List of Emerging Technologies

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_emerging_technologies

by dm2 • 12 years ago

6 6 12 years ago

en.wikipedia.org

dm22• 12 years ago

I posted this Wikipedia article to see if anyone has any additions or updates for any of these technologies and to hopefully generate discussion about them.

How many years until we can send our cars out to go get food? I'd guess 10 years.

How many years until we can upload all of wikipedia into our brains or an attachment that our brains can pull from / talk to? I'd guess 20 - 30 years.

How many years until we can throw trash into a 3D printer and have it materialize a complex item such as an orange or a phone? Again, 20 - 30 years.

leastfixedpoint3• 12 years ago

How many years until we can send our cars out to go get food? - let's rather ask how many years until we stop owning cars and start using a ubiquitous autonomous taxi/delivery service.

How many years until we can upload all of wikipedia into our brains or an attachment that our brains can pull from / talk to? - we don't have a slightest idea of how to do that and if it's even possible or feasible.

How many years until we can throw trash into a 3D printer and have it materialize a complex item such as an orange or a phone? - home 3D printers are a fad. Homemade products will always be orders of magnitude more expensive than factory-produced.

dm22• 12 years ago

1) That's a huge transformation that isn't going to happen suddenly, it'll be gradual. We will be able to rent our cars out for the day while we are at work within the next 10 years.

2) Research has been going on in to make this happen for 40+ years. DARPA has invested a significant amount of funding towards the goal of a BCI. All that's really necessary is the connection, that's the hardest part, just how to talk to the brain and make a safe connection to it. Google is working on it pretty heavily also. It'll be done, just a matter of when. Many science concepts people don't know if they are possible because of some unknown limit, but with BCIs we know it's possible, just a matter of figuring it out, which has turned out to be a difficult but certainly not impossible task.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain%E2%80%93computer_interfac...

3) Maybe in the short-term, but in 40-50 years there is no reason that a "Replicator" can't be created. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replicator_(Star_Trek)

herval• 12 years ago

Why do you think home 3d printing is a fad? Just because it's more expensive than factory-produced?

List of Emerging Technologies

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