What are Limits on the Technology Used in Everyday Life?

[video=youtube;5MnQ8EkwXJ0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MnQ8EkwXJ0&feature=youtube_gdata_player[/video]

 

I really disagree with this statement.

Travel is very different in the last 60 years. When I was a child my dad have a very thick book that he kept in his car. This book contained maps of every street in the area that we lived in. When we went for a long trip to a place he didn't know, he would have to buy a map of the area when we got there. Now all that information is sent to my phone and I do not even have to know how to read a map to get where I want to go.

How we communicate and interact with people is freakishly different. 60 years ago, you didn't own a phone. It was the company's phone, and you rented it. It was on a cord, so you had an area to where you could talk on the phone. Now you can call anyone from anywhere. When I was a child when I called someone and they didn't pick up, it meant they were not home. In fact meeting people somewhere used to be a mission impossible type scenario where all the plans had to be solid or there is a good chance that the meeting will not happen.

Plus keeping track of people. 60 years ago you had to call them, now you can get updates on everyone at anytime.

Entertainment is a part of daily life, sixty years ago you had no choice. Now you have an amazing amount of choices. 60 years ago parents did not have to worry so much about getting their kids to play outside.

Shopping is a huge part of our daily life, as 60 years ago when you went out, you had to bring money. If you were out past 5 pm or so, and you ran out of money, you stopped spending money because you couldn't. Maybe you could write a check. Heck even 15 years ago, going to a McDonald's and being able to pay with a debit card was pretty rare.

The personal computer changes our daily life a lot. 60 years ago, I couldn't read your thought or even write a disagreement with it unless you wrote an editorial for a newspaper.

If I told someone 60 years go that they would be able to sit in front of a magical box that allows them to watch movies, listen to music, shop, chat live with video with people, pay their bills, check their bank balance, buy stocks, read any book or any other printed material from anywhere in the world, watch tv, record tv to watch later, and the other things a personal computer can do their heads would explode.

Yes cars still have four wheels and houses still pretty much look the same, however to say the daily life of people is hasn't changed much due to technology in the last 60 years is one of the most untrue statements I have ever read. My daily routine is very different than my dad's when he was 33, and that was only 17 years ago.

 

Significant changes that have taken place over the past 60 years:

1. Refrigeration predates the 60yr mark but not by much but that definitely allowed people to move away from farms and allowed cities to grow into large metropolises.

2. Not sure on the age of the orgin of plastics but in the last 60 years it certainly has greatly altered our quality of life.

3. We are still improving computers and finding more and more uses for them.

4. Wirless technologies have allowed us to make electronic devices portable

5. batteries have become smaller and more powerfull making those same devices portable.

6. Medicine has vastly improved and is continuing to do so.

We have made huge strides in the past 60 years. I could go n and on as Dupree did. You are diminishing the significance of the things he listed. Many of them are fundamental building blocks for things yet to come and will be looked back upon as turning points in our civilalization. People probably did not think much of Franklin discovering electric in the begining and the scientists did not envision what the intewrnet would bvecome when they created it either.

If you want to look at this in the macro sense it requires you to use your imaginination and envision where the discoveries of today can lead us to tomorrow.

Let me give you an example of what I mean. Last Sunday 60 minutes did a somewhat negative piece on the food flavoring industry. These people make artifical flavors to add to foods to make us want to buy them. 60 minutes chose to look at the bad aspects of that because they were focused on items like potatoe chips that taste like hot wings and they made a case of how its harming peoples health by making them addicting to unhealthy foods.

My thoughts were what if they took this delicious chemical additive and added it to low calorie nutrious foods. Would that not be a fundamental game changer like you are looking for. People would eat healthy food because they like it instead of because its good for them. The nutrition would simply become a side benefit. Its all a matter of perspective. I happen to believe man is instinctivily good and given the choice between doing something bad or something good, if you remove consequence from it, man will chose to do whats good.

 

I saw something on scientists that are working on how to transfer your personality into computer devices so you can leave your biological body and become a thinking machine. They are waiting for the process power of a computer to catch up to the brain.

 

here is a link about it

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_transfer

 

I think Gish or Sick mentioned something about 3d porn not being available yet...

 

The way you are talking, you might as well say 5,000 years because people used to be entertained by fire and use horses, which are pretty much live cars. Or Hunting and gathering is just another form of shopping.

Your argument is unfounded and honestly doesn't make much sense. I would put the personal computer and the internet up there with refrigeration and mass availability of electricity and the car and fire when it comes to game changers.

Yes, of course humanity is not done innovating. Just because humans are not done improving doesn't mean they haven't been really improving.

I look forward to seeing where we go in 10 years. I have read articles that in 15 years or so humanity might find the cure for death.

