Have we plateaued in technological advancements?

[StarRider1701]

50 years from now
Brain transplants

With brain transplants will come practical immortality, for those who can afford it. We can already clone people and for enough money there will be at least one country out there that will allow it done. Grow a clone, even without any means of artificial aging, while you grow older. When you are in your 60s and the clone is 18-21 yrs old, transplant your brain into the clones body. Wella, young again and you don't have to wish you knew then what you know now! The old brain should even benifit from being in a youthful, healthy body. Make sure you have plenty of original material from your first body to clone with, you don't want to make clones of clones of clones. I've heard that eventually the process degrades. Do that every 40 - 50 years and one should live for at least several hundred. Gives new meaning to "long term investments" don't it?
Again, with enough rich folk wanting to do it, at least one country will allow it and make sure there are no legal hassles with dumping the young clones brain when your brain is transplanted into it. Even so, there will still be do-gooder Nogoodniks constantly whining about "Clones Rights!"

 

[Shpaget]

[Make sure you have plenty of original material from your first body to clone with, you don't want to make clones of clones of clones. I've heard that eventually the process degrades.

Life expectancy of a clone is the remaining life expectancy of the original, meaning that if you clone a sheep (average life expectancy is 12 years) when it is 10, the clone is expected to celebrate its second birthday, after which it will die of old age.
So, you'll want to harvest your genetic material as soon as possible (as an original infant probably).

 

[GreenAce92]

Thank you all for your replies, keep them coming!

I wanted to add to the fusion comment, I have researched fusion and wrote a paper on it, it seems promising but the whole temperature and pressure deal.. I mean what if we just brought the fusion workings to space, focus the sun to merge two smaller particles to one ending in free neutron and energy etc...

Also nuclear powered space craft, I guess as you guys said even without warp drive or FTL (same thing or warp is a sub context of FTL?) having an "infinite" source of propulsion would build us enough speed to be going pretty fast. But... also what about this whole humans and going such and such speed, I guess yeah if you build up the inertia with it, "you're fine?"... also is there any other way to use propulsion in space (the whole action reaction thing) exiting gases pushes on craft...

And artificial intelligence, to me it seems like it's just a massive core of memory and RAM.... Watching an "in the womb" movie by Nat Geo... seeing how the heart forms from a random cluster of cells, and how the baby starts remembering at a certain point, I almost think that all artificial intelligence is or "consciousness" is having a **** load of memory, the robot gets pushed over, it learns to respond by flexing its calf's to recenter its gravity etc... It seems like "consciousness" just happens... it's learning and learning and storing....

And yeah... I'd really like to contribute to all of these things one day... and leave this planet as well... (sound mega gay there or corny but I'm being Optimistic) and we should kick start Mar's magnetic shield (bomb the f#*# out of it's mantle and get it started again).

Also building rovers with whegs, or natural legs, and using decaying radioactive isotopes for power. Or fusion cells lol

 

[GreenAce92]

Also I like the post about the cloning, (if that was on this post) with transferring your brain. It sounds all good and done... but what about the brain matter decaying itself? (or is there no such thing)? I hate to be the guy that craps in the pool (I'm trying make that one stick) but it seems like everything has a tradeoff...

Also man, I don't want to sound like the guy who says "Oh I had that same exact idea also!" But it seems like I do actually think of these things that have either been done or is in the process of being done. With the example above, at first I was talking to my AP Calculus teacher (which I like failed that class amazing isn't it? Here i go building circuitry for little exploration robots and I look like a ****** to my Math class/teacher) anyhow I was explaining to him how I felt so sad after watching the film "Food Inc" and I thought, what if we grew the chicken and not the brain so it's not "senseless killing of "souls" or something... which one teacher I talked to said about the nutrients being absorbed and growing them would lose that but thats bullcrap to me because these chickens are grown at half the normal time. So who's absorbing their nutrients? And this thought, is not entirely mine or anything like that because there was an episode on Eureka on this, except the chicken went bad but yeah just growing the parts that we eat.

Also another example "a spray on condom" I know off topic, but it's been done! Called Jolly Joe's by Germans... it's like Ahhhh.... how do you create something and keep it as your own?

