Will the "future" ever happen? I think not.

[SerbianGuy211]

Honestly, I think that for the most of us ordinary people, technology and other stuff has reached it's peak and can only go back from here. I don't think that flying cars or whatever ideas people have in mind now will become a reality. Maybe, but only for a small portion of people. Yeah - we will have faster internet, maybe electrical cars (for everyone I mean), but I don't believe there's gonna be much new world-changing innovations. Come to think of it - the last decade (2009-2019) hasn't really changed much except in capacities, if you understand me. What's your take on it?

 

[justin.m.beauvais]

I disagree. Sure, from the consumer standpoint things are just going to get incrementally better, that is how companies play it safe and ensure maximum profits. However, there are a lot of places where technology is on the verge of world changing revolution. Between actual AI, wearable tech, medical equipment, human/machine interfaces, automation, energy production, and transportation, there are really big advances on the horizon.

The thing is that the "future" is never what anyone expects and things change so slowly that people have a hard time seeing the change. Take LED lighting. In 2009 florescent lighting was the big push. LEDs hadn't ever been used for anything on the scale of the incandescent or florescent light. Sure, we didn't get a revolutionary product, but we did get an evolution of an everyday item, an evolution that was very unlikely 10-15 years ago.

When I was growing up it was hard to see the differences when the 80's ticked over to the 90's, but looking back things changed A LOT. Then from the 90's to the 00's, things changed a lot again, and you can see the difference looking back, but as far as living it goes you don't notice it as much. I think that if you really look back at things from a decade ago, you'll see some other big changes.

As for the envisioned future of decades past, no. Those ideas of what could have been aren't going to happen. We got a pretty big look at it in 2015, when the envisioned future from Back to the Future Part II straight up wasn't accurate. Ideas of "the future" change. We can only ever imagine things based on our experiences, and even then it is just a mix of things that we are familiar with. I mean really, a fax machine in every room of the house is utterly laughable now, but that is what they saw. Revolutionary ideas are few and far between. If they were easy to have they wouldn't be revolutionary.

In something like the Jetsons we see floating cities, flying cars, meals in a pill, robot maids, and a bunch of other far out stuff. However, they didn't see the cellular phone, touch screens, the personal computer, online shopping, or even the internet. Back to the Future saw flying cars, holograms, smart clothes and other wearable tech, automated restaurants, and many other things, but they still missed a lot of what actually existed in 2015. Other depictions of the future are very much a product of their times, and often are an influence on future tech, like Star Trek.

We'll never have the imagined future, all we can really hope for is a future influenced by imagination, and so far we are doing pretty ok at that.

 

[Deleted member 14196]

flying cars, yeah, never going to happen. most drivers are too stupid to navigate in two dimensions--let alone three. air traffic control would be the wild west.

forget the stupid things you saw as a kid. tech, medicine, it all got WAY better so far.

I think you may be a tad bit unreasonable, and it takes decades and centuries to see WOW kinds of change.

 

[AllanGH]

I've already seen several flying cars--mostly recently, mind you--and I do believe that some of the drivers of such vehicles even survived the landings.

 

[gn842a]

Well, things have changed a great deal since the 1950s, and not all for the good I'm afraid. But wow things are happening in genetics (and biological science generally), medicine, space flight and space sciences.

The black hole picture of M87, if you followed that news, is a stunning technical achievement. My 14" telescope has a theoretical resolution of .35 arc seconds. On a good night I can resolve maybe a one or two mile object on the moon. kThe Hubble space telescope has a resolution of may be .005 arc seconds, that's excellent, but you're still talking about seeing at best football stadium sized objects if the were to turn it on the moon (which they won't, it's too sensitive). The radio telescope picture of the black hole in m87 is at a resolution of 40 micro arc seconds. Thats 40 millionths of an arc second or .00004 arc seconds or two orders of magnitude better than Hubble. A radio telescope won't tell you much about the moon but if you had a light telescope that powerful and lunar aliens wanted to play football in standard stadium you'd be able to follow the game.

That's quite an achievement. I think there's a fair chance that someone will detect an earth sized planet with an oxygen atmosphere before I croak.

GN

 

[Honeybun54]

I disagree. Sure, from the consumer standpoint things are just going to get incrementally better, that is how companies play it safe and ensure maximum profits. However, there are a lot of places where technology is on the verge of world changing revolution. Between actual AI, wearable tech, medical equipment, human/machine interfaces, automation, energy production, and transportation, there are really big advances on the horizon.

