What reasonable advance do you see happening?

[David Ragan]

the world smallest circular saw thread got my brain cell working. I've read the progress in the next 100 years will be one-thousand times what we have seen in the past 100.

Things I think will be in the next 50 years (ie, from what we know right now, these things are reasonable):

Printing food.

Printing clothes. both of these cause currently just requires way too much water.

Constuction with carbon fiber nano-stuff. Not sure of the ramifications of this.

No human physicians..... already we have kiosks @ pharmacies around the country, robot assisted surgery, and stem cells/other cells that seek out certain environments/conditions in the body. Certainly, we won't be drawing blood and will instead to retinal scans for all that. urine is a non-invasive easy way to assay stuff.

Teleportation and things going faster than the speed of light is I think it a little beyond the 50 year mark.

Better access for your memory. Things that you've read/seen/experienced will be more acccessible. Right now, there are lots of breakthroughs in psychotherapy about reprogramming how we emotionally experience past trauma. Remember, trauma is in the experience of the subject.

Saw a program last PM about putting a geodesic dome over Houston, TX. Naturally, the Germans have developed the microthin, lightweight polymer to enable it. There is already one in England....called "Eden" or something like that.

The Quantum computer is going to be huge leap forward in Science. Am not sure what this means for the rest of us. Way beyond the slide rule, I imagine.

Weather control is a possibility, as long as the energy absorbed @ the equator get dissipated. But, if major cities are domed, who cares?

More energy harvested from the atmosphere and the ocean.

How about that?

If you have other stuff, and something to back it up, that would be great!

[Brian Elfert]

I have my doubts that there will be that much more innovation in the next 100 years compared to the past 100 years:

The past 100 years:

Electricity and telephone in every home
Invention of radio and television
Mass production of automobiles with most families owning at least one
Air conditioning and central heating
Refrigeration replaced ice boxes
Appliances such as washing machines replacing lots of manual labor
Elevator technology lead to high rise buildings
Personal computers revolutionizing offices
Creation of the Internet
Cellular phones
Development of highway system to allow widespread travel
Jet airplanes revolutionized travel
Better farming that greatly reduced food cost as percent of income
Space travel

I'm sure I'm missing a lot of stuff that happened in the past 100 years

Most of the future technology is going build upon stuff which was invented in the past 100 years. Self driving cars may revolutionize travel, but they build upon automobiles, highways, computers, and the Internet all invented in the previous 100 years.

[Chuck Wintle]

advances in 50 years.....?

a permanent moon settlement where synthetic gravity will simulate Earth's gravity
synthetic food to feed the ever growing population..but not soylent green
improved space travel with some "start trek" type vessels
major improvements in medicine life span will be increased to 150 years
better pollution control and less waste of resources..this will be strictly enforced by the government
less and less privacy...in fact this concept will disappear completely as the government has more and more control
a media that will be totally compliant to the rulers....not really an advance
rapid travel to all parts of the globe

[Pat Barry]

If anything can be learned from the past it is that the pace of technology development is increasing at an increasing rate. There is nothing to suggest it will slow down anytime soon. As an example, two years ago 3D printing was basically a novelty, now it is actively used in product development and manufacturing. Just two days ago there was an article where they 3D printed medications (pills) using a newly developed material. Therefore what could be expected 100 years from now is really unimaginable.

[Gerry Grzadzinski]

As an example, two years ago 3D printing was basically a novelty, now it is actively used in product development and manufacturing.

3D printing has been used in product development for probably 15 years. It's only become affordable to the masses in the last few years. However, the quality of the affordable printers can still get a lot better.

I saw a short clip on CNN a few months ago, where they are working on printing 3D body parts. And it's not as far off as you might think.

[Rick Potter]

Technology will continue its advancement.

An inexpensive method of desalinizing sea water will help agriculture.

Agriculture will blossom in desert areas.

DNA based cures will be developed for cancer, and other maladies.


On the other hand..........man, as a species, will not advance.

The Balkanization of countries will continue.

Countries will be more divided by tribal, ethnic and religious lines.

It will be possible to have religious world wars, rather than local ones.

Everybody will have nukes.

There will be water wars.

Personal privacy will be a thing of the past.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

I believe we will finally find out what the saw nib is for. Hahaha. But seriously:

I believe we will revert in some ways away from technology and back to things like sailboats for transportation simply due to fuel costs. I believe we are in for a global economic collapse fueled by gas prices, climate change, and civil unrest.

