Or during.

Considering in 20 years time I will be nearly 90, and old sports and biking injuries are beginning to make themselves evident now, some kind of affordable exoskeleton to help mobility.

Hopefully the procedure won't be this crude and painful!

Come to think about it,if I reach 90 I won't have any need for a VR system to have sex with,I'll have the same as BD-123 is having.

I think the exact opposite, sure it might take 10 years to bring the price to the masses, but every single technology had a detractor that only the rich could afford it and every single one of those techs came to the masses. In fact the guy who brought it to the masses got richer than the guy who invented it.

Momento Mori.

I was amazed at how EVERYONE in Africa had a cell phone. Mao, Chad had people with cell phones. They looked like a 12 year old Nokia, but it had all the features they needed. Communication, banking, ID, etc.

+1

It is rare that an invention that only the rich can afford makes the inventor himself rich. Those inventions that make the inventor really and truly rich are the ones which everyone can enjoy.

Some interesting answers so far.

I think the really big difference that people will see in 2038 and 2018 is going to be the electric car replacing the ICE car. Electric aircraft will also be in wide use.

Linked to that is going to be batteries with near instant recharge, batteries that do not require exotic or toxic materials and electricity being generated by means that we can't even predict right now.

The key things to getting the masses to have the new life changing technology (medical, technical, luxury, etc) is Capitalism. Someone invents something that only the rich can afford, and then someone comes along as says, I can make it better and cheaper...Boom! Billionaire. I'm not above the average income in the US due to my chosen profession and a few bad breaks, but you know what? I live soooooo much better than the 2005 me. I can't imagine not having my iPhone. I can't imagine going back to corded headphones. I can't imagine not having Amazon. I can't imagine life without access to any tutorial I need on Youtube and nearly any TV show I desire by streaming. I can't imagine life without some of the medical treatments that didn't exist 10 years ago (The price issue with medicine is the lack of a free market). The free market has given us such an amazing life that if people from the 1910's came to our time, they would think they were in Heaven.

+1,000 Timothy


And besides, if you make a product or service that only the rich can afford that is by definition a niche product and there's very limited room for growth.


I'd much rather be the CEO of Toyota than the CEO of Ferrari.

Timothy gets it. Bravo

Too many fools look at income distribution and think it isn't fair, rather than the way they should look at wealth distribution. The correct way to look at wealth distribution is to look at yourself 10 years ago and ask, are you living better than 10 years ago? Do you have technology that is improved from 10 years ago.

Humans are expendable once scarcity is solved. When machines can do the work of the peons, the wealthy will have little reason to support the poor. Never underestimate the evils of greed.

I'm the opposite of you. That stuff... is stuff. I value experiences I can have with my family and loved ones over stuff I can buy, and as of late, have not been able to do even a tenth of what I was able to do over a decade ago. My life is a nightmare but through God alone(and great thanks to him), things are not worse and he has provided what we need.

As for the free market--agreed. The free market has allowed tremendous advancements and discoveries to be made that otherwise would have taken significantly longer in other economic systems. There has been an incentive for businesses to constantly do better than their competitor to sell more product, and we, the people have benefited from this.



I am living worse than I was 10 years ago due to the massive debt burden our healthcare system has placed on my family and my wife's chronic and severe illness.

Also, we likely should not continue this one point of discussion so we can avoid PWEC.

Fair enough, but I was talking universally. I feel your pain, I had to take out a student loan to pay for a few surgeries before I joined the military. I am still paying for those surgeries.

I'm really hopeful further advances in solar will be made for cleaner ways to power these cars, and I think over the next twenty years we'll see some. That or nuclear becomes fashionable again until solar gets to where we need it to be.

As for aircraft... I'm a bit more skeptical on them being widely used in any large-scale commercial manner resembling what we have now, mainly due to the power-to-weight ratio of the batteries required to store the energy versus fuel. Perhaps personal transports might be en-vogue--single manned miniature aircraft? For long distances I think something like hyperloop might be far more cost efficient, especially because it could be powered by the grid, and friction substantially reduced due to the vacuum inside the tube and electromagnetic suspension. Costs to develop though... really suck.

They're already working on less toxic battery solutions, so something could come out at any time. Very neat things lie ahead.

World War 3.

LOL
Let me add a bit of optimism, although you are probably right !

I see new food.
Hopefully tasty, yummy and healthy food, definitely food which does not eat up so much resources to produce and distribute.

Cheers,
Slug

Soylent Green!

Batteries! To power cars, planes, drones, phones and watches (for more than half a day between recharging).

https://www.pocket-lint.com/gadgets...conds-last-months-and-power-over-the-air

https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/A-New-Lithium-War-Is-About-To-Begin.html