The thing is that the "future" is never what anyone expects and things change so slowly that people have a hard time seeing the change. Take LED lighting. In 2009 florescent lighting was the big push. LEDs hadn't ever been used for anything on the scale of the incandescent or florescent light. Sure, we didn't get a revolutionary product, but we did get an evolution of an everyday item, an evolution that was very unlikely 10-15 years ago.

When I was growing up it was hard to see the differences when the 80's ticked over to the 90's, but looking back things changed A LOT. Then from the 90's to the 00's, things changed a lot again, and you can see the difference looking back, but as far as living it goes you don't notice it as much. I think that if you really look back at things from a decade ago, you'll see some other big changes.

As for the envisioned future of decades past, no. Those ideas of what could have been aren't going to happen. We got a pretty big look at it in 2015, when the envisioned future from Back to the Future Part II straight up wasn't accurate. Ideas of "the future" change. We can only ever imagine things based on our experiences, and even then it is just a mix of things that we are familiar with. I mean really, a fax machine in every room of the house is utterly laughable now, but that is what they saw. Revolutionary ideas are few and far between. If they were easy to have they wouldn't be revolutionary.

In something like the Jetsons we see floating cities, flying cars, meals in a pill, robot maids, and a bunch of other far out stuff. However, they didn't see the cellular phone, touch screens, the personal computer, online shopping, or even the internet. Back to the Future saw flying cars, holograms, smart clothes and other wearable tech, automated restaurants, and many other things, but they still missed a lot of what actually existed in 2015. Other depictions of the future are very much a product of their times, and often are an influence on future tech, like Star Trek.

We'll never have the imagined future, all we can really hope for is a future influenced by imagination, and so far we are doing pretty ok at that.

Mic drop

 

[geofelt]

The future will never "happen"
Tomorrow will be the present, not the future.....

 

[nicalandia]

Honestly, I think that for the most of us ordinary people, technology and other stuff has reached it's peak and can only go back from here. I don't think that flying cars or whatever ideas people have in mind now will become a reality. Maybe, but only for a small portion of people. Yeah - we will have faster internet, maybe electrical cars (for everyone I mean), but I don't believe there's gonna be much new world-changing innovations. Come to think of it - the last decade (2009-2019) hasn't really changed much except in capacities, if you understand me. What's your take on it?

People in the 50's used to say the same thing... And here we are

 

[Digicats]

The future is now...
and its now
now its now
and now
and now
now
now
now
ouch
now
now
eww
now

 

[Lord_Freeholder]

The future is about to happen... and now it's the present and what was just the present is the past.

 

[McLovinHawaii]

Everything can happen in future. In fact there will be things we can't even think of right now. A hundred years ago nobody thought of computers or the internet. Electricity wasn't even a common thing and not even half the households in the US had it in 1919. I think many housewives would had killed for a vacuum cleaner, a microwave or a washing machine. Farm workers would had given their right arm to reap their fields with a harvester instead of using a scythe back then.

Now we can pay using a wrist watch and order things online from China and in a hundred years from now they'll look back at us and think about how we probably would had given an arm and a leg for a common household robot that can clean and cook or transportation to work that didn't take an hour where you had to drive the car yourself if a car even is a thing at that point.

Don't worry, the future is coming every day

 

[Zitizen]

The future is tomorrow and when it come it is today and when tomorrow came it was yesterday. ⭐

 

[JeckeL]

Honestly, I think that for the most of us ordinary people, technology and other stuff has reached it's peak and can only go back from here. I don't think that flying cars or whatever ideas people have in mind now will become a reality. Maybe, but only for a small portion of people. Yeah - we will have faster internet, maybe electrical cars (for everyone I mean), but I don't believe there's gonna be much new world-changing innovations. Come to think of it - the last decade (2009-2019) hasn't really changed much except in capacities, if you understand me. What's your take on it?

I agree completely, I think we've peaked a bit. You mentioned "not really changing much except in capacities", most of what people cite as our technological advancements thus far and our abilities to do some pretty incredible stuff all stem from one thing: harnessing electricity, and by proxy, harnessing some other forms of energy to generate more electricity, but almost everything mentioned in this thread (internet, computers, smart phones, satellites, etc) is all the result of harnessing something that's been around since the dawn of time, we've just managed to harness it, generate it, pipeline it on large/small/microscopic levels, and like you mentioned, use it in varying capacities. We've taken something like electricity and advanced the hell out of it, but the technologies and devices that have stemmed from it I feel give people a false sense of an amazingly high-tech human empire that spans galaxies, unhindered by truths that are very real and very very good at... hindering.....