I do think in other ways technology will continue to advance. Thermal printing will be more and more developed and incorporated into manufacturing. Car parts will be "printed" with molten metal or plastics as "ink" rather than stamped out. We will order things online and they will be printed out in our home thermal printer. This is not far-fetched at all, as the technology already exists.

As as for woodworking, already CNC and lasers have taken over. These will one day be taken to a constriuction site and spit out house parts perfectly made to fit. A roof truss will be CNC'd with notches and tabs to fit together and glued rather than nailed. Kitchen cabinets will be CNC'd by the same device on the spot. Got a special notch or obstacle to go around? The cabinetry is perfectly matched to the room using a laser scanner.

Wood will give way more and more to engineered materials. Pine will sell for $10/bft and high-end woods will be priced by the ounce.

Meanwhile with technology doing everything for us, we will get dumber and dumber.

[Chuck Wintle]

more stuff....
the united states will splinter into autonomous regions..
real food will become scarce and expensive...
gas and oil will continue to be plentiful as more and more crude oil is discovered
the internet will become the defacto media distribution system..maybe it already is...
more and more mega billionaires..real power will conecntrate into the hands of the few...
china will continue to rise and will become the new evil empire...ronald reagan quote
europe will consolidate the weak and indebted countries into a new europe...greece, italy and portugal will be the new germany..
nuclear weapons will be eliminated as necessary..economic warfare will become the norm
english will become the dominant language in those civilized countries that remain..it already is for the most part...
the common cold will continues to exist

[Erik Loza]

....Personal privacy will be a thing of the past.

This ^^^^^

Erik

[Chuck Wintle]

This ^^^^^

Erik
it already is gone...we only indulge in the quaint belief that ones affairs are private..

[Chris Padilla]

IOE - Internet of Everything

Soon everything will have some kind of wifi connectivity to the WW. I'm sure this will be both good and bad. :)

[Pat Barry]

What we need is a better gas can. Is that too much to ask? Not some plastic container with a plastic dispenser and built in plastic check valve. What the heck is the benefit of that? I bet that everyone that is cursed with one of those finds a way to disable the safety feature as soon as possible because these new gas cans are useless.

[Rick Potter]

Forgot.

Flying cars will still be a pipe dream (or nightmare if you are an air traffic controller).

[Chris Padilla]

What we need is a better gas can. Is that too much to ask? Not some plastic container with a plastic dispenser and built in plastic check valve. What the heck is the benefit of that? I bet that everyone that is cursed with one of those finds a way to disable the safety feature as soon as possible because these new gas cans are useless.

http://www.nospill.com/

[Mark Blatter]

Call me Mr. Pessimist, but I see the world worse off in 50 years. My vision is more like Skynet or Big Brother than The Jetsons.

I see a continued breakdown in civility, morality, and simple human kindness. I believe, as others have said, we will see a splintering of countries, and peoples into smaller and smaller groups based on a variety of factors, possibly even including the US. We are a world becoming more polarized and less willing to negotiate or compromise. I readily agree that some compromise is wrong, but if the Founding Fathers had not compromised, the US would never have existed.

I think we may see Skynet controlled by Big Brother, all in the name of being politically correct. Since I will be dead by then, I won't be around to see it. I am just sorry my children and grandchildren will be part of it.

[Bruce Pratt]

Past hundred

Antibiotics. Before penicillin, if you got a serious infection, you lost limb or life.

[Chuck Wintle]

Past hundred

Antibiotics. Before penicillin, if you got a serious infection, you lost limb or life.

it's not any different today...with the super bugs limbs and life are at risk.

[William Adams]

Unfortunately, a lot of things are running up against real world limits and hard physics.

- we’re burning 10 calories of petrochemical energy to get 1 calorie of food energy
- irrigation w/ incompletely desalinated saltwater is making increasingly large areas of farmland unusable in Russia and other parts of the world
- China has stopped exporting phosphorous and is now importing all that they can — it’s the limiting element of the earth’s crust when converting it into biomass
- satellite observation has shown the earth’s vegetation as having reached some limit and not increasing
- some time in the past century, through over-fishing and increasing shipping we tipped the point of having a greater tonnage of shipping in the oceans than fish biomass — commercial hunting was outlawed during my grandfather’s day, I worry that my grandchildren will see the banning of commercial fishing
- by using non-renewable resources we’re using up two and a half of the earth’s annual output

On the flip side, it should be possible to:

- power all of New York City using solar panels if all roof surfaces were covered in them and there were a way to store the excess daylight power
- at $200 a barrel, it should be feasible to make long-chain hydrocarbons for fuel and plastics using liquefaction of warm most CO2 laden air via solar power if only someone can solve the catalyst problem

[Larry Edgerton]

The next 100 years? I think we are going to see the stuff hit the fan. Can not possibly maintain our present course.

