What technological advancements will we see in our lifetime?
 

Watching Back to the Future with the hoverboards and flying cars got me thinking, what advancements do you think we will we realistically see in the next 50 years?

Fusion powered generators with any luck.... keep getting close.

Cheap splitting of H2O into base elements to provide fuel - Water is fairly abundant round these parts :)

1) Something to replace 3G that works all over the country.
2) Computers that no longer need endless updates as software has finally matured to do all the things we actually want, and is secure(ish)
3) Computers that start up when turned on...no wait......none at all
4) A society that does not rely on oil (as we are going to run out)....
...5) and we have found a replacement that does not mean we end up going back 1000 years in time :(

Use of solar energy as main power source and for production of clean water via desal' plants.

Medical advances could be quite frightening as we could be repaired to live way past 100 but lose many faculties along the way?

Dirty Den returning to Eastenders?

But I won't be around :)

dl

Arthur C Clarke was asked the same question by Rupert Murdoch about 50 years ago as well! lol. would be nice to know though

I`m still praying for a holodeck :)

My gran who died recently was born in 1911. She saw the invention or common use of the telephone, cars, flight, cinema, television, free healthcare, mobile telephones, space flight, computers, cheap foreign travel, mass home ownership, the welfare state, electricity to all homes, indoor bathrooms, to name a few, and I'm sure few people would have guessed these would be common (or even exist) during their lifetime.

I think it's almost impossible to guess what changes we'll see in the next 50 years, but I bet they will be amazing.

sod all the technology, just explain how females think would do me!

Just replace them ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1V3SmhhHfCQ

lol i want one

Here's hopeing ;)

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Wa5ZmL_ju...CY+CLIPS+2.jpg

TX.

What about a thin touchscreen device to replace Laptops.

Me too....question is who would you get in there first? :D

the development and use of neural/organic based computing.

The development of molecular nanotechnology. Probably one of the most important things in the history of man. The possibility of producing almost all necessary goods at home for very little (almost zero) cost, without the need for large factories/industry. Pollution and the consumption of vast quantities of the earth's resources would be drastically cut. You could even break factories down and recycle everything that we'd already build that we didn't need anymore.

It's possible that we could see at least the beginnings of that within 50 years, but it largely depends on the politics of the world, having countries that provide the right environment for research and ingenuity. Basically like the United States was until it began heading up sh*t creek. But I'm sure there are still plenty of rich corporations there doing R & D on this right now.

3d printing

Food from a supermarket that tastes OK

You can already do that, HP has a 3D printer but it costs a small fortune :D

More cybernetic implants al la Peter F Hamilton's work.

What NEEDS to happen is to find some alternate fuel source, whether it be hydrogen as mentioned above or some yet unthought of process.

I'm pretty old, and computers more or less do what I wanted them (imagined them) to do when I was a child. Probably the only enhancement now is to remove the device altogether and have something that is streamed straight into your eyes/brain and a charge that lasts more than a day (on computers and mobile telephones).

Steve

Tethered satellite.

not a chance in hell that will happen, solar tech isn't the answer.

nice people being the norm.

Probably coming quite soon. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencete...echnology.html

Solar power harnessed from space... now that would be the answer. Saw a program a while ago with a guy talking about putting panels on the moon!

And then sending it back to earth like so... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_energy_transfer

carbon nano tubs kept poping up in that science of sifi frogram, can see those becoming more widly used in our liftime.

decent mobile phone coverage would be nice

The Venus Project.

http://www.thevenusproject.com/

:cool:

panels are only about 20% efficient max, they also loose even more effeciencey as they get hotter.

also the idea behind desalinisation wont ever work either. maost clean water comes from boreholes or run off. Pumping sea water all over the country doesn't make sence.