Y&R Discussion Group

Topic: Emerging technologies.........Which one interests you?

Kate's DNA post made me think of this array, Alzhiemer's and the anti-aging drug resveratrol.  Are these technologies going to take us where we want to go?

We'd better hope so....'cause we're on our way!  (Click on the terms links if you're interested.)

Emerging technology	Status	Things potentially losing importance	Applications
Artificial intelligence	Superhuman in some areas	Human brain	Creation of intelligent devices, which could replace humans for a number of tasks
Genetic engineering / Synthetic biology		Evolution	Creation of species, modification of species to be more fit for a purpose
Electric cars with range extenders and Personal rapid transit	Small scale production and prototypes	Normal gasoline cars	Green transportation of small groups
Flash memory	Diffusion	Hard disk drives	Smaller, faster, lower power consuming storage
Nanomaterials		Steel and Aluminium	Stronger, lighter, and more intelligent materials
Synthetic diamonds	Can now be mass produced	Kevlar, Glass, Metal heatsinks	Hardest and most thermal conductive material known
Scramjet	Working Mach 10 Prototype	Jet engines, Rocket engines	Very fast air travel
Wireless communication	Diffusion	Wired communication	Ubiquitous network connectivity
3D printing	In Commercial Production	Manual creation of prototypes and also some mass production methods that lack the ability for customization	Rapid prototyping and production of not only plastic objects but multi-material items, with the potential to significantly customize products for individual consumers
Anti-aging\Smart drugs containing substances like resveratrol,Piracetam		A range of treatments fighting age-related diseases	Life extension
Semantic Web or Answers Machine		Search engines	Making the web machine-readable by linking data on the web based on its meaning
Bio fuels	Diffusion	Fossil fuels	Energy source
OLED	Diffusion	LCD and plasma displays	Displays and screens of various kinds
Machine translation		Human translation of natural languages, in areas where misunderstanding is non-critical and language is formalized	Easier cross-cultural communication
Nuclear fusion power	Theory and experiments	Fossil fuels, hydroelectric power, nuclear fission power	Electric power generation
3D optical data storage or Holographic data storage		All other optical data storage solutions, magnetic tape data storage, and other mass storage devices.	Storage and archiving of data that was previously erased for economic reasons.
Metamaterials		Classical optics.	Microscopes, cameras, cloaking devices.
High-temperature superconductivity	Working prototypes in dry ice	Copper wire	No loss conductors, frictionless bearings, magnetic levitation
3D displays	Theory and experiments	CRT, LCD, and other display technologies.	Television, Computer interfaces, cinemas.
Quantum computing	Theory and experiments	Electronic computing, optical computing.	Much faster computing.
Nanowire battery	Working prototypes	Other technologies for storing energy (hydrogen, conventional batteries and in some cases fossil fuels)	Laptops, cell phones and long-range electric cars. Storing power for electric grid
Virtual retinal display	Working prototypes	VR headsets, displays	Augmented reality, virtual reality
WiTricity	Working prototypes	Electrical cables	Wireless energy transfer
Vitrification or Cryoprotectant	Theory and some experiments	Ischemic Damages	Organ transplant
Non-rocket spacelaunch	Theory and some experiments	Rocket	Launch loop                    launch track                    Space gun

Replies: (list all replies)

You'd think more people would be driving less. But noooooooooooooooooooooo!....eom...Mitch

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Posted by: Pronoun
Date posted: Thu May 8 12:45:29 2008
Message:
I find them all interesting. I love watching documentaries and shows about science and technology. I just wish I was smart enough to understand it all.  Yesterday I read something about how they're coming up with a chip that would be inserted into the human body and would instantly tell if you're having a heart attack and call an ambulance and notify the hospital etc.  Who even thinks of these things?

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About 5 yrs ago, I had a conversation with a nurse about embedding patients with a chip or tattooing a barcode to at least identify your needs to healthcare peoples. Since then, the chip thing has become a fait accomplii...eom...Mitch

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Posted by: Kate
Date posted: Thu May 8 10:09:59 2008
Message:

I guess it all should interest me, but it boggles my mind as to how you posted this!!  LOL

The resveratrol looks interesting especially since it comes from the skin of Red Grapes.......and wine comes from GRAPES!   ;>)

Yummmmm.

 

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I'll tell you, the grapes sounded a lot better than the other botanical mentioned, knotweed...eom...Mitch

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Posted by: farmer brown
Date posted: Thu May 8 0:16:51 2008
Message:
I'm still marveling at the transition from manual to electric typewriters!

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LOL! Oh come now! ...eom...Mitch

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