World changing inventions

[Merlin5]

I was just thinking, in the last 140+ years, man has created or discovered what I regard as all the major things needed by humanity. Electricity, the light bulb, the telephone, the car, the radio, the television, photography, motion pictures, computers, all things nuclear, spectacles, rockets, DNA, antibiotics, and the internet.

While of course there will always be groundbreaking new inventions, will anything ever be as profound as those early inventions?

The early inventions were 100% new, never seen before or based on anything that has gone before, although you could argue the telephone was based on two cans connected by string or cars were an advancement on horse and carriage.

Everything invented now is based on improvements and advancements of what we already have.

I'm not sure for example if the mobile phone can be classified as important as when Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. Obviously it's world changing and we all use one, but without it we still had normal phones. Yet before Graham Bell, we had nothing like it.

What is GD's professional opinion?

 

[Participant]

Everything invented now is based on improvements and advancements of what we already have.

Whilst this could well be true, imagine the possible improvements that could be realised from 'what we already have'.

Microscopic batteries that can power a house or car.
Orbital travel becoming the norm.
Theoretically unlimited data transfer and processing speeds.
Solar power efficiencies.

There are probably millions more examples.

On the other hand maybe there is something profound waiting to be discovered, like cures for cancers.

 

[jsmoke]

Yep it's pretty amazing how we've gone from coal fires, maybe even mud floors, oats, potatoes, hunting for rabbits, going to bed cold in your clothes, no antibiotics or painkillers, oil lamps, and on and on till we can click a few buttons and order our food online. Well I'm talking about a few generations back.

Maybe medical breakthroughs, cancer etc.

 

[Participant]

Robotics, AI, and machine learning is the next technology frontier I reckon.

 

[LOAM]

Cheese

 

[Malevolence]

Just wait until nano-engineering and quantum computing become more mainstream. Imagine going to the hospital with a nasty dose of cancer and them just printing out some specialised nanobots to inject. If that ever comes to pass it could lead to people living to 200 or so.

 

[[FnG]magnolia]

The Romans invented most things - medicine, science, talking, and films, and films with talking in them to name but three - but I think there's more to come. Advances in Robotics and AI are interesting and slightly alarming in equal measure.

 

[Angilion]

My opinion is that the improvements in technology will sooner or later make humans obsolete and they'll fade away. It's possible that the successors to humanity will kill humanity off directly, but I think that probably wouldn't happen. Although it might - would it really be worth wasting resources to maintain a pointless drain on society?

Fun times!

 

[[FnG]magnolia]

That's the plot to at least 3 Arthur C Clarke novels. Guy liked to hedge his bets

 

[Merlin5]

maybe there is something profound waiting to be discovered, like cures for cancers.

A cure for cancer and all it's variants including leukemia would be incredible and is pretty much the only thing I can think of that could be deemed as profound as the early inventions. Of course, there are many other majors like Parkinsons and Alzheimers, but cancer has to be the number one goal to be eradicated like smallpox was.

 

[NoobCannon]

Letterboxes

 

[robfosters]

Perfecting artificial organs would be awesome too. Think of all those people with failing hearts, lungs, livers, kidneys etc who won’t have to undergo the transplant lottery any more.

 

[Rannoch]

Interstellar travel

 

[Jumper118]

There is too much regulation and health and safety to make decent progress.

 

[robfosters]

Interstellar travel

As much as I want to believe, I am of the opinion this will prove impossible for humans to achieve before our extinction.

 

[jsmoke]

Head or brain transplant.

 

[Mobius 1]

Cheese

Can’t beat a bit of port salut

Edit. I’d love to see affordable space travel (solar system) and also interstellar travel. But I highly doubt it’ll ever happen. I mean we will probably colonise mars at some point. But I don’t see us leaving the Milky Way.

 

[Rannoch]

As much as I want to believe, I am of the opinion this will prove impossible for humans to achieve before our extinction.

Completely agree.

 

[Hades]

AI and robotics will simply out compete humans within a few generations. Either humans will die out and be replaced by them or we will merge with technology to avoid it.

 

[robfosters]

Head or brain transplant.

That’s nearly as impossible as interstellar travel imo.