The Next Big Thing

[emad]

Artificial Intelligence? Not the video game stuff which just reacts within a predefined set of rules but something computer based and capable of thinking and acting of it's own accord. I doubt it'll change the way we live, but it may come in handy for finding the correct way to phrase the question to the meaning of life, the universe and everything. After all, 42 is an unacceptable answer

 

[Delirious]

The computer in itself, how it changed technology long before the days of this wonderful internet.

 

[Omnis]

2 words...

Bending Robots.

 

[rsmithdrift]

Kenetic energy power plants...

Think about it...we can use kenetic energy to power flash lights...why not make it on a grand scale to power the world?? Just use a big HHO powered engine to get the kenetic energy motor going and use part of the electricity it provides to keep it running once it's started... if on a big enough scale it would make enough power to not only power itself but to power an entire city.

Really, think about it.

 

[rsmithdrift]

Couldnt they leach it from their own exhaust, like a turbocharger? Anyway, Im not saying it would be quick, but maybe overnight?

And in NY where its always 47% humidity, there probably IS enough water.

Just put a cistern on the car that collects rain water.....you'll have to change the filter on the tank for leaves and what not.....but you can use any kind of water, salt water, rain water, distilled water, doesn't matter, just as long as it has Hydrogen and oxygen in it......

All you do is collect rain water by having a cistern on the back of the rear windshield that funnels the rain water into the fuel tank and have a converter in between the tank and the motor...

Simple really.

 

[exigeracer]

Nobody has mentioned htis, so I'll put it out there, because I think this is more or less what Famine is looking for.

Sensible, efficient and safe long-distance space travel. Right now we are limited to to what is immediately around us, the Moon, and uhh, that's it, Mars possibly in the short-term future. But imagine what we could be capable of if we were able to send a group of humans to something light-years away in a shorter time than that? This would unlock so much more to Mankind than anything thus-suggested combined. Forget having an HHO powered car so you can be uncomfortable and bored for more hours in a row, I'm talking visiting distant galaxies in a short timeframe, expanding Human's knowledge of everything else by infinite proportions.

... or when humans have gills. I'm hoping that'll be in my fit lifetime.

 

[Solid Lifters]

Invisible paint.

 

[Swift]

Nobody has mentioned htis, so I'll put it out there, because I think this is more or less what Famine is looking for.

Sensible, efficient and safe long-distance space travel. Right now we are limited to to what is immediately around us, the Moon, and uhh, that's it, Mars possibly in the short-term future. But imagine what we could be capable of if we were able to send a group of humans to something light-years away in a shorter time than that? This would unlock so much more to Mankind than anything thus-suggested combined. Forget having an HHO powered car so you can be uncomfortable and bored for more hours in a row, I'm talking visiting distant galaxies in a short timeframe, expanding Human's knowledge of everything else by infinite proportions.

Are you sure it hasn't been mentioned?

I'm not sure what the "next big thing" is going to be. But when we are able to traverse our own solar system in a matter of moments, that will certainly change everything.

 

[exigeracer]

Hah, sorry, I must've skipped over that sentence. My fault.

 

[Famine]

Invisible paint.

We already have that.

Think about visibility for a moment. Why do we see red/yellow/green/whatever? Because the object absorbs all light apart from the colours it reflects. We can adjust pigments to suit, and all we are doing is adjusting the absorption spectrum, so that electromagnetic radiation of certain wavelengths is absorbed and others are reflected. Red paint looks red because it doesn't absorb red wavelengths.

Now if we adjust the pigment so that it absorbs all visible wavelengths and only emits, say, ultraviolet, anything painted with it would automatically become invisible - as it would absorb all visible light and emit part of the EM Spectrum we can't see. The only light it reflects is invisible to us.

UV paint - the way of the future!

 

[Swift]

Now if we adjust the pigment so that it absorbs all visible wavelengths and only emits, say, ultraviolet, anything painted with it would automatically become invisible - as it would absorb all visible light and emit part of the EM Spectrum we can't see. The only light it reflects is invisible to us.

UV paint - the way of the future!

But wouldnt' that make it non-visible but not invisible or transparent.

 

[Famine]

But wouldnt' that make it non-visible but not invisible or transparent.

Like a black hole - you wouldn't be able to see it, but you wouldn't be able to see behind it either.

 

[Touring Mars]

And that is... what is the NEXT Big Thing? The next invention that we didn't know we were missing until it arrived, which will completely change the human race and stay with it as long as it exists?

As if I'm going to tell anybody - not until I have the patent anyway... 💡

...I remember discussing this before, at school.... my schoolfriend Derek came up with 're-usable teabags'

I personally think it will be along the lines of artificial intelligence - or ways to interface the human brain with data storage and transfer - download your memories, upload a whole new personality/character depending on what you need/want to do that day etc... a bit like Worzel Gummidge meets Buck Rogers.

Oh, about the UV Paint.... that's not going to catch on... I spilt some over my dog the other day and look at him now...

Where's Fido?​

 

[wfooshee]

Now if we adjust the pigment so that it absorbs all visible wavelengths and only emits, say, ultraviolet, anything painted with it would automatically become invisible - as it would absorb all visible light and emit part of the EM Spectrum we can't see. The only light it reflects is invisible to us.

UV paint - the way of the future!

I'm thinking it would be black.

Transparency would be cool, and supposedly, if you believe the cutting-edge SF stuff, that's the next stealth technology, a way for a body to carry emitters that mimic the area behind the body to help it blend in. Not transparency, per se, but adaptable camouflage.

 

[magburner]

How about AA battery powered flight? Sounds ludicrous? Watch this! Duracell, it won't let you down!

 

[Kylehnat]

160 batteries to get one man (slightly) into the air? That'd be about 100,000 to get 600 people (slightly) into the air. I wonder who'd get to change all of those

 

[magburner]

Maybe not the next big thing, but how about a car that can drive itself? Sure you've seen it before, but have you seen a car that can navigate a cone slalom at 80mph!? Check this out!: Hands free VDUB!

 

[Sage]

[…] or ways to interface the human brain with data storage and transfer - download your memories, upload a whole new personality/character depending on what you need/want to do that day etc... a bit like Worzel Gummidge meets Buck Rogers.

The other day I was thinking that it would be really handy if I could download whatever I’m thinking onto some medium so that it wouldn’t get lost. Nothing I hate more than “Uh, I was going to tell you something, but I forgot…”

 

[Snortin Norton]

Anti-matter technology?