Twenty years ago cell phones were in their infancy, the smartphone as we know it today was ten years away.

Twenty years before that, forty years ago, personal home computers were in their infancy. Laptops and tablets were practically unimaginable.

What will exist in twenty years that few can imagine now?

Designer babies, lab-grown organs, chemo-free cancer eradication, and large advances towards curbing or ceasing aging--the latter of which is far less likely, but possible.

Not sure the next "killer tech" will be electronics at all. Perhaps neuro-integration of our mobile devices, straight into the visual cortex for discrete monitoring? Interaction might come decades later, but we can already output video into a blind person's brain, albeit at a very limited resolution.

Robotic sandwichmakers.

mmmm sandwiches

https://techcrunch.com/video/bistrobot-the-sandwich-making-robot/

These sound great but the long term consequences from these things will not be. Just wait until the Earth’s population growth rate increases even more due to the reduced mortality rate. An Earth with 20+ billion people will be here much sooner than we think.

Ah, now they just need to work to improve the asthetics and overall functionality.

The electric fork with built in Wifi and a 3,000 Pixel camera.

It's too bad Barbara Eden doesn't look like that NOW.

Ah, but see, only the wealthiest will be able to afford these technologies, while the majority will be priced out. I could go on from here but this isn't PWEC, so politics aside... Years will pass and the discreet, pseudo-immortal ruling class may find other ways to curb population woes due to impugned profits--genetic measures to increase subservience and reduce caloric need, or worse, systematic sterilization--done so in such a patchwork manner that suspicions will not be aroused, so only a few here and a few there at first have fertility issues. The genetic editing agent could even be tailored to reach an upper-bound, where half the population would be spared due to possessing certain genes which would de-activate the protein machinery and turn the recipient into a carrier instead of an afflicted.

I think that the foldable phones could be a big thing. The doubled real estate of screen could be Yuge!
Especially if they can break free of the Snapdragon processor and go to a Intel?? processor that will run Windows.

Doing a quick Bing Image search on Barbara Eden, I think she looks lovely for her age, assuming the elderly pics are somewhat recent (born: Aug 23, 1931). If she looked like that pic above it'd be creepy for an 87 year old woman. I know that you mean, that it's too bad she had to age, as we all do.

This had me thinking about Mick Jagger, recently (Dec. 2016) becoming a father with a 29-year-old ballerina. "Hey baby, let me caress your soft smooth skin with my wrinkly rough old hand." I get it and I can't say I wouldn't do the same with his means and especially his circumstances (no life-long commitments). But to me it would be somewhat embarrassing, no matter how good I looked for my age.

++++++++++

More on topic, if we ever 'cure' aging and dying of old age, imagine how much worse funerals are going to be? Hate to sound sappy but if fate is kind, my wife and I will go around the same time. And even if we don't, hopefully we'll meet up somewhere on some other side. Being in our 50's, the time gap can never be *that* huge.

Now it's the future and aging/all diseases are cured, but there's a fatal accident. How do you deal with possible eternity without the one you really want to be with?

Too deep for me, going back to Metal <slips headphones back on at painfully low volume>.

LOL (the ad pic, I won't blow it up)...

Well....whatever algorithm the ad engine is using on SimHQ, it definitely knows the correct demographic composition of the site!

naturally sourced antibiotic medication
internet of things devices
AI integration with everything
robots will become fairly common in many menial jobs where customer interaction is not required

and some other stuff.

"Big thing" for whom?

• Well-off people in the west? Maybe foldable cellphones, augmented reality glasses, self-driving cars. AI will shape certain things more than people expect, and much less so in other areas where people have unrealistic expectations.
• Poor people in the west? Improvements in medicine, eventually. And same as above, just later.
• The average person in Africa? "Mobile everything". M-pesa and cellphone technology has revolutionized life for farmers out in the sticks. More of that will come. Renewable energy might create local power grids where it was just not economically feasible before. With electricity comes clean water and countless other amenities, including electric light and electronic entertainment. Which seems to be the most effective tool to reduce fertility rates. People watching TV boink less often.

Then there's always the off-chance that it'll be something entirely different that very few people paid attention to. There's a good chance we're too focused on electronics, and what will truly revolutionize might be biotech, possibly in very mundane applications. CRISPR-CAS has just make gene modification soooo much easier, more people will try it out. Maybe that'll kill us all, or lead to bioengineered gasoline that is more effective than electric cars.

Something to do with everday wearable VR. Google glass type deal, it can only be so long before it happens and becomes commonplace like smart phones.

^ Oh, please no!

Whatever the next big thing will be, I bet it will...

1. Encourage us to become even more sedentary (you won't have to get off the couch).

2. Require a monthly subscription.

I'm looking forward to the day when i can wear VR goggles so powerful and advanced that it will be just like being in the holodeck in Star Trek.

I can then fulfill my dream of being Julius Caesar at his Triumph in 45 BCE.

Yeah,I'm gonna use mine for porn.

Oh, mine will have plenty of porn too. It just will occur after the Triumph.

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

I think the self driving car technology will have been perfected within that time. The fact that is in it's infancy right now still amazes me.

Also think prosthetics are going to advance too. Hell they're using automated legos. It's gonna keep getting cheaper and the tech side will keep advancing and getting smaller.

