Speculations On The Future Of Technology... What Are Your Ideas?

[popch]

Good point. After the super-human race either destroys the other insubordinate people or forces them into a slave race, the entire world will be forced to work together for the common good of the world. "The common good" will be decided by whichever super-human is the strongest and most power-hungry, whether or not it actually benefits anyone other than those who have been bred as super-humans.

The part of your post which I emphasised is, of course, another outcome which I think very likely. After so much of civilisation has been disrupted, people might have to work again for a change, as opposed to sitting behind desks and darkening sheets of paper.

[Tundro Walker]

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"I'm sorry, those waffles violate DRM standards. As such, we cannot cook them, and have notified the authorities. Next time, please purchase your waffles from certified, reputable Microsoft Waffle dealers."

[Tundro Walker]

Whatever we do we have to do it quickly because the rate we're going at the moment it wont be long before the 6th mass extinction we're driving ourselves towards, but then again that wouldn't be such a bad thing for life on earth.

Before you get dooms-dayish, you have to remember that matter can neither be created nor destroyed, merely altered in state. Unless we're firing off tons of resources into space (which, yes, we have via rockets and satellites), there's still plenty of resources on the Earth to sustain us for a very long time. However, we should get some kind of population control in place (better than we're doing now), to ensure we don't max out or sustainable resources.

Currently, we're doing a lot of things inefficiently. We're using fossil fuels, mostly because it's still convenient with the huge infrastructure we've got in place. As those run out, we'll switch over to solar and geo-thermal energy (where they pump water into the ground to super-heat, then capture the returning steam to power generators).

And, we're wasting land by raising cattle on it, which has a higher cost / lower output nutritional-wise when compared to something lower on the food chain, like insects or algae.

As times change, the population expands, and resources change, we'll optimize what we do, either because it's better for us or because of necessity. But it's not like the world will just end all once because of something like fossil fuels running out.

However, as technology increases, the amount of people needed to create a dooms-day device decreases. This can lead to these "hiccups" in progress, where some small terrorist group nukes a city because they're pissed off about something. Or, we could end up creating super-viruses that wipe us out. Or, the "gray goo" scenario, where our nano-machines run out of control and devour everything. These might be instant-death scenarios. But, so is flying in a plane. The higher the risk, the more preparation and safety is taken into consideration.

My biggest worry is that genetic alteration and nano augmentation will just increase the divide amongst the rich and poor. Currently, a poor person can still make something of themselves if they're gifted and get a scholarship, or work hard and go to school. But, sooner or later, the rich folks will just go out and buy genetic alterations to make their stupid kids ultra-smart, athletic, and "perfect". Add in some nano-augs, which would cost money to get, and it will just widen the gap that much more, to the point that no matter how gifted a poor person is, they'll never be as good as an enhanced rich person who can afford to alter themself from the start. Cases of megalomania could rise.

However, again, it's not like all of this will happen overnight. It will happen gradually, and we'll work through the problems gradually, too.

[Methuselah]

Most research is going into weapons.
So the future of techology will certainly include more heinous ways for us to murder each other.

There is also sigificant research into technologies to enforce restrictions on the use of technology. Expect that to continue IMO.

Sure, there'll be 100 processors on a core and fancier computer graphics to distract us, but the greatest advances in technology will probably be working against people in general.

Yeah, I'm in a real cynical mood today.

[edm1]

Before you get dooms-dayish, you have to remember that matter can neither be created nor destroyed, merely altered in state. Unless we're firing off tons of resources into space (which, yes, we have via rockets and satellites), there's still plenty of resources on the Earth to sustain us for a very long time.

Yes of course it does but the second law of thermodynamics says that the entropy (chaos) of a closed system will increase over time. Organised matter is useful to us, disorganised...useless. Unfortunately we currently do not possess the technology (back onto the original topic) to artificially and efficiently decrease the entropy of the earth. Seemingly there is an exception to the 2nd law of thermodynamics though...Life! Which is why i said we must look towards our biologists (something that i'm very proud to be in this day and age) for future technological advancements.

...we should get some kind of population control in place (better than we're doing now), to ensure we don't max out or sustainable resources.

As times change, the population expands, and resources change, we'll optimize what we do, either because it's better for us or because of necessity. But it's not like the world will just end all once because of something like fossil fuels running out.

(I'm going back off topic)
I'm not trying to be all dooms-day. These are both true but they won't happen. Agreed, China has a successful population control in place and despite all the ethical and moral disputes people have the fact of the matter is it has greatly increased their quality of life. How could this be implemented on a global scale without one group of people having to head the campaign and been in charge of who is controlled. Surely this is alot more scary than your super-human race. Individuals don't act for the good of their species, individuals act for the good of themselves and they always will do.

