What do you think will be the next "breakthrough" invention?
The Lightbulb
The combustion engine
The microprocessor
Is there anything that "world changing" left out there?
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$15 Answers
But a more approachable version would be an engine that can run directly from salt water.
One guy (John Kanzius) found that salt water could burn by accident while trying to find a cure for cancer, by the use of radio waves, but it required high amounts of energy, so much so that it takes more energy to cause it to burn than the salt water puts out. Once ignited, the salt water would continue to burn until it was depleted, and got so hot it melted the test tube it was in.
If there is someone out there that can cause salt to burn or create an ignition system that can create salt to burn without taking much energy to do so, we could use salt water to run I.C.E's (internal combustion engines).
The exhaust emissions from salt water would be very low, and the exhaust would just be steam.
It would be like the hydrogen systems, except wouldn't require the high PSI pressurized systems and complex filling stations.
That would be a groundbreaking invention I think, that could be possible. The only problem you'd run into I'd think would be preventing corrosion from the salt water.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
@brainsan I have always wondered the same thing and @morris003 I'm with you on the escaping gravity idea. I'm nowhere near a scientist and I can't exactly put my finger on it but I would bet electro-magnetism will help us do just that.
I saw this video on flying cars. This could be promising.
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/paul_moller_on_the_skycar.html
I agree. The next big thing has to solve transportation problems.
That brings up some interesting issues, like who owns the airspace above your property? How high up?
If your house can float freely, then do we have to do away with property ownership?
So, you can see how long this process takes to make a world changer, and even so everybody has to change. You might say the light bulb is a world changer, yet I wouldn't doubt there are still people who light up their room with candle lighting, and do not use the light bulb in some locations. Then, every time I present a "world changing" idea to a big company, they have their legal team send me a letter saying they would need to see a working prototype, not just a drawing or a model. I think the challenge with world changing inventions is that they are not invented by one person, they are invented by a team of people, thinkers, doers, and dreamers. They may be imagined by one person, then built with others, and manufactured by others, and funded by others, and distributed by others. If one person did it all, then there would never be any of the above world changing inventions.
One thing to understand is that everything invented now is built from prior art nowadays, since everything technically has been invented.
The other thing to understand is that "world changing" inventions are sometimes harder to market, because they change the way people think, the way the world operates, etc. which causes people to have questions, and doubts about inventing the next big thing. Once a world changer gains momentum, that's when people take on the next big world changing invention, and become consumers uniting for world change.
The problem with humanity is that most people think the status quo of what we use today is ok, and they refuse to see the changing world, simply because they can make use of what they have, even if there is a significant improvement over something.
Many people dispute change, are afraid of change, and don't like change, simply because they do not know how to deal with it. There are always costs to make changes in our world.
For instance, if we would all escape from gasoline and put hydrogen everywhere, that would be world changing, but then the people who own the oil wells wouldn't be too happy. Nowadays, world changing inventions have a barrier to entry sometimes, and it's not because the invention or the idea is world changing, yet the people who they are up against, the powers that already operate a certain way are driven by something other than change, which is their business. How do you explain this to someone who has been doing something the way they've been doing it for years?
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$Drastically improved data communication pathways.
Wireless has a long way to go and if it can be perfected (or close to it), our digital lives would evolve again. I'm not talking about "wifi everywhere" or metropolitan wifi, but rather the improvement of physical data communication connections. Cat6, Fibre, etc are inadequate but more so, the devices that connect them (routers, switches, dslams, etc) also limit what we are currently capable of.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
Yeah, I've spent a lot of time sitting on pop cases in datacenters thinking about this :)
I don't think that the solution is RF... too noisy.
Can't be IR - no line of site and what happens when someone walks around?
I agree with you, Brian... it's something else... if we can figure it out, we'll be RICH!!! ;)
There was an interesting part of NovaNow on Tuesday that discussed using artificial diamonds to speed up communications.
High speed 802.11n wireless networks that can carry 300+ meg are already being tested. I have netgear 802.11n MIMO router that tested at 230 meg.
"It looks like AT&T is seriously exploring the use of 802.11n wireless connections to beam HD video around the home, potentially shaving hours (or at least minutes) off of a typical U-Verse install. AT&T currently uses HomePNA technology for in-home networking. The technology works over either traditional phone lines or coax and is obviously much less expensive than running Cat-5 cable. But according to Light Reading, in-home coax is often in crappy condition, so AT&T is about to begin trials of 802.11n networking gear from Ruckus:"
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/ATT-Exploring-HDTV-Over-80211n-102470
I have also tested 802.16e WiMAX at 8-10meg down driving at 50-60mph. And watched live online TV.
So we are there, pretty soon we will get ride of all the wires.
@morriss003 yes, I too watched that program. Video is here:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/0401/01.html
"Diamond has ‘exceptional electronic properties’, says Chris Wort, Technical Manager at E6. Unlike materials such as gallium arsenide and silicon, which are regularly employed by electronics manufacturers, diamond combines high charge carrier mobility and extreme thermal conductivity."
http://www.iom3.org/news/electronic-products-synthetic-diamonds-way?c=574
Since we're really talking about breakthrough technology, I am going to guess that the real breakthrough will be something "wireless", but using some other medium that we just haven't though up yet.
I think the only reason we use some sort of cable today is really the speed benefits. But if a wireless medium had the same capabilities, then there probably wouldn't be much point in the cable.
I don't think it is out of the realm of reality to believe that some day wireless information will be available in much the same way sunlight is freely available.
A bonus would be if it was similar to short wave radio in that a satellite would not be needed in the process.
Whoa! Thanks for the heads up.
I think the problem they're having with optical communication is timing. Fibre is almost unlimited but it's the end point hardware that limits things down. There are also a lot of physical problems with any sort of cable.
Wow - that nova sounds really good... I'm going to go get it!
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15744871
I was having a discussion about this with a friend and they brought up an interesting point.
For a murder trial:
Some time in the future, there will be no need to get up on the stand. All they would need besides the current DNA and other physical evidence, would be a brain scan.
I guess this would fall under the 'creepy but true' breakthrough if or when it happens.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
1.Time machine or
2. Human brain reader.
If no1 will invented we can visit our past or future. I wish I could meet with Michael Jackson or Shakespeare.How nice! or,
If no2 will invented ther will be no crime then world will turned into a haven but there will personality because there will be law to use this.
www.mahalo.com
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
My favorite one was the hydrogen car. Instead of emitting exhaust, it emits water vapor.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
Thanks for the answer and the video.
Hydrogen powered cars are an interesting solution to the transportation problem. The cars themselves are really engineering works of art.
The problem is the production of hydrogen is currently inefficient and transporting hydrogen around the country is dangerous. If a solution to those two issues is found, then it would be a true "breakthrough"
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
Very interesting!
Perhaps we will have to have a new power rating system, sea-horses...
(Sorry, I just couldn't resist)
But seriously, a new type of engine that isn't harmful to the environment, uses a fuel that is abundant (there's quite a bit of saltwater available I believe) and produces power at or above the levels today's combustion engines would be a serious breakthrough.