World changing inventions

Malevolence said:
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.
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Imagine how much further the retirement age will have to be pushed if 200 becomes realistic.

Or even worse, 200 becomes realistic but the amount of productive life possible isn't extended.
 
A quantum computer-powered AI/machine learning application to filter the crap (bots/shills etc) out of social media would be great. It would help us get out of the rut we currently find ourselves in.

Like a digital version of Karl Pilkington's Bull**** Man.

Unfortunately it would probably only be the start of an AI arms race, as similar systems would be employed by the bull****ters to improve their bots so each side would just end up trying to out-smart the other's AI, but there we are.

I like the things at each end of shoelaces that stop them fraying. They're called aglets. Marvellous things.
 
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robfosters said:
Is fire an invention? I don’t think so. It’s an element.
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Fire isn't an element unless you're posting from the past, but that's a tangent.

While fire isn't an invention, the ability to make fire on demand is an invention. It also requires tools, which were invented for that purpose. Since it provided cooking, heating, lighting, protection from disease and protection from predatory animals, pottery, use of metals (other than as rare jewellery) and engines, the invention of making fire on demand is definitely a world-changing invention and arguably the most world-changing one. The only inventions I can think of that might be on a par with fire on demand are agriculture and writing, but both of those could be considered at least partly dependent on fire on demand. The key crops, the ones that made agriculture of such monumental importance, are grains and cooking was key to their usefulness. They're not very edible to humans without cooking - you can grind them and mix the powder with fluid to ingest it, but that's not obvious, ideal or particularly appealing. If that was the only way to eat grains, people might well not have bothered and instead stuck with the tried and tested lifestyle of small groups of hunter-gatherers. Writing stemmed from large settlements, which stemmed from surplus food, which required agriculture and arguably other applications of fire on demand as well. Maybe it would be possible to build a city with no power, no heating, no lighting and no cooking, but would anyone have bothered even if it was possible? Hunter-gatherer worked just fine.

Move on a bit in time and the fundamentals of more advanced technology come to mind. Euclid comes to mind for that - his intellectual inventions were of immense importance in shaping the world over the last couple of millenia. Or more material inventions, such as concrete. That's about as old, although knowledge of how to make it was lost for a while. Maybe the wheel - that made a lot of difference. Domesticating animals, which ties in with the wheel and with agriculture and communication and infrastructure. Things would have gone very differently without cows and horses, especially cows since they did most of the work until a few centuries ago. Or sheep - wool was of enormous importance in many times and places.

Or maybe epidemiology. Without that invention, we'd probably still be dying of cholera and typhoid and suchlike. Also, on related notes, germ theory, the sanitation movement (I'm not sure of the name, but it was hugely important in the 19th century because it was a practical and working solution to many diseases for both of the competing schools of thought regarding the cause of those diseases) and the medical procedures invented by Lister. Similar procedures had been invented a little earlier in a different place by a different person, but they were suppressed and had no effect. Lister invented similar procedures independently (building on Pasteur's work) and managed to get them implemented, which made all the difference. I'd got "Samwise" in my head for the other guy, but that's obviously wrong :) Looking it up...Ignaz Semmelweis. Sad story - he was absolutely right and had evidence to back him up, but he was imprisoned in an asylum and died there soon afterwards, probably killed.
 
Merlin5 said:
Can you imagine if hospitals can create those from advanced 3D printers while you wait. Not out of the question, though won't be for many years ahead of us. I would like to see eye replacement surgery for the blind and the going blind. Now that would be something if it gets to the point of perfect vision.
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If it happens, it would probably leapfrog perfect vision. There's nothing to stop the addition of zoom, infrared vision, ultraviolet vision and who knows what else. Artificial eyes have already been tried (Dobel, IIRC) and have proven that the visual processing parts of the brain can adapt to the inputs from cameras rather than organic eyes. The biggest problem with the system that was tried was the requirement for permanent sockets through the skull and the membrane, which is a huge infection risk. Nowadays the signals could be transmitted through an intact skull and membrane, so that problem could be avoided. Resolution was utter rubbish, but I'm sure that could be greatly improved nowadays. There are still problems with brain/machine interfacing (you have to put signals directly into the brain), but I think it's on the edge of currently practical.
 
Hotwired said:
Imagine how much further the retirement age will have to be pushed if 200 becomes realistic.

Or even worse, 200 becomes realistic but the amount of productive life possible isn't extended.
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Or we all have to produce living wills regarding our euthanasia after we inevitably succumb to age related mental degredation
 
I always look into the sky and think what a waste of space, surely something we can do there. Flying cars with AR roads?. Also tunnels, why fly around the world when you can go through it.
 
Smokey Deza said:
How do you propose we would go extinct?
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I don't think he's proposing it :p.

Using the sky more is a good shout. Same with the sea, space, and beneath the surface of the Earth.

Perhaps one day there'll be underground cities lit by artificial suns (from the above-mentioned implementation of controlled fusion).

One of the greatest problems society faces today though, is traffic congestion. So much productive time is wasted, we need to do something about it.
 
People forget just how much the world was changed by the invention of the plough and the stirrup.
 
Gunpowder was pretty advanced back when the Chinese invented it, then much later the westerners learned to use it to kill.

I'd say fire and the wheel were the most fundamental inventions.
 
Merlin5 said:
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.
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Teleportation
Replicators - for food etc imagine wiping out famine and starvation
 
Penicillin has to be up there mind you I cant remember the last time I needed antibiotics. I hate how we have a whole buffet of modern psych drugs like antidepressants though, I am sure they are zapping peoples brains.
 
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