Invention that will change the world

tomsolomon

esuhl wrote: »

It depends, quite literally, on your point of view.

See here for info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_dilation

I would'nt believe everything I read, especially coming from Wiki......:rotfl:

southernscouser

cheesy.mike wrote: »

An auto-filter that removes dumb, pointless posts from web based forums thus making it easy for me to see the one or two that I actually care about.

Or

An auto-filter that removes dumb, pointless people from web based forums thus making it easy for mr to see the one or two I actually care about.

superscaper

tomsolomon wrote: »

I would'nt believe everything I read, especially coming from Wiki......:rotfl:

I think Einstein's (experimentally proven) Theories of Special Relativity and General Relativity have been around a bit longer than wiki and are some of the most proven and accurate theories ever established. As pointed out, not only has time dilation been measured as a real effect, but the calculations are geniunely used in GPS otherwise the accuracy would be hundreds of metres off course. That was something I learned at a physics lecture a while before wiki even existed. Not believing in time dilation is like saying you wouldn't believe in gravity.

Bob63

southernscouser wrote: »

An auto-filter that removes dumb, pointless people from web based forums thus making it easy for mr to see the one or two I actually care about.

That's there right now. Simply click on a user name on the left side of one of their posts, then click "View Public Profile" and finally click "Add xxxx to Your Ignore List". That's the last you will see of their posts.

bingo_bango

cheesy.mike wrote: »

That's there right now. Simply click on a user name on the left side of one of their posts, then click "View Public Profile" and finally click "Add xxxx to Your Ignore List". That's the last you will see of their posts.

Hardly 'auto' though, is it?

shades_2

The creation of an extra mini pill which cures all illnesses and aches and pains so that they become 100% healthy(its almost like getting windows to reboot so that it works faster without any clutter)

or

a way to get better weather in the uk something like the florida weather would be cool, if only we could move the uk closer to the equator

or even

a cloning machine with an expiry date on anything cloned so that if ive had a late night out or couldnt be bothered going to work one day(that would be everyday haha) i could send my duplicate and once the work is done its melted that would be happy days, mind you people will be crying out about slavery then

joshm_2

Nice post, this. Makes a change from the norm..

I think/hope that the internal combustion engine will finally be retired and replaced by something more efficient & clean. It's done us proud but there mustbe a better way? At the same time, I suspect the recent trend in developing 'intelligent' auto-pilot transport will continue. Traffic systems will continue to improve and money will be ploughed into technology to regulate transport traffic.

Technology already exists that could solve a lot of the word's problems (e.g. look at medical care in a 1st world country compared to a 3rd world country), but it's politics and economics that stand in the way of making it a better place for everyone. As nations get richer (or are allowed to et richer), their rate of population growth tends to drop so it needn't be a never-ending spiral of more, more, more - just better, better, better.

I know that GM food gets a raw deal, but I hope that something can be done to help feed the starving. I can see a time where real meat/fish is considered an extravagant luxury and that soya-like equivalents will be served most of the time (being a vegetarian, I hope they get a move on and make something that tastes like a fillet steak and also a real burger.. mmm, cheeseburgers!).

Desalinated water may become a commodity (it already seems to be becoming the case) so I expect technology to improve regarding purification/desalination (or some other means to get a clean supply).

I guess that advances in gene technology will uncover a whole new wave of medical advances. As an example, I was listening to a radio show the other week where they were saying that it could be possible to correct the gene that results in deafness. I won't go into the moral highs and lows (there was a deaf person on the show who didn't agree with the idea of treatment), but it serves as an exmaple of what's possible.
Similarly, we are seeing some amazing 'cyber' medicine which will hpefully grow in popularity. A leap forward from your hip replacements, they are now giving people artficial eyes that feed a signal from a tiny camera in the artiificial eye onto the optic nerve.

I agree with previous posters about nanotechnology (anyone read that book by Crichton?) and the grid (fibre-based global network).

[Deleted User]

As a former computational geneticist/bioinformaticist, I saw some glimpses of 'future technologies' that are in their early stages. Here's a few I hope for..

High speed genome screening. Your own personal genome, sequenced, scanned for 'known defects' and a 'drugs profile' produced in a day. You'll be told which pharmaceutical drugs you should, which are more effective on you, what need to be taken in higher/lower does than normal.

Therapeutic organ cloning. No more Donor cards - you'll be able to grow a new limbs/kidneys/livers through advances in stem cell research (possibly through the creation of artificial zygotes/partial human cloning)

My biggest concern is where human ethics is going. Will the religious world create a backlash against some of the science that is coming. Do we want a world where everyone knows what disease they are susceptible to? If the only way to 'grow a new arm' was to partially grow a headless clone of yourself - would you be killing a living being or just a lump of brainless tissue?