50 years from today what invention will have the impact of cell phones or make something obsolete as DVDs have VHS?
When I look at my new at my new great nephew I wonder just what great inventions will happen in his life time. When I remember back over my own life all the marvels that have been created. The world went from super 8 cameras to VHS and now we are all the way to digital video all in about 30 years and change. The world went from no personal cell phones to just about every Tom, Dick, and Harry having one. The computing power of PCs today is miles ahead of computers that use to occupy whole rooms if not more, back in the 60s early 70s. I remember when they came out with the concept of the Space Shuttle in our grade school science news paper and I was thinking “A rocket that takes off like a rocket but returns like a plane, yeah right!” and they did it. 50 years from now what 3 things do you feel will be invented that will be game changers or render something of today obsolete as the CD pretty much done to cassettes and the DVD done to VHS?
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The launch of ssww.fluther.com? (Solar System Wide Web)
Technology that makes guns stop firing, cell phones stop ringing, and dogs stop barking at 2 a.m.
DVD’s have been obsolete for about 10 years, Blu-Ray and HD for the last 5 or so. Laptops are ABOUT to be obsolete thanks to cell phones, but probably won’t be fully obsolete for another decade or so.
Cars will probably still get awful gas mileage though.
Jetpacks.
Who’ll need cars?
I hope teleportation gets mastered.
Life spans may increase
They may come out with a way to eat all you want and only absorb the calories you need.
you said 3, right?
How we travel will probably be different. How things are fueled, and powered, such as wireless electricity to remove the need for power cords.
Baring actual teleportation, remote presence technology.
Nano (or smaller) scale “surgery bots” that can go in and fix up pretty much any anomaly in your body at the molecular level.
And, of course zero point energy devices to power it all.
@tedd Cars will probably still get awful gas mileage though. You don’t see fossil fuel vehicles getting replaced by electric, fuel cell, or solar based vehicles?
@aprilsimnel Jetpacks.
Who’ll need cars? Oh, I can see that. Someone bombed off his a** leaving a frat party and pancaking on the side of a high rise…....or so stoned he thinks he can barn storm a tractor trailer rig.
@Judi I hope teleportation gets mastered. How many people will you have to see use it before you trust them to scatter your atoms and put them back together in the correct order and not be altered by radio waves or Wi Fi or something?
About a hundred monkeys and 20 humans. :-)
Wait a minute….teleportation will give rise to a whole new type of crime. It will give “smash-n-grab” a whole new meaning….....
Special implants inserted into the brain or ear that allow us to communicate telepathically.
Replacing hand-held remote controls with “brain-held” remote controls.
@lonelydragon I have often thought I would eventually see that. They make micro SD cards that could easily tuck in behind the ear now, who knows how much smaller they will be able to make them.
I think a multi-functional single device will take the place of video cameras, snapshot cameras, iPods, laptops, kindles, computers, and cell phones. They are almost there already, with cell phones that play music, surf the web, take videos and pictures. The iPad is too big to carry around in your pocket. If they go cell-phone size, then they are going to have to improve lasik eye surgery so that we can see the screen.
Quantum Computing.
It will make the entire semiconductor industry obsolete and provide the processing power necessary for true AI.
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