 

I agree to an extant with Desides, but where I disagree with D, is that the PC is the ONLY advancement that meets Maynard's premise.

There some things that could change that though on the horizon:

- Cloning. The mapping of the human genome, is the scratching of the surface. The effects of this aren't even partially realized yet, so it doesn't count yet....but it will.
- Robotics. Not yet there either, but will be.

 

Desides?


I think Graphene and other nano material could also be a game changer.

When they find a way to mass produce graphene, the world as we know it will be much different.

 

I, cannot, apologize enough. I'm so, so, so sorry. Sincerely.

 

1.21 Jiggawatts later...

 

Does printing bones count?

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/technology-blog/scientists-optimize-3d-printer-create-bones-015433333.html

 

it exists. its called going out and actually getting laid

 

Well, our earth is running out of space for all of us. But not to worry. We've found a new potential home in the newly discovered Kepler-22b. Now we only need to figure out how to get there and once there, how to retro-fit everyone with gills.

 

I've actually been thinking about this, and i disagree with the article and your original premise. Because I don't think enough credit is given to the personal computer.
I mean the only invention that was as much of a game changer as the printing press was the personal computer. I mean you've got fire, the wheel, the printing press and the pc. If an era invented one of those four, you can't say they were slacking.

 

Production has dropped off because we are in an age of trying to make businesses without production. Entrepreneurs would rather have lower start up costs which production based businesses don't have. Its also a key factor in the decline of our economy.

Not too mention a lot of innovation and production have come in the form of software development.

 

True. However I think innovation is happening, just in software and hardware (computers). The problem is the only entities that can develop significant new hardware (like the ipad or smartphones) are the big corporations already.

Then there's that camera MIT just developed that I made a post about earlier. It can take a trillion frames a second. That is fast enough to essentially see time. That will lead to quite a few new innovations on the macro scale, because it will give us visual data we never had before. Done right, its possible to see a thought actually happen. Think about that.

 

Ok, so maybe that isn't a "good" innovation.

 

Does that chart count the Snuggie?

 

I think I see where your going with this but think this could use a better example. A flying car is still a car...but if the next leap involves is a Star trek transporter though...thats a game changer in transportation. And why computers are already game changers in infromation technology today.

And would add on the broader level. Whats the discovery along the lines of the next combustion engine, harnessing of electricity, antibiotic medicine? Game changers of science and technology whose creation spurns an evolution of others and how people live.

 

3D-Printed Human Embryonic Stem Cells Created for First Time

http://news.yahoo.com/3d-printed-human-embryonic-stem-cells-created-first-165551783.html

I predict that the ease with which spare parts will be created in the very near future, will result in even more ridiculous extreme sports and stunts.

 

I wonder how long it will take for them to print new Johnsons?

 

Its probably not too much longer, 10 years would be my guess.

The real question is...why is that the first thing you thought of????????

 

His hands need something to do????

 

Just the crazy way my mind works sometimes !!!

 

Just saw this thread, some interesting thoughts. Future technology is fairly exciting to think about!

To answer Maynard's original premise - 3d printing could potentially be a massive game changer, depending on how prevalent it becomes, it's ease of use, and access to raw materials to print with. Essentially, how much would life change if we have Star Trek Replicator units?

The other major one could potentially be nanotech. I don't really know much about it, but on the surface it seems like it could have a ton of uses (medical, environmental, pretty much anything) that is hard to fathom. I am not sure what the limitations on this may be though.

"Curing death" if possible would be fascinating, but it would also require the "curing" of age and brain decay. It will have the immediate impact of forcing us to impose birth limits, and looking to build offworld colonies. There is not much incentive to do so now unless population demands it, or we find a way to harvest raw materials in space relatively cheaply. Additionally though, can you imagine being able to keep some of the world's great minds going indefinitely? What if Leonardo or Newton was able to be kept alive, how much faster they might have been able to advance us? Now maybe we could do that with our current top thinkers and innovators and any who many come after.

Personally, the most practical and easily obtainable thing on the horizon I want is the damned automated car. Having all automated vehicles could massively reduce traffic congestion, fatalities/injuries, potentially be environmentally helpful by reducing emissions/consumption. It would allow for travel by minors or eldery to be much easier, allowing them freedom of travel, it would allow for a viable competitor for air travel. This one excites me a lot!

 

The incoming 3-D printing craze could revolutionize industry. This technology could change everything and be the biggest leap forward since the PC. If a printing press changed so much of the world, what will a printer that can make anything from guns to body parts do?

http://news.yahoo.com/3-d-printing-goes-sci-fi-fantasy-reality-133123371.html

OR

How about the artificial leaf?

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