[gn2]

individuals act for the good of themselves and they always will do.

If that's true Homo Sapiens is doomed to extinction.

But it can't be true or these forums and FOSS software wouldn't exist.

[billgoldberg]

10 years in the future:
The mobile computer is common like the cell phone is today. Everyone still has a computer at home but it isn't being use that much.
Wireless internet is available everywhere. So you can access the internet everywhere (legally, without using "the neighbours" unsecured network).
It goes without saying that the computers will be able to do much more than the mobile computers these days. 100mbit/sec is the new standard instead of the 4.6mbit today. Alot of things will be internet based instead of being run locally.We see this today (google documents, prism, ...) but it isn't really common.

While home networks are possible today, it still remains power-user territory. As I see things, having all your computers/laptops/mobile computers/ stereo installations/tvs connect to the home server for movies/music/documents, ... will be common practice. There will be a home server next to the router/phone. This and things like linux mce to controll all of this in a nice looking skin (including the lights, doors, windows screens, badroom, ...) will be everywhere.

It also goes without saying that computers will become smaller and screens bigger. So lets say the computers will be the size of a of a 500gb mobile harddive today.

The public phones will be replaced with touchscreen computers with internet access.

Further than nobody can speculate.
If you told people in the 80s about the cell phone or the internet, hell even about how common computers are today they wouldn't have believed it. And not alot of people thought it would ever be this way.

I see a bright future for computers. I just hate the fact that I won't be here to see how computers will be in a 1000 years (if things continue to evolve like today an there isn't a next "middleages".)

The thing I don't ever see happening are:
- robots (like in irobot or even as in the terminator)
- flying cars
- jetpack (am I the only one who sees red from "that 70's show" flying away with his jetpack?)
- things like stargate of startrek where we have space ships going to hyperdrive saying we will never go beyond the speed of light
- virtual reality (that died in the 90s, didn't it?)

Some "out of there" ideas:

I am 100% sure there are aliens (the universe being infinate, we can't possilbe think we are alone) (no they haven't visited us yet, i'm no nutter).

Lets say in 100 000 years we have develloped so much that we could actually communicate with other beings in space. Then we could advance so much that if people from the 21st century would see the human race then, we would think of them as gods. (living for thousands of years, space travel, almost indistructable by todays standards, ...) Or maybe I just saw/read to much sci-fi.

[billgoldberg]

Most research is going into weapons.
So the future of techology will certainly include more heinous ways for us to murder each other.

Research in weapons is what brought us this far.

Without the first and second world war and the cold war, we would never be were we are today.

[billgoldberg]

If that's true Homo Sapiens is doomed to extinction.

The homo sapien as we know it will become extinct. But that will be for the good, the evolved homo sapien will be better suited for the changed world.

The homo sapien (every one of us) isn't really designed to live in todays world. Most of the things about us are wrong for today's world.

:
The need for dominance, territory, objects, jalousy, compition, sex lead to violence, suffering, poverty and war. These are all build into the very core of the homo sapien. Once we evolve (could be in the next 100 000 to 1 000 000) years, these things will have changed. We will also be better suited for the polluted air, we will have less body fat, nobody will have hair anymore (maybe only on the head), ...
Unless you are a religous person, most people will have to agree that is the best thing that could happen to the human race.

[Pethegreat]

Yes of course it does but the second law of thermodynamics says that the entropy (chaos) of a closed system will increase over time. Organised matter is useful to us, disorganised...useless. Unfortunately we currently do not possess the technology (back onto the original topic) to artificially and efficiently decrease the entropy of the earth. Seemingly there is an exception to the 2nd law of thermodynamics though...Life! Which is why i said we must look towards our biologists (something that i'm very proud to be in this day and age) for future technological advancements.

Life is not %100 efficient, and it never can be. Humans take energy, use it for growth/functions/ ect, and radiate the other %80. The source of all energy on the earth is the sun. Life takes some of that energy and reorganizes things to decrese entropy. The sun's entropy increases ever day though. We still have a few billion years, but the entropy will become too great in the solar system for us to live.

I see a bright future for computers. I just hate the fact that I won't be here to see how computers will be in a 1000 years

I have read that if Moore's law continues, it will hit a peak in about 600 years. At that point we have enough computing power to simulate the universe.

I just want a waffle maker that doesn't burn my waffles in the morning and makes me a perfect waffle.

I mean CMON scientists, GET IT SORTED

Hopefully someone will make a distributed computing project to simulate a waffle cooking. It needs to be called Waffles@home. Once we get enough info we can make a better waffle!