New Technology

[ajetrumpet]

since we all work in the field, what are the outlooks for future technology? anybody got any ideas? what do you think is comming in the next 5 years? WHY? what evidence do you have to assume it?

I think we're in a state of "tech-stall" right now because advancements from this point on will take a lot of money and superior engineering. but I do think that within the next 5-10 years the richest people in this country (maybe india first) will be able to ride in self-directed vehicles. this is nothing more than an enhancement to the TOM-TOM. just needs voice activation and the grids put in place by something like google earth. not too tough to do really, but it'll take time. popular science magazing is already writing articles on the testing sites for the first prototypes.

sure gives a whole other meaning to cyber terrorism though! wow!

 

[TessB]

Holographic vacations. I'm ready for one myself.

 

[PNGBill]

pc's with no hdd's. All solid state. May be done already but Storage space needs to be up to 1 terabyte before hdd's can be dispensed with.
Many years ago, I saw where Cubes were supposed to store data and be read by laser with 1" x 1" x 1" cube carrying 10 dvd's of data.

Why do Music cd's in the stores only carry the same amount of music they did 40 years ago when we can have 10 movies on one DVD which is the same size disc?

 

[ajetrumpet]

Holographic vacations. I'm ready for one myself.

GOOGLE "vacation in a box". this already exists.

 

[Galaxiom]

... within the next 5-10 years the richest people in this country (maybe india first) will be able to ride in self-directed vehicles.

If you have ever seen the traffic in India you would think it was already self directed bacuse it seems to follow some kind of random set of rules.

 

[Galaxiom]

The main thrust on trhe horizon is in nanotechnology and biological sciences, particularly genetic engineering. Both are still in infancy with basic techniques and materials science still being established.

A lot of work is being done to build electronic semiconductor circuits with graphene. This material can support circuits which operate at scales that are fundamentally impossible with silicon. Recently a technique has been developed to draw semiconductor circuits directly onto a graphene oxide substrate with a hot needle.

Computers will continue to become more powerful and operate at lower power bringing high powered processing into small and smaller mobile devices that will become as ubiquitous as a mobile phone has become today.

Genetic engineers can now print dna sequences and have them placed into cells. Several organisms have had the dna of examples their species fully sequenced. Work is continuing to understand the way genes are expressed and how an organism constructs it body starting from a single cell. Many of the genes involved in diseases have been identified.

Improvements in crop yeilds through genetic engineering are essential if we are to have any hope of feeding everyone especially in a world affected by rapid climate change. Another generation will get over the ridiculous paranoia about GM foods.

Production of organs using the patient's own cells is already routinely achieved for simple organs such as the bladder. A lot of progress is being made to produce other parts using substrates essentially printed out by a modified inkjet printer.

 

[ajetrumpet]

Improvements in crop yeilds through genetic engineering are essential if we are to have any hope of feeding everyone.

I would like to be gone by this point. I don't want to see the point at which the land can't feed everyone anymore.

 

[Fifty2One]

If you ate any food in the last 24 hours then you have eaten genetically modified food. The biggest problem at the moment is not yeild but on the processing and consumption parts of the equation.
The technology to efficiently harvest crops has fallen behind the advances in yield of the plants, there has not been many improvements in the food production and processing either. "Developed" countries have a track record of wasting food at a rate which outpaces any recent production and processing improvements. There are still a lot of people who want their meals "super sized" and throw out 25% of the portion (both eating at home and out). If foods were not wasted there would be more then enough to ensure there is no hungry people in the world.

I would like to be gone by this point. I don't want to see the point at which the land can't feed everyone anymore.