I'm designing some new was of flapping ornithopter wings, rather than gears and cranks we use Solenoids etc... and it's like I don't know if I could say that this is my idea... etc...

Or I have this other project in the works, building a bunch of random exploration units using whegs for locomotion, but one of them is a seabased version this one is water proof, can tuck it's limbs in and tumble down a creek. It has it's own camera, gps, and IR sensors (all of them have this as basic) but anyway the one innovative thing that I thought of is that, it would carry a buoy generator, it would anchor itself (this in a stream or under an ocean each buoy is different depends on if its up and down motion or just linear ie stream) any ways... after anchoring to the ground the buoy would be deployed in there there would be a pager motor or a DC motor of some kind attached to an external or internal turbine to generate electricity which is then transferred to the robot to recharge.... And along with this I thought I would give them some kind of knowledge like image or object recognition, I wanted to be able to like Hurl this robot into a pond/ ocean or let it sink to the bottom of a creek and then have it follow a crayfish etc.. (I wish NASA funded me lol)

So yeah many ideas... but... what can I say, I'm only 17 and I'm a nobody at this point, no Tony Stark

 

[dryson]

You have to remember Moore's Law. Every two years the number of transistor's doubles which means technology gets faster and faster every two years. Eventually Moores Law will be replaced with a Moore's Law Squared where every two years the number of transistors will square theirself in the number of transistors being able to be used. Eventually transistors will become obsolete where light and the frequencies of light will be used instead of sending an electrical current through a co-processor to create routines , sub-routines, parrel routines and sub-parrel routines.

I would have to say that by the year 2030 the computers that we use today will be like the computers that Commodore first came out with

10 goto line 20
20 run

etc.

 

[BurgerB75]

How does a programming language (your reference to the goto command) have anything to do with the number of transistors? In addition, we are approaching to point where making transistors any smaller runs into huge problems as quantum tunneling starts rearing it's head once you get the transistor and gates small enough.

 

[StarRider1701]

I would have to say that by the year 2030 the computers that we use today will be like the computers that Commodore first came out with

Hey dryson, computers are not the sole and only peice of human technology. Trust me, we build other things besides computers, dude. Sometimes we put computers where they are not needed or wanted. My car is having problems even though there is absolutely nothing wrong with it mechanically. The $%^&* computer is messing up...

To err is human. To really f**k up requires a computer! :shock: :lol:

 

[jim48]

As the inventor of the Mark IV, Series 80, Hyper-Electric Neutron Gravitator I can assure you that tech-wise the best is yet to come!

 

[Floridian]

So what are the barriers that we need before we can do things depicted like in Star Wars or a more recent film I have just watched, The Fifth Element...

The "barriers" I see are
Propulsion systems (F-T-L-T)
Antigravity

It seems like once we get past these then space travel as well as "hovering cars/sky cars"...
It seems like we had advanced faster in the 70's for the space race and such and now it seems like we slowed down...

I look at the rovers in mars and how long it takes to get there... if the Earth was screwed... could we save ourselves?
I plan on becoming a research and development engineer (if there is such a thing) and space is a great interest of mine, beside my main focus of aviation.

In my lifetime I'd like the word "Starship" to become a reality.

The main barriers are: Socialism/Communism, environmentalists (the crazy ones that rule the debate), global warming nonsense, politicians/special interests, laziness, removal of religion/traditional values in western society, and fear.

The US lead the world into the modern age. No other country had as many advancements, except WW2 Nazi Germany. Sadly today, the US is crippled with socialism and power hungry bureaucrats.

What made the US a great country was our work ethic, formerly called the "Protestant Work Ethic". Americans came here to have the liberty to work their butt off and to raise their children how they wanted to, but to also tolerate others.
In America, until recently, it was sink or swim, you either work hard and reap the benefits, or you lose.

The system that can produce the cheapest technology and the most innovation is a free-market capitalist society with as small of a federal government as possible and where state authority is respected (like it was supposed to be in the constitution).

The fact is, actual capitalism does not allow weak businesses to survive. If you do not generate profit, you go out of business, system corrected. You don't give out a $300,000 house loan to a family making $45,000 a year with bad credit. A company COULD NOT give this loan out, as the risk would be too great, in a true capitalism system.

