Future inventions/items

[Comte Arnau]

Which of these things do you think that are more likely to be used/seen by us during our lifetimes?

Driverless cars


Internet-enabled contact lenses


Girlfriendbots


Hollopets/Hollotoys


Invisibility clothes


E-dresses


Laser-propelled spaceships


Smart doctor-toilets


Space elevator


Our own gene cards

[Mercury]

Driverless cars

This is already around and may hit the market in a few years. Google is still working on it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9Fxp3HK6DI

[Comte Arnau]

This is already around and may hit the market in a few years. Google is still working on it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9Fxp3HK6DI

All of the items I've included are already around in very rudimentary stages.

[Eldritch]

Like already has been pointed out, driverless cars are more or less a reality already. So are girlfriendbots are smart toilets -- pretty soon they'll have "smart" everything.

Probably the only ones that won't exist in the foreseeable future are the space elevator and the laser-powered spacecraft. The latter one probably won't ever exist, in fact.

[Aces High]

I hope driverless cars,ill get my wife one straight away.
Every time i go out with her i have near death expeience.

[Barreldriver]

What about gigantic robots like in Armored Trooper VOTOMS and Macross?

All one needs to do is take some excavator booms for limbs mount them on a "Load All" drive train capable of all wheel drive and all wheel steering and boom shakalaka. the all wheel steering and 4 wheel drive would act like shoulders and hips, the hydraulics on the excavator booms act as tendons/muscles in the arms and legs.

[Blossom]

Awww this reminds me of my own invention when I was around 6 years old...ehm...yeah...the special scissor exclusively for bangs ..

[Comte Arnau]

Probably the only ones that won't exist in the foreseeable future are the space elevator and the laser-powered spacecraft. The latter one probably won't ever exist, in fact.

Why not? Everything that turned out being cheaper and more powerful in history has always been successful.

[Eldritch]

Why not? Everything that turned out being cheaper and more powerful in history has always been successful.

Well, I'm talking about these innovations being actually and commonly in use. A space elevator would be such a huge undertaking that no nation could realistically be expected to be able to afford it. And space exploration seems to be effectively going backward.

[Comte Arnau]

Well, I'm talking about these innovations being actually and commonly in use. A space elevator would be such a huge undertaking that no nation could realistically be expected to be able to afford it. And space exploration seems to be effectively going backward.

Well, of course, I've included a variety of things. Some of them look quite close, some more distant, and it all depends on how much some companies invest on them, after all.

As for space exploration, I'm pretty convinced that China would force a new space race in a decade, so we'll see.