd change the invention of 2000-2020 to the smartphones in general. I'd lean towards 2030s being augmentation of the body, either the popularisation of CRISPR or bionic prosthetics.
How about a dust-buster or similar mini-vacuum that works for more than a year? That would be groovy.
2030: Cancer cure 2040: 1 to 1 virtual reality 2050: Dark matter synchronizer ( tap into dark matter as a nearly unlimited source of power) 2060: ....
Here is a thought, with your said invention of a dark matter synchronizer or another unlimited source of power, do you think this will bring the end to capitalism, money etc as it will mean that we'd have potentially unlimited resources? Turning us into a Star Trekesque utopian society?
I imagine having a system like that would still be very expensive ( infrastructure maintenance ), and the way the world is ticking right now they would still charge us for it. It would open the gate to some fantastic new invention fuel by our desire to consume, and our fascination with exploration. Eventually we would encounter other being and most likely enter in war with it for some territorial reason.
The thread title says "inventions" but this feels more like "consumer products". For example, a solution to the energy problem, if it were found, would likely be the invention of a decade, but it might reside in power plants rather than in the hands of consumers. (Even if it did reside in consumers' homes, I'd guess that it would very quickly become invisible technology.)
To be clear, there is no indication that dark matter contains much energy. We don't know what it is, but we have developed strict limits for things it can not be. It's also super defuse, there's not much dark matter in the solar system.
And the big power companies would keep their hands on the tap. Unlimited free power? That'll be 10,000 New Yuan a kilowatt, thank you.
And bearings. If we can send a man to the moon we should be able to create sealed bearing that last a lifetime!
Somewhere toward the upper limit of the timeline you've lain out may well come A.I. that you and I in 2018 would engage as satisfying what we think of as A.I. But, just as @ChickenFreak points out that not all things that come to pass will necessarily come into the actual hands of Joe and Jane Average, I do not ever foresee a time when something that unquestioningly passes the Turing Test will be a thing that the smallfolk are allowed to own. Far too many ethical and privacy issues.
Predicting the technology of the future has always been a shot in the dark. Remember when everyone was saying Google Glasses was the future? Yeah, but no one cared because they had to learn something new. Lexus made a hoverboard (not the handleless segway, and actual levitating board) it's pretty cool, but definitely not widely released. In 1989, Back to the Future Pt 2 predicted 3d holograms, flying cars everywhere, and easy access to hoverboard (again, not the segways) by 2015. It's really hard to guess what the future holds.
This isn't actually true. 3D printers are far beyond a novelty even at this point. The amount of crap you can do with them is unreal and it won't be much longer, I think, before you're literally doing shit like downloading a file that contains the printing instructions for something like an automobile part or a specific tool and printing it out on your 400 dollar home 3D printer. There's a pretty good business incentive to make limit-pushing, affordable 3D printing machines. It'll happen. Elon Musk's flame thrower and water jetpacks are novelties for people with money to burn. A 3D printer is a life changing device in many ways. For the most part, I think you can get a decent guesstimation about what's coming in the future if you just consider a few simple things. Are we ever going to have flying cars? No. It's a stupid idea. Hoverboards? No. It's a stupid idea. Crazy sci-fi stuff that doesn't really have practical uses aren't really going to ever happen, so you can count those out. It's about an item's practical usage and if it'll be marketable, or considered a basic right, to common consumers. Cure for aging? Virtual Reality? Self-driving vehicles? These are all things that are most likely going to happen, and probably in the near-ish future (or I should say all three of them are currently happening, they're just not all the way there yet). There's legitimate reason for them to exist and there's reason for people to put capital towards investing in them. Anyone who thinks a free energy source or the cure for biological death is going to be kept a tightly guarded resource for only the mega-elite and mega-rich is watching too many movies with evil corporations. I'm no prophet or anything but we're standing on a massive cusp of human history right now and we're about to enter an entire age where we begin unlocking the mysteries of, well, fucking everything. I predict 300 years from now won't end up looking too different from today, or even 500+ years from now. In some ways we've hit what I believe (with my admittedly stunted ability to perceive the future) is a kind of ceiling in some forms of technology. The car is basically perfect. It doesn't need to hover (why the shit would it? We could already make a hover car, but it's a STUPID idea), the most we'll see change with automobile transportation is probably the future that many experts predict: No one will own cars or drive them anymore, you'll literally just tap your brain stem implant Apple iBrain device and order a SuperUber to pick you up. Cities will probably start to change in layout to become more efficiently organized and cheap, efficient housing areas will become more prominent. I myself think humans have hit a sort of peak and now it's less about advancing our technology and more about perfecting it.
2030's the device that lets you skip adverts on tv 2040's the phone that sends an automatic excuse for why you're not at work today 2050's the microwave that can read a barcode on a product and cook it as needed 2060's pocket 3d printer 2070's pocket whales 2080's domestic robots 2090's the Moon elevator 2100's? the warp drive
That was how S.R. Hadden earned his fortune in Contact. We could have that one tomorrow, if the food companies and the electronic companies would get together. However, it'll more likely end up being like those Tide Pod coffee makers, where you'll have to choose between a Sony and a Sharp microwave. Sony's frozen pizza selection is better, but Sharp scored the Hot Pockets deal, shit, what to do? You...you don't have one yet? How did you access this site? I'm calling the Ministry of Fisheries and Telecommunications, stay right where you are, it'll only go worse on you if you try to run.
I see them largely being bought by libraries, or rental services, not a 3d printer in each home. Not to mention that the issue is more the material than the printer itself, mostly in that the plastic itself is rather brittle. The much more interesting part to me though is 3d printing with biological cells, which we are working on for things like organ transplants.
I reckon within the next 60 years we will have developed replicator like technology, like in star trek.
Based on history, I predict two things about technological progress and the Next Big Thing. First, all our guesses will be wrong. Second, we'll be completely unready for the societal impact of whatever does happen. I saw an interesting quote somewhere about how transhumanism was about how technology would let us overcome what we think of as fundamental problems of human nature. Cyberpunk is about how technology will make those problems worse.
Seeker is watching all of you. It sees everything. It has been watchng us for forty-six years, waiting. It has gifts for us, other than the ones it has already given us. I present you: Alpha, Theta, Rexxy, and Jeep. Once these automatons are among us, unlimited and instantaneous global information , communication, and VR will: Eliminate the tragic delusion of privacy (long dead since the turn of the twentieth century), Render transportation unnecessary, Reduce energy usage to inconsequential levels rendering production unnecessary, Eliminate the need for storage, possessions, transactions, and trade, Evaporate the necessity for housing, office buildings, centralized power, and traditional infrastructure, Eviscerate all heirarchies, classes, and elite isolationism, Awaken us to the realization "why in the hell did we ever need that". In a very few decades, there will be no revolution, or jihad, or redistribution. We will simply turn away... Then, the really challenging adventures begin! you'll see.
I know I said something somewhat insightful earlier, but now I'm gonna ignore that and buy into speculating wildly. 2030's: bigger phones 2040's: bigger phones 2050's: bigger phones 2060's:bigger phones 2070's: AI 2080's:Humanoid bodies for AI 2090's: High tech guns for AI robots 2100's: Shelters from AI army Just to be clear, this is a joke. For my real opinion see previous post.
Disagree. Although flying cars would be somewhat dangerous, if we got around that part it would almost entirely eliminate stopped or slow traffic, making people's lives measurably better. Hover-boards wouldn't be nearly as dangerous, plus they could increase speed by quite a bit once friction is removed. A functioning hover-board could replace bicycling or skating for people who use it for just transportation, not exercise.