[David Ragan]

Is the Zombie Apocalypse idea getting traction now:eek::D?

[Bruce Pratt]

it's not any different today...with the super bugs limbs and life are at risk.

Certainly an emerging problem, but not nearly the magnitude of the risk reduction seen since 1900. See http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm4829a1.htm

[Harold Burrell]

If I told you my prediction for the next 100 yrs (or even 25, for that matter), this thread would turn all "religious"...and end up getting locked. ;)

[Chuck Wintle]

If I told you my prediction for the next 100 yrs (or even 25, for that matter), this thread would turn all "religious"...and end up getting locked. ;)

well now that you have my interest peaked can you at least give a hint? :D:D

[Art Mann]

What we need is a better gas can. Is that too much to ask? Not some plastic container with a plastic dispenser and built in plastic check valve. What the heck is the benefit of that? I bet that everyone that is cursed with one of those finds a way to disable the safety feature as soon as possible because these new gas cans are useless.

A better gas can will not require technological innovation. All it will take is for the government to stop creating rules that don't make any sense and don't improve anything. That change is probably a hundred years away.

[Prashun Patel]

Technologically, I'm confident the biggest thing that will happen in the next 20 years will be automated automobile transportation. The only reason it's not happening now is our false sense that we can drive better than a robot.

However, the most important advances need to happen in social design. Our definitions of tribes, religions, civics, and ethics have to evolve to some place less primitive.

[Chuck Wintle]

Technologically, I'm confident the biggest thing that will happen in the next 20 years will be automated automobile transportation. The only reason it's not happening now is our false sense that we can drive better than a robot.

However, the most important advances need to happen in social design. Our definitions of tribes, religions, civics, and ethics have to evolve to some place less primitive.
at least in certain parts of the globe.

[Mike Ontko]

...the biggest thing that will happen in the next 20 years will be automated automobile transportation. The only reason it's not happening now is our false sense that we can drive better than a robot.

...the most important advances need to happen in social design. Our definitions of tribes, religions, civics, and ethics have to evolve to some place less primitive.

I've been reading a lot about automomous vehicle technologies, and though we are sure to see more of those entering the mainstream in the coming 10 to 20 years, we're still probably a long way off from the kind of thing shown in the movie I Robot, with Will Smith. It seems logical that more and more mass transit systems would be put into place. But the biggest roadblocks to that effort are the overall costs of building a supporting infrastructure and technology, and taking profits (and to some degree control) away from the auto and oil industries.

I agree with the second point above too, but something bigger and deeper has to happen before that can take place. Hopefully that something isn't as catastrophic as many seem to be imagining.

[Peter Kelly]

Gene therapy will be the norm in the treatment of leukemia, myeloma, lymphoma and (hopefully) other forms of cancer. I think in 50 years, we'll look back at the current non-surgical methods of treatment with some shock and awe at how primitive those techniques were. Radiation and intensive chemo will mostly be a thing of the past.

[Stephen Tashiro]

What? Nobody has a forecast about the future of wood?

[Prashun Patel]

We're not as far off as you think. The main barrier is human reluctance to cede control. It's a myth that humans can do a better job than computers in this regard. The cars Google is developing actually have NO steering wheel. Only a kill button.

Just like human operated elevators became obsolete, cars will too. Planes already fly most of the trip by themselves. This way we'll be able to text, eat, and sleep all we want in our vehicles.

[Mike Ontko]

Just like human operated elevators became obsolete, cars will too. Planes already fly most of the trip by themselves. This way we'll be able to text, eat, and sleep all we want in our vehicles.

Maybe Disney's Pixar predicted correctly then about the fate of humanity ;)

https://54disneyreviews.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/wall-e8.png

[Mike Ontko]

What? Nobody has a forecast about the future of wood?

We'll be print-building wood products with 3-D stereolithography processes, using a wood pulp mash. Kind of like how McDonald's makes fries :D