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What do you think will be the next big technological advancement ? OR What advancement would you like to see ?
Personally I think the next big technological advancements need to be:
#1 Batteries need to be able to store much more energy
#2 Need a new medium to store data (Hard drives are reaching their limit)
#3 New type of processors
What I would like to see is more advancements in med-tech, fuel, but what I think we'll get is new social media/network apps.
A new arithmetic in which 2+2 = 5 for very large values of 2. BB
teleportation! no just kidding :D
since i got everything that i need, i can't think up any new ideas..
Nanotechnology. Nuff' Said.
1) Batteries.
2) Batteries.
3) Batteries.
If you could build a battery that had 1/10th the energy density of gasoline, all gas engines would be museum pieces overnight (unless the battery cost THOUSANDS to produce).
With all due respectQuote:
Originally Posted by BlindSniper
1) Get a Mac.
2) I agree
3) Get a Mac.
Seriously. Get a Mac. You'll never go back.
Hey, I'm a poet and I didn't even know it!
BTW, did you know Macs can run Windoze? (yes, I did say Windoze)
So... Macs have new/different types of processors? Please tell us more about this.
If history is anything to go by the biggest advances will be in pornography. Also batteries... but not for the reasons Shaggy gave. [Insert slowly nodding smiley here]
Even the Ancients regretted such a decision.Quote:
Originally Posted by thebuffalo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGI8oNcYkXg
What does that have to do with technological advancements? Apple computers haven't come out with any new technology since the 80s. They've only been playing catch up...except in price, they have always been leaders in that area.Quote:
Originally Posted by moonman239
Because you'll spend the next decade desperately trying to justify getting mediocre hardware for top-tier prices. Since the only way to justify it would be talking about how superior Macs are, you not only will have a computer, you will have the religion that comes with it.Quote:
Seriously. Get a Mac. You'll never go back.
You did. You really did. How old are you, anyways? I thought that phrase went away in the early 90's when OS8 went down in flames.Quote:
BTW, did you know Macs can run Windoze? (yes, I did say Windoze)
But seriously, we all know everybody is waiting for hover cars.
And for the Mac thing...
I have an Asus G74sx, top of the line laptop machinery, 17" screen, 12gb RAM, 1tb HD(2x 500gb), i7 xtreme, Nvidia 560gtm 3gb video card, $1,389
Mac Book Pro, childs toy, 15" screen, 4gb RAM, 750gb HD, Radeon P.O.S 1gb video, lowest i7 made, $2000 ( 17-inch. Starts at $2499. )
'Nuff Said.
Moonman239, None of your original post makes sense, Mac has nothing that is "new".
custom made is even better :D
Most Macs these days aren't that expensive anymore, and even competitive, the same is true of iDevices. But of course nothing will be cheaper than building your own rig.Quote:
Originally Posted by Shaggy Hiker
And five minutes of battery life. The MacBook Pro is expensive, but really you're paying for powerful hardware, great battery life, in nice aesthetics, it's an all rounder. Your system on the other hand won't yield much battery life at all, but that's not why you bought it. You wouldn't buy a MacBook Pro as a gaming system unless you absolutely wanted OS X rather than Windows. That aside the AMD Radeon HD 6750M is hardly trash.Quote:
Originally Posted by thebuffalo
EDIT: Oh, and it's $1799, the 6750M is 512MB not 1GB and it's got a 2.2GHz i7-2720QM whereas the best the ASUS has is the i7 2630QM. It's also due for an update in like a month.
>>>>>
Speaking of batteries... which is what I thought of before I entered this thread... things look bright if this works out: http://phys.org/news/2012-05-nanostr...batteries.html... nothing like a ten fold increase in Li-po battery capacity :thumb:
Well I read something here about this "New type of single language MSDN" thingy... :p
That keeps swinging back and forth. There was a time where it was MUCH cheaper to build your own....then for a while it was not, and now it definitely is if you want specific features, but is not if you want some fairly basic stuff. It's a hard one to keep track of.Quote:
Originally Posted by Icyculyr
Doggone batteries are kind of like fusion: We are a few years out...and always will be.Quote:
Speaking of batteries... which is what I thought of before I entered this thread... things look bright if this works out: http://phys.org/news/2012-05-nanostr...batteries.html... nothing like a ten fold increase in Li-po battery capacity :thumb:
It still is cheaper, at least today. I'd like to build a gaming rig (I've probably spec'd one up hundreds of times) but I've not got the cash right now.Quote:
Originally Posted by Shaggy Hiker
Fusion... like this...?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcrocgMBBDI
(Watch from 60s onward)
:cool:
Uhhhh....yeah.
The problem is todays 'technological advancements' is that they aren't that.
The smart phone [some would say] is a real technological advancement. It isn't. But then it really comes down to the definition of a technological advancement.
Remember, we have had the very same desktop computer (mac, pc, amiga, smart phone, or whatever) for over 30 years - it really has not changed. Technology improvements? Yes. Advancements - real, life changing advancements? Not so much.
But then, perhaps we are exposed to so much science fiction that when a truly life-changing technology comes along, we are very much blase about it and apply it to making our facefriend.com life [sic] easier to manage.
I will agree that battery power density, while a boring theme and is a well known research paradigm, is going to be a breakthrough that will really change our lives. Incremental changes have certainly made our lives easier, but the ability to reach the energy density of natural resources like oil is a game changer.
Energy is the key to prosperity and the ability of humans to take control of their own lives. To deliberately and consciously deprive others of energy is to sentence people to a live of miserable poverty riddled with disease and death.
4 hours running visual studio 2010 on high performance, about 7 on battery saverQuote:
Originally Posted by Icyculyr
Teleportation!
