Technology and the Future

[Blademaster]

Lady Vulpix was right. Much of Misc. is either depressing displays of politics, death, and war, or fiery volleys of insults back and forth between members.

So let's take a look on the brighter and more amazing aspects of our world, shall we? I often say at home that we're 'living in the future.' I don't mean it just as a joke, though. It's true - we're rapidly becoming a globalized people spanning multiple networks of readily available information and ever-changing society. I often wonder if my oldest family member (my grandma) ever thinks about how she was born into a war-torn world of economic depression and has since witnessed the advent of nuclear power, voyages by humans beyond the planet Earth, and intelligent mechanical servants not only being constructed, but becoming so commonplace that even the poorest countries in the world use them on a daily basis...

Anyway, I'm rambling. Let's have a thread where we can share some of our species' newest and most amazing ideas.

Like the following:

Real-life nanomachines capable of outperforming steel and even titanium, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_nanotube)
hands-free computers small enough to wear on your glasses, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Glass)
three-meter personal mechas armed with nonlethal face-recognizing weapons, (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iZ0WuNvHr8)
cheap synthetic organs and building materials made from computer data, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_printing)
manmade oxygen carriers made from haemoglobin and possibly stem cells, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_substitute)
and newer and more efficient rockets to be used for super-heavy launches in the next decade, and perhaps even trips to Mars. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merlin_(rocket_engine_family))


It's quite an exciting time to be alive. Got anything to share?

[RedStarWarrior]

I don't have anything to post myself, but I liked reading the links that you posted. I often peruse the technology sections of news websites because some of the advances they are making are pretty fucking cool.

[Telume]

Can it be something incredibly geeky?

[RedStarWarrior]

Of course. Advances are advances.

The affordable (relatively) 3D printer is pretty awesome. I saw a guy post a project where he used one to make a car.

[Gavin Luper]

I love reading about technological advances and the future, but it often fills me with dread and apprehension, too. "Progress" can be both good and bad: every "advancement" has cons with its pros that often are not analysed because it's a new, exciting technology.

For me, we as humans will need to reach the point where we realise we CAN physically do/invent/create/implement something, but that it might not be the best thing for us as a race. And very often, this is the case, and it goes unacknowledged.

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

Can it be something incredibly geeky?

Since 2008 or so, we have been living in a world where teenager girls have joined male nerds in hitting computer keyboards on a daily basics.

As a related note, the progress is unstoppable and FORTUNATELY Facebook is going down.

[Lady Vulpix]

Can it be something incredibly geeky?
Why not? I'd like to see that.

[Blademaster]

I don't have anything to post myself, but I liked reading the links that you posted. I often peruse the technology sections of news websites because some of the advances they are making are pretty fucking cool.

Most of the coolest stuff is really not that practical. I just listed some of the 'bigger' ones I could think of offhand.

If you guys want to see some crazy science-gone-mad projects, try watching this guy's videos.:

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Science: Making the absurd possible since 13,798,002,000 B.C.. :science:

[DarkestLight]

For me, we as humans will need to reach the point where we realise we CAN physically do/invent/create/implement something, but that it might not be the best thing for us as a race. And very often, this is the case, and it goes unacknowledged.

*Ahem*

"If I may... Um, I'll tell you the problem with the scientific power that you're using here, it didn't require any discipline to attain it. You read what others had done and you took the next step. You didn't earn the knowledge for yourselves, so you don't take any responsibility for it. You stood on the shoulders of geniuses to accomplish something as fast as you could, and before you even knew what you had, you patented it, and packaged it, and slapped it on a plastic lunchbox, and now you're selling it, you wanna sell it. Well...

Yeah, yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn't stop to think if they should!"

Scene.

[EngiMatikul]

My lab works on hippocampal prosthetics.

[Lady Vulpix]

I don't like smartphones much, but this is impressive!

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Smartphone for blind people!