Without barriers to the flow of goods and services, trade flourishes. People form small businesses and innovate. When the producers are punished, you remove the incentive. Very few millionaires inherit their money. Most of them earn it through hard work and discipline.

We haven't built a nuclear reactor in over 30 years. We are using 60 year old chemical space shuttles.


The main focus of our policies should be generating and sustaining wealth, encouraging, not punishing producers.

 

[nimbus]

The main barrier is cultural/educational. Everything else follows.

 

[silylene]

silylene, don't you think you're a bit optimistic? Not at all

Within the next 25 years we will see great advancements in:
Memory chips (for computers or humans? definitely not for humans IMO) computer chips - solid state memories, several technologies.
Memory and intelligence enhancement drugs (already here, most of them illegal ) They'll be legal
Memory wiping drugs (uh... memory is a tough nut to crack, especially if you want to be specific) Already here, actually
Ability to read and write into targeted brain neurons. (making a new "brain entry" or a memory is surely more complicated than deleting one... don't think any of us here will see it happen) will happen, almost here
Cure for Alzheimers and other dementias (again related to nervous system -> complicated; cure is a bit strong word, maybe retardant is a better suited one?) agree, significant retardant
Self assembling nanochemistry (inteligent? :? or just a chain reaction type?) already here in very interesting forms, I can link references...I forsee useful forms in future
Catalysts for direct generation of H2 from water (breaking laws of thermodynamics?) with input of light energy, of course
Human genetic engineering (we're definitely far from that) will happen
Robotic surgery (they're still too clumsy, and computers are still too dumb) will happen
Artifical neurons (again nervous system related, meaning very advanced, I'm afraid not in next 25 years) will happen

50 years from now
Brain transplants (hopefully never) will happen
Telomare repair and 50+ yr life extension (genetic engineering on a grown individual?)will happen[/

quote]

 

[StarRider1701]

Within the next 25 years we will see great advancements in:
Robotic surgery (they're still too clumsy, and computers are still too dumb) will happen

Dr. assisted robotic surgery is happening right now here in Columbus Ohio. One local hospital (can't remember the name) advertises it all the time on the radio... Shouldn't take too long for the Dr. to stop assisting the robot. They call it progress I think :shock:

 

[docm]

NASA has a project for compact teleoperated robotic surgery units, with the end goal being semi-autonomy. First uses would be remote areas and the battlefield, but its use on spacecraft is also envisioned.

 

[GreenAce92]

I do have to agree with the politics barrier, I think that goes hand-in-hand with wars... if we didn't expend our money (trillions) in wars, and perhaps (a novel concept) united... focused our resources in advancements, then perhaps we could get somewhere.

One area that I thought would be a definite "gate" for further advancements would be fusion. I'm talking things like plasma weapons coming out after fusion is successfully sustained and recreated with net energy output. Things like "light sabers/plasma rifles" are a possibility! To me it's like, once you have a sustainable "plasma" to work with (superheated gas) then you just have to manipulate it. So like a light saber, that "cylinder" or whatever shape it might be, is generated by overlapping magnetic fields which would "contain" the superheated plasma which would be continuously generated by the "small fusion reactor" that can be held in your hand. Or the fusion cell whichever...

Does sound like a load of crap, or perhaps insane but hey... sometimes you gotta think beyond what seems "logical".

Also one thing I thought of that could help would be to allow other nations to have the opportunity to learn, "knowledge is power" as they say and thus is imperative to keep people ignorant to control them but hey... some of these countries or perhaps all of them, have geniuses just waiting to be given a chance.

 

[nimbus]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxIgdOlT2cY[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZn46l7uEKg[/youtube]

In the video above the monkey (right side of video) uses its right arm to tap a button which triggers the robotic manipulator to position a black knob to an arbitrary position. The monkey is then seen controlling its articulated robotic arm to grasp the knob.

After touching the knob the monkey places its mouth on a straw to be rewarded with a drink. By constant repetition the monkey eventually starts placing its mouth on the straw before touching the knob knowing that a drink is coming.

This advanced robotic arm has seven-degrees-of-freedom as compared to the four-degrees-of-freedom arm back in 2008.