Or at least a better/faster way for transportation.
Or... (something more realistic) I don't really know how to explain this, but here it goes:
An organization to search job positions in your area even if the position is taken.
In the case when person A in location A, works at location B. And Person B in location B works in location A. If those 2 ppl have the same position (programmer let's say). Then switch the job locations so that both people work in their own area.
I thought of another advancement that would change the world.
More efficient Solar panels.
If we could go from 7% to 50-90% efficient solar panels there probably wouldn't be any problems with producing energy
Will a 20 year lightbulb suffice http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17788178
"But right now, in Lafourche parish there is a monopoly in who owns the energy company. Why would I want to pay more money to the [not nice word] that own the energy company? " -- how is that relevant to batteries and more efficient means of producing energy?
"I would like a 80 year lightbulb that cost ~$1" -- right, that's going to happen. There's actually a reason why lightbulb technology hasn't really changed in the last.... oh what, 100 years or so.... there's no incentive to do so.
Same thing with battery technologies ... what incentive do they really have to create batteries that will last? They only last as long as they do because of competition. But beyond that, they're all about selling a product, and if they create something that lasts for years and years and years, they would sell less. If they sell less, then they'll have to jack up the price to make up for the loss. That's one of the reason CF bulbs and LED bulbs are more than conventional incandescent.
Besides... a well built incandescent can outlast any CF or LED - http://www.centennialbulb.org/
-tg
Well I'd like to live in a utopian society where everything is abundant and free, but here we are. Maybe you can buy the 20 year ones and inhale paint often, that way the bulb will last longer than you.
And a dog's fart produces more light than that bulb. It's not just about how long it works, it's how well it works.Quote:
Originally Posted by techgnome
I agree completely. It's a business like anything else. Why would they charge less if people are willing to pay more. Same goes for petrol prices. I wont pretend that I'm a geologist, but knowing what kind of people are behind it, I wouldn't be surprised that the petrol reserves aren't going dry (at least not as soon as they're telling us they will), but that they're just saying it to drive the prices up.
Exactly. If they came with a cheap (or at least at same cost) alternative which would be eco friendly, who'd buy all the oil. So lets first sell off the old stock, then we can sell the new stuff.
Like my amazing engine that runs on vacuum energy from an alternate dimension.
Too bad I can't say more about it, OPEC and the automotive cartel won't let me. Remember, you didn't hear about the Casimir Effect or sonoluminescence here.
No you don't. You want a light bulb that lasts as long as you need it. Two very different things.
If you really wanted something that lasts a long time, do you still have your very first cell phone? I'm sure you upgraded 'because you can' rather than because it broke [sic]. (of course, a lot of modern devices are designed to last as long as the thought of your average consumer).
Out here, we complain about the energy monopoly, too, which is kind of funny, since we have the second cheapest electricity rates in the country (behind the TVA region). We see increases, but we have a LONG ways to go to catch most of the rest of the country. That doesn't stop the complaining, though.
I switched all my lights to CF. Unfortunately, I did that before I had been in the house long enough to lay down a baseline cost, so I can't quite say how much I saved. A buddy of mine switched over after a couple years, and thinks that his electric bills were cut in half. They weren't all that high to begin with, though, so that may be a whole lot less impressive than it sounds ($20-30 a month, I think). I was thinking the other day how I haven't changed a bulb in eight years, with the exception of the two bulb-eating lights in the house, and I have pretty much figured out how to deal with them (leave out a couple bulbs).
I haven't had a reliable cell phone since my Nokia, a whole 8 years ago.
Interstellar engines. You have to be crazy if you don't want to know what mysteries lies among the stars.
Heck, I would like to see what the world is like in 200 years.
I was just driving home from Yellowstone yesterday and wondering what the place would look like in 100 years, or 200 years. Had I been there 200 years prior to yesterday (1812), I would have found no roads, few people, and everything else would have looked roughly the same (it was a good thing they built the roads to connect all those toilets). Furthermore, people of that day would have been hard pressed to imagine what I was doing and seeing. Being pessimistic about the future of the human race, I would not be at all surprised to find out that in 200 years the roads were being reclaimed by the vegetation and all the buildings were falling into disrepair.
If current trends are any indication Yellowstone will be some combination of a small theme park, overgrazed pasture, open pit mines, petroleum refineries, and industrial waste dumps.
Just saving you the trip.
http://images.pcworld.com/reviews/gr...bage_slide.jpgQuote:
Originally Posted by Shaggy Hiker
The future: in 2030.
I was at Yosemite maybe 20-25 years ago. I went back a few years ago. It is now paved flat, with multiple car parks, and you don't need to walk far from one fast food joint to another.Quote:
Originally Posted by dilettante
While this make it' accessible' to those with possible handicaps (being fat?) what have you made accessible?
More effort should be put into making the 'handicapped' not handicapped rather than making the world conform to the handicap. On a related note, several people have died on Mt. Everest.
LOLQuote:
Originally Posted by SJWhiteley
Perhaps they didn't reach the McDonalds on the summit in time.Quote:
Originally Posted by SJWhiteley
I think the supervolcano under Yellowstone will have erupted before then, so you'll find pretty much nothing but lava flows, McDonald's and those electric chairs you have in the US for the near-terminally fat.Quote:
Originally Posted by Shaggy Hiker
Either one of 2 things will happen in the next 30-50 years.Quote:
Originally Posted by SJWhiteley
1) The United States of America will become the United Fatties Of America.
2) A pill or some sort of really easy to use product will come out that will take no personal effort from you, and make you lose 10 lbs a day.
3) IQ's will continue to drop, people will forget how to count, read, and speak correctly.