I believe quantum computing will become commercialized soon. That computing power will change everything.

What I worry about is CRISPR and genome editing.

Not "the next", but insects as food is going to become a thing. I'd never straight up eat bugs, but if processed into something I can't recognize as bugs, and tastes good I'd hit it.

People have been eating bugs for years without thinking about it.

Most anything coloured red.

https://www.businessinsider.com/how...and-drinks-2012-3?r=US&IR=T&IR=T

Bugs for snacks are common in Asia.
I have tried a wide variety of those over the years. Never out of hunger, and a few times curious about the claimed boost *.

I tend to put the whole lot in the same bag as shrimps and snails.

Cheers,
Slug









* it's bs

Regarding the trend of switching to more renewable sources of energy for the electric grid: Grid inertia: why it matters in a renewable world

That is a pretty good explanation about an aspect of the grid that most people do not know about. Reactive power (VArs) is indeed a big consideration in the operation of the grid.

I guess casual 3D printing has been mentioned? To print out a new artificial limb, or TV stand, or washing machine component, or to visit nearby centers (physically or online) & print out a car body section seems like it could happen.

That would be good news for me. I am in the reactive power compensation industry.

Being surrounded with people in electrical engineering and being in the field my self, I personally think the world is making a big mistake in the way they are moving away from fossil fuel and nuclear generation (Bare in mind, I say in the way). This is going to bite us in the end.

Back on topic. Although I don't know what the next big thing is, I predict that in the not to distant future we will have AI as a form of judiciary / law enforcement. Basically AI making decisions if certain actions is criminal, negligible, etc.

And if nobody have mentioned it. I think a cashless society is not to far away in the future.

This is absolutely coming and I expect it to happen within the next 20 years or so. There are just way too many advantages for national governments to go cashless.

A few of the biggies:

1. No possible tax evasion since all financial transactions will have a digital record/trail.

2. No more "under the table" workforce which will also make it much more difficult for people to enter the US illegally since they can't do jobs where they get paid in cash anymore.

3. No more need for huge minting/printing facilities that cost millions of dollars per year to staff and run.

4. Law enforcement will be strengthened since it means criminal groups like drug cartels will not longer be able to shift cash around for their transactions. They would have to do everything electronically/digitally which of course can be tracked and intercepted.

Don't forget the potential for reducing strongarm and armed robberies and the collateral physical injuries if there's no money to steal.

Invisibility cloaks!

And the total loss of any semblance of privacy.

I will not comply.

Yes, absolutely. That erosion started with the advent of the internet and it will continue to erode.

Yup. When is the last time you heard of a bank robbery occurring? It's all being replaced by cyber-crime.


That really amazing and incredible bank heist sequence from "Heat" looks rather outdated now doesn't it?

Nah, I don't see it.

Cyber-crimes don't usually end up with people in the hospital or cemetery.

Mmmmmm....

A Breakthrough In American Energy Dominance? U.S. Navy Patents Compact Fusion Reactor


If/When such a breakthrough occurs this WILL be the next big, no HUGE, thing.

Huge for a very small number of people - YOUR energy bills won't go down...

I'll 3D print my own ghost fusion reactor, screw the power companies!

You apparently have no idea how the marketplace works.

I know how corporations work. I know how competition and capitalism work too. BUT, can anyone here tell me they have a CHOICE on who to buy their electricity from? (and I admit I've never looked into whether other states - let alone countries - have actual competitive markets when it comes to electricity providers)

So under a MONOPOLY why would a corporation share a sudden cost savings? Especially after spending astronomical amounts of money to achieve said cost savings?

They'll be charging for that for generations, far beyond recovering those costs, just like landline phone companies with long distance fees.

A compact fusion reactor a fraction of the size of a fission reactor that produces between one billion to one trillion watts of electricity would have the potential to de-monopolize the energy business. Such a fusion reactor would be cheaper to build, operate and maintain than current fission reactors while producing at least one order of magnitude more electricity. They also have stated that this CFR could be used in conventional power plants, replacing the coal/gas fired heat source with a fusion reactor.

In the U.S., it depends on where you are located. The electric power business has been going through changes, and continues to do so. Here in Florida, at the residential level, we typically get power from a regulated monopoly. There is a move on however, to put a proposed state constitutional amendment on the ballot to change that. Larger customers (e.g. stadiums, municipal utilities, etc.) already can shop around for who to buy power from.

Electric power companies that have been granted a monopoly get regulated as part of the deal. They have to answer to public service/utility commissions (by whatever name) and are limited to how much they can charge above their cost to produce.

There are geographical areas where residential customers can choose who to buy power from, as I understand it.

‐-----------------------------

Regarding the possibility of fusion powered electricity generation becoming commercially feasible and cheaper than fission powered plants... if it comes to pass, I doubt that the utility companies will be able to gouge the customers on it. Fission plants have been horrendously expensive to build in the later years, which has resulted in public service commissions sometimes agreeing to pass some charges on to customers before the plants were built/operational... in order to make it possible to get lower cost electricity later on. That has not panned out in some cases, leaving a bad taste.
Fusion plants, if they become feasible, should be inherently safer to operate, and cheaper to decommission at the end of life. If a design becomes available that can produce power cheaper than the natural gas fired combined cycle plants... it will be a real game changer.