Obvious leads to further developments and eventual human implementation.

http://www.physorg.com/news194796581.html

 

[Zilwiki]

How could there be no more technological advances? There will always be incremental advances in existing technology; faster, more powerful computers, better antibiotics, new and novel drugs, new and novel spacecraft propulsion systems. Since we have not discovered all physical laws, there will be totally new technologies based on those new laws. Any marrying of quantum mechanics and general relativity will really create new technology.

 

[Floridian]

So what are the barriers that we need before we can do things depicted like in Star Wars or a more recent film I have just watched, The Fifth Element...

The "barriers" I see are
Propulsion systems (F-T-L-T)
Antigravity

It seems like once we get past these then space travel as well as "hovering cars/sky cars"...
It seems like we had advanced faster in the 70's for the space race and such and now it seems like we slowed down...

I look at the rovers in mars and how long it takes to get there... if the Earth was screwed... could we save ourselves?
I plan on becoming a research and development engineer (if there is such a thing) and space is a great interest of mine, beside my main focus of aviation.

In my lifetime I'd like the word "Starship" to become a reality.

The things that lead to our technological advancements, free-trade, liberty, limited government, and the protestant work ethic have been all but removed from our society.

Environmentalism, socialism/communism, and ever-expanding government have created a society of entitled, immoral, leeches. Achievement in our society is punished, as it distinguishes you from the masses. And we know that distinguishing yourself from the masses is anti-socialist.

The last thing our current leaders want is technological achievement. They want us to feel as hopeless as possible. Indeed, they dare not let a good crisis go to waste. The constitution has been thrown in the trash by the current government. The laws and qualities that lead America to lead the world into the modern era have been defeated from within.

 

[GreenAce92]

Don't forget about the baby boomers!

I don't know, life just seems lame to me right now. Like I wan't to design a craft that can fly through any medium (except solid of course) but like, I could be sitting there one day and say, "Hey I wan't to go see a giant squid" So I jump into my ship, fly it out of my hangar/garage and "jump" ship to the nearest ocean. Then I would just plow through the water and go as deep as possible... etc...

And yes, the other barriers mentioned like world power, wealth, etc... it sucks

As a guy told me once, you don't get as far ahead/as rich as you could have back in the 50's. The whole fiat money system and such... the founding fathers never wanted that... paper money sheesh :roll:

I guess I'm just like tired of the same thing being invented again, over and over. Talk about different types of aircraft, the basis is the same, lift for flight. Where's fusion when you need it.

I'm sorry I'm just rambling but, I do hope that when it comes my turn to run this country, I will make a difference. (not as a president but when my generation come to fill your shoes).

And hopefully I won't be overpowered by my own interests like wealth. I want to explore the universe, start colonies on other locations. Sounds like I just got done watching some sci-fi movie I know but hey, it's motivational to me and inspiring. So I'll get my schooling on Physics, how the world works and see about getting this bird off the ground.

 

[StarRider1701]

The last thing our current leaders want is technological achievement. They want us to feel as hopeless as possible. Indeed, they dare not let a good crisis go to waste. The constitution has been thrown in the trash by the current government. The laws and qualities that lead America to lead the world into the modern era have been defeated from within.

And all that may be true, Fla. But while we may have led the world into the modern era, you must realize that our society is not the whole of the human race. Even as we falter, others are picking up the baton and carrying it forward. Even if not one more new developement or advancement ever comes out of America again, our race will still develop and grow, technologically.
And we're not dead yet. True, times are tough. But we've seen tough times before and will again.

 

[FictionBecomesFact]

NASA has recently launched some additional Centennial Challenges competitive prizes for technological breakthroughs:

viewtopic.php?f=15&t=23173&p=434595#p434595

 

[StarRider1701]

NASA has recently launched some additional Centennial Challenges competitive prizes for technological breakthroughs:

viewtopic.php?f=15&t=23173&p=434595#p434595

Ooops! So much for our government not wanting any more technological advancements! :lol:

 

[FictionBecomesFact]

Well, if the government was in any kind of hurry to foment technological advances in ways that don't directly enrich federal bureaucrats, then its overall government agency competitive prizes website wouldn't still be so devoid of content:

http://www.challenge.gov

The bureaucrats don't care about our skyrocketing national debt:

http://www.usdebtclock.org

unless their own livelihoods are threatened by it. Nov. 2nd will be an interesting election day.