And as far as, travelling to, and colonizing other planets and things like this, give me a break... People actually reference films, television and even cartoons and make generalized blanket statements like "See? We have technology that they didn't even have in those lofty futuristic shows back then, we're so advanced, so much more than they predicted we'd be even in the year 2050 or whatever" These starstruck dreamers usually cite humans briefly walking on the moon, the ISS, etc as proof that we will be traveling the star, living on Mars soon, leaving the solar system, etc, but when you really get down to the realities of the things like, in order to reach even the outermost planets in our OWN solar system with a large enough craft to hold crew members, cargo, etc, you'd have to have enough rocket fuel on board that the craft would be too heavy to launch and make it off our own planet in the first place! There have been what, a half dozen to a dozen tiny unmanned crafts sent to Mars (a lot of them have just simply crashed, malfunctioned, etc), the effort and expense is even astronomical with that but still people are talking about transporting LIVING FACILITIES to Mars to create a habitable living situation with multiple different buildings (you know, the whole "the air isn't breathable, the temperature extremes will kill you" sort of thing)?

But enough about space, down here on the earth's crust I do feel like we've peaked in a way that, at this point we have the ability to see and manipulate the tiniest and largest objects within our grasp, test and combine those objects & materials, etc, but people are just expecting some amazing, unseen breakthrough, like magnetic warp drive engine space ships, and sure, something incredible that no human has ever conceived or thought of MIGHT come out of thin air, but at this point it's wishful thinking. I feel like we will (again, like op mentioned) keep pushing the CAPACITIES of things like data transfer speeds, data storage, naturally aspirated car engine efficiencies, jet engine air travel, etc.... but teleportation, faster than light space travel, nah

Also consider that we're seemingly trying VERY hard to destroy our own planet before we can even make it to a different planet or develop some scifi matter teleportation tech. Earth is becoming a smoldering, smog filled, run down, concrete rubble, dark, bleak, exhausted mess of a once blue and green planet

People often say "We can do things now that people 50 or 100 years ago could have never dreamed of". As far back as 100 years communication, research, cooperation with people from other countries let alone neighboring states was, at best, extremely hindered. Research and knowledge was limited to your local library or, if you're lucky, a local university with antiquated textbooks and out of date information. Today, most of the 7.7 billion people on the planet can instantly speak and collaborate with any other, from any language, anywhere else on the planet. The chances of coming up with one of these pipe dreamy type technologies that will get us to a different galaxy can't really get any better than they are now, or have been since the explosion of the internet unless we pump more people, more minds on to an already overcrowded planet to add more brainpower to the process, and it doesn't seem to be happening. To put it a different way, with 7.7 billion people on the planet, all able to communicate with each other instantly, the chance for an "A-HA!" moment has been at its peak for a long time, but it doesn't seem to be happening

inb4 "You're wrong, look at this article about google testing magnetic space craft engines or NASA hoping to send people to mars in 2050".......

 

[ss202sl]

Today will be yesterday.... tomorrow.

 

[Deleted member 14196]

I've already seen several flying cars--mostly recently, mind you--and I do believe that some of the drivers of such vehicles even survived the landings.

lol, you still need to be a pilot. not an average joe with a car license. think of air traffic vs regular traffic! most dummies out there don't even know how to drive let alone fly. too may accidents, hence, it will never happen because people are far too stupid and NOT pilots and we have no good automated air traffic control. so, yeah, my comment stands.

our air traffic control can barely handle the flight loads now, or ever for that matter..... think of millions of flying cars.... it's absurd.

maybe in 1000 years we will have automated cars that don't kill people. MAYBE. whose gonna pony up with all the cash for that stuff? you think business is? hahahah, no.

maybe 1000 or more years after that we can think about an air traffic control that can handle willy nilly flights at a whims notice, maybe in 10000 yrs, and we will blow ourselves up before any of that.

proof we will all be dead, look at all the (few) evil ones who own all the wealth and means of production and governments! we are doomed.

 

[Zitizen]

In response to JeckeL, we don't have to lift off a colony of people to go to other planets. We build a space ark in space and then lift off people and cargo to it.

