When is the next revolutionizing invention coming?

[Wells]

Tomorrow. I'll be having a press conference. There will be pie.

[Deleted]

If I knew, I would patent the shit out of it and make sure that I retained a good portion of the royalties for every conceivable use for it.

[muto]

Holograms will replace T.V.s

If someone could create a device that could mimic any smell that would be huge too for television as well.

[Mongoose19]

If big corporations move back to investing in technology and not crap like outsourcing. When things like water run engine is not blocked by oil companies. And mostly when we stop looking at profit and start look at benefits.

[Kuja]

Has to be sci-fi related. Time travel, faster than speed travel, extending human lifespan, teleportation, deus ex augments or something.

[Adam Jensen]

Holograms will replace T.V.s

If someone could create a device that could mimic any smell that would be huge too for television as well.

Uh no. I for one don't want to smell my movies and tv shows.

[Ispamx]

Something that uses this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maglev

Extremely fast trains that are much safer, more environmentally friendly and quieter. Currently they are only available in Germany and a few tracks in China as they are quite expensive.

[Chickat]

A.I
Self driving vehicles
virtual reality
holograms
commercial 3d printing

to name a few.

[Asdfywea]

if we keep finding wars to fight my money is on some major breakthroughs in prosthetics and biotech

that is being worked on for a while now, here

http://www.ted.com/talks/dean_kamen_...hetic_arm.html

and this is something that is being done and i guess they will combine this eventually

http://www.ted.com/talks/todd_kuiken...hat_feels.html


these are great talks, enjoy them

[Kuja]

Smarter than human (In every way) artificial intelligence is a good guess too. A bit scary though.

[Nilinor]

perfection in short distance quantum tunneling, making computer faster then what they are and being able to work with less heat output and probably smaller components.

[poser765]

I don't know in what capacity it will happen, obviously, or I would be super rich next year, but i think the next big breakthroughs will happen in the field of transportation. I don't really have any reasons other than transportation has been stagnant for a few decades now. Aviation has seen very little fundamental change since the invention of the jet. There have been major changes, sure, but very little game changing. GPS/Area navigation being one...I can't think of much else.

[muto]

Uh no. I for one don't want to smell my movies and tv shows.

I want to know what a Wookie and Gungan smells like.

[Deleted]

Well, there are actually tons of amazing stuff already being worked on, and we have some good examples in the tread. The problem is that none of it is even remotely close to being practical, and the big roadblock is energy. Heck, we struggle to make smartphone work more than a day, and you want holograms, teleportation and levitation? Next big thing has to be a solution, before we'll see other things. And it can be anything: a new type of energy storage, a compact way to produce it or a more efficient way to use it.

[Wiyld]

And mostly when we stop looking at profit and start look at benefits.

But in so many cases of amazing new technology, the profit was the benefit?

---------- Post added 2013-01-28 at 10:17 PM ----------

Well, there are actually tons of amazing stuff already being worked on, and we have some good examples in the tread. The problem is that none of it is even remotely close to being practical, and the big roadblock is energy. Heck, we struggle to make smartphone work more than a day, and you want holograms, teleportation and levitation? Next big thing has to be a solution, before we'll see other things. And it can be anything: a new type of energy storage, a compact way to produce it or a more efficient way to use it.

We already have improved ways of distributing energy, no one wants to take on the investment.

At this point folks in the developed world are comfortable with the concept of electrical power being delivered to their homes the way it is. Anytime you try to suggest any changes to that we freak out and imagine all the terrible things that will happen to cause us to go without power.

For example, a while back there was a company who had designed and was making mini nuclear reactors. They were good for 50 years of power, 100% self contained so there was no leaking and no concern about people taking the fuel out. The design was all in one and self sufficient so you could literally drop one in the middle of the desert and plug in to 50 years worth of power. The design called for them to be buried underground to avoid tempering and damage. So just imagine that, all your power comes from the little reactor at the end of the street, or if your rich, the private one in your back yard. The power company now just supplies and maintains reactors, every 50 years they pull em up and refuel em. Storms would need to literally open up the ground to break em, if the power to your house is knocked out its an easy enough diagnosis and fix.

That's just one idea, using current technology to change how we do things. It removes a massive infrastructure in exchange for localized work. It removes the massive market of energy dealing.

[StayTuned]

printing press - 1440
cars - 1672
trains - 1550
planes - 1903
lightbulbs - 1879
internet - 1973
television - 1925
GPS - 1993

After googling I found these as approximate dates of invention for these things. Now, what makes you think 10 years between huge inventions is anywhere near realistic? I think the real question is, what hasn't been fulfilled in your life that you think something new needs to fix it? Go out there and fix it.

Whats your point? We live in a time where technology gives us the opportunity to spout out "inventions" like a candy machine. By your own research it took us only 24 years from the light bulb to the first plane. So what makes you think that 10 years isn't enough for something ground breaking?

[Wiyld]

It wont matter much to us anyway. Most of the truly huge breakthroughs aren't widely available for a generation or half.

The speed of product propagation has increased dramatically so maybe it wont be so bad but still.

We might all get self driving cars ( since they are already on the road ) but even if a viable public flying car was invented tomorrow, we would not all be flying in one.

[Chickat]

Well, there are actually tons of amazing stuff already being worked on, and we have some good examples in the tread. The problem is that none of it is even remotely close to being practical, and the big roadblock is energy. Heck, we struggle to make smartphone work more than a day, and you want holograms, teleportation and levitation? Next big thing has to be a solution, before we'll see other things. And it can be anything: a new type of energy storage, a compact way to produce it or a more efficient way to use it.

okay... how about.. um fusion power there.

[Mongoose19]

But in so many cases of amazing new technology, the profit was the benefit?

Ye but when companies would rather outsource than invest in new technologies for past 10 years you know this is not about development anymore. Our laziness makes us create wonderfull things but then too much greed stops us from achieving even more.

[Captnmexico21]

When? All depends on when we are having WWW III... but i would say prosthetics and biotech. I know the U.S. is trying develope a tye of virus/malware nuke bomb where they launch and detonate and somehow infect all systems in the area.