Being massively into sci-fi TV shows and games, anytime I see something that talks remotely regarding sci-fi tech I really get keen on the implications and possibilities. Two recent articles that have caught my eye (and given me a nerdgasm). 1. It appears that a company is claiming they'll have holographic chips in smartphones, with 3D capacity late next year: http://online.wsj.com/articles/new-chip-to-bring-holograms-to-smartphones-1401752938 To give the cliff notes on this: They have 5000 dots per inch (compared to the Apple Retina display's 300 DPI), End consumer price is listed at an estimated $30US and The chips should be about the size of an iPhone camera. 2. NASA have done a 3D render of a "Warp Drive Spaceship" in what it would consider as the most likely design given current scientific understanding: http://www.iflscience.com/space/nasa-reveals-latest-warp-drive-ship-designs I suggest reading the article, however take it with a good portion of salt; apparently the energy requirements given our current understanding of a warp drive are ridiculous. Focus: What are some sci-fi (or even projected but as-yet unfulfilled) technologies you would get excited about? Why? Alt Focus: What do you think the implications or possibilities of these technologies would be?
I think the possibilities with graphene are really cool. Implemented correctly, it could really change many areas of technology from CPUs to fiber optics. I don't think Id be into using a teleporter. If it's like Star Trek, it's just killing you and cloning you on the other end. Homie don't play that. Or it could be like The Fly and I could come out looking like Jeff Goldblum. Bump.
Renewable energy. Considering that a majority of our energy is from a technology that is about a century old is a bit mind boggling. Why it's this way is a political discussion, hence, I won't go into it. That being said, to have a source of energy that would require few resources would be amazing, and in my opinion, necessary moving forward. The world map would look very different if such a source of energy were developed. I'm not saying there would be peace on Earth, because people always find something to fight about, but the amount of problems would be lessened dramatically by such a source of energy.
Focus: Some of these things can be done soon: An entire new energy plan could low emissions and boost job prosperity at the same time. People are starting to wake up to it, but there is a lot of coal and oil money standing in the way of it. I just hope it can boom sooner rather than later. The 1000 year plan is an exciting project about colonizing Mars in a millennium. It involves building giant factories on Mars that will super-conduct greenhouse gases making a livable atmosphere similar to Earth's. And you won't have to worry about Coheagen giving you the air. Reactionless Drive. A Popular Mechanics pipe dream that we could now see before we die. Since finding the Higgs Boson at CERN they can slowly unravel the heart of all matter and possibly a way to create unlimited energy from scratch and even manipulate mass itself . I mean, when USA mastered the atom in the 20th they built explosives powerful enough to scorch human shadows into concrete for infinity so imagine the possibilities here.
I'm sorry, did you not realize that's there's an enormous glacier beneath the surface of Mars with a giant heating element that needs to be activated to create an atmosphere?
Over a period of millions of years. Assuming no one bothers to maintain the atmosphere with the machines that built it in the first place.
I have a couple of Time magazines from 1969 and was just reading through them the other night. One features space flight and some of the prophecies for the future are great. I'll have to take another look at them now. Porn will never be the same. It amazes me how pocket-sized computing technology is continually advancing and this is no exception, but I can't be the only person who thinks the future generations will just be spoiled by jiggly holographic 3D boobs on-demand. Can you fuck a holograph? We'll find out. I can hear the kids now... "You had to look at... just... pictures??" Sustainable/renewable energy sources, and increasingly efficient engine designs are fascinating to me. All politics and economics aside, it seems we've spent the past century fueling the construction of our world-wide infastructure and economy on gas and coal so seeing the alternative options become more legitimate over time is awesome. Case in point... Tesla releasing their patents last week was very exciting to me since just a decade ago, I doubt many people thought everyday electric cars would be on roads today.
Sure the 3D porn may excite you, but think of what it means for sports fans too: being an at-home spectator could have some major thrills in the next 20 years and don't get me started on video games. Can we haz Holo-deck plz? I want a game that is just you beating Ryan Lochte with old, shanked 2x4's in a dimly-lit locked room.
If I have one hippy weakness it's worrying about shit like fish stock for Tuna collapsing or the like. Which is why Ive always liked reading about artificially grown meat. Im sure there are a lot of kinks to be worked out before it could be made economic and palatable but imagining creating huge slabs of perfectly marbled steaks or massive bulk fish/chicken/pork/what ever seems limitless in application. Less about the cruelty to animal argument more towards the allocation of resources and sustainability of feeding our societies.
Yes to renewable energy! Cold Fusion will be awesome once they figure it out. I believe the current lab testing has developed a system where it's output power was equal to the amount of input power. I tend to disagree with the fossil fuels argument that it's driven by politics. It's driven mostly by economics. Fossil fuels are cheap and they store a huge amount of energy per unit volume. Renewable energy sources don't have the same energy densities that fossil fuels do and they are expensive with long return on investment times even when subsidised by government bodies. We're really close in a lot of different renewable energy area's (cold fusion, solar cells get more efficient every year, battery technology is getting better, etc.), and I believe we will transition off of fossil fuels sometime in the next 20-25 years. We will do this not because fossil fuels are bad or evil, but simply because something better, and cheaper came along.
Yes, that was some fort of fussion I believe, BUT they were just looking at the output power of the laser vs output power of the fusion. They didn't take into consideration, the input power of the laser which is magnitudes higher then the output of the laser.