 

[justin.m.beauvais]

I agree completely, I think we've peaked a bit. You mentioned "not really changing much except in capacities", most of what people cite as our technological advancements thus far and our abilities to do some pretty incredible stuff all stem from one thing: harnessing electricity, and by proxy, harnessing some other forms of energy to generate more electricity, but almost everything mentioned in this thread (internet, computers, smart phones, satellites, etc) is all the result of harnessing something that's been around since the dawn of time, we've just managed to harness it, generate it, pipeline it on large/small/microscopic levels, and like you mentioned, use it in varying capacities. We've taken something like electricity and advanced the hell out of it, but the technologies and devices that have stemmed from it I feel give people a false sense of an amazingly high-tech human empire that spans galaxies, unhindered by truths that are very real and very very good at... hindering.....

And as far as, travelling to, and colonizing other planets and things like this, give me a break... People actually reference films, television and even cartoons and make generalized blanket statements like "See? We have technology that they didn't even have in those lofty futuristic shows back then, we're so advanced, so much more than they predicted we'd be even in the year 2050 or whatever" These starstruck dreamers usually cite humans briefly walking on the moon, the ISS, etc as proof that we will be traveling the star, living on Mars soon, leaving the solar system, etc, but when you really get down to the realities of the things like, in order to reach even the outermost planets in our OWN solar system with a large enough craft to hold crew members, cargo, etc, you'd have to have enough rocket fuel on board that the craft would be too heavy to launch and make it off our own planet in the first place! There have been what, a half dozen to a dozen tiny unmanned crafts sent to Mars (a lot of them have just simply crashed, malfunctioned, etc), the effort and expense is even astronomical with that but still people are talking about transporting LIVING FACILITIES to Mars to create a habitable living situation with multiple different buildings (you know, the whole "the air isn't breathable, the temperature extremes will kill you" sort of thing)?

But enough about space, down here on the earth's crust I do feel like we've peaked in a way that, at this point we have the ability to see and manipulate the tiniest and largest objects within our grasp, test and combine those objects & materials, etc, but people are just expecting some amazing, unseen breakthrough, like magnetic warp drive engine space ships, and sure, something incredible that no human has ever conceived or thought of MIGHT come out of thin air, but at this point it's wishful thinking. I feel like we will (again, like op mentioned) keep pushing the CAPACITIES of things like data transfer speeds, data storage, naturally aspirated car engine efficiencies, jet engine air travel, etc.... but teleportation, faster than light space travel, nah

Also consider that we're seemingly trying VERY hard to destroy our own planet before we can even make it to a different planet or develop some scifi matter teleportation tech. Earth is becoming a smoldering, smog filled, run down, concrete rubble, dark, bleak, exhausted mess of a once blue and green planet

People often say "We can do things now that people 50 or 100 years ago could have never dreamed of". As far back as 100 years communication, research, cooperation with people from other countries let alone neighboring states was, at best, extremely hindered. Research and knowledge was limited to your local library or, if you're lucky, a local university with antiquated textbooks and out of date information. Today, most of the 7.7 billion people on the planet can instantly speak and collaborate with any other, from any language, anywhere else on the planet. The chances of coming up with one of these pipe dreamy type technologies that will get us to a different galaxy can't really get any better than they are now, or have been since the explosion of the internet unless we pump more people, more minds on to an already overcrowded planet to add more brainpower to the process, and it doesn't seem to be happening. To put it a different way, with 7.7 billion people on the planet, all able to communicate with each other instantly, the chance for an "A-HA!" moment has been at its peak for a long time, but it doesn't seem to be happening

inb4 "You're wrong, look at this article about google testing magnetic space craft engines or NASA hoping to send people to mars in 2050".......

I don't think we've peaked.

We harnessed electromagnetism, but we have far from mastered it. Then there is gravity, which we are attempting to manipulate now, but that is the VERY first step towards harnessing it, and harnessing gravity will be the next major leap for space travel, and transportation in general.

Other advancements are going to come at the molecular and quantum level. As far as what CAN be done, we've done only very little on these fronts. With medicines we are finally getting to the stage where we can change a virus or bacteria to not harm us. As far as chemical pharmaceuticals we are only a couple of steps above mixing plants in a cauldron. For computing, we've nearly reached the limits of sticking rocks together to pass electrical impulses, but there is quantum computing ahead of us which will be an exponential leap in our ability to calculate.

So, have we peaked? Heck no, but don't expect rapid progress. The progress we've had thus far has only laid the foundation. It took us centuries to become moderately proficient with part of one fundamental force after finding out it can be useful. Our most advanced technology just mixes that proficiency with chemical reactions. We can do so much better, it will just take time and research.