I know this is silly... the kind of speculation that might be fun, but never scientific....
My theory is the 2020 decade may turn out to the most transformative since 1920 -- the decade that democratized automobiles (with the increasingly cheap Model T and highways built for them), the transformation of airplanes into real transportation, the rise of the first national communications medium (radio), and the rise of Hollywood and the idea of the movie star.
Every decade has its claim to massive change from technology (in the 1930s rural electrification in the USA, in the 1940s antibiotics and nuclear weapons, 1950s television); but the only thing close to the transformations of the 1920s was the late 1990s (democratization of the Internet)
And with such technological change comes political and social changes.
BUT WHAT ABOUT THE NEXT 10 YEARS? Possibly it will produce:
-- rapid adoption of electric cars (already at the tipping point -- occurring superfast)
-- potential medical treatments to cure Type 1 diabetes, some types of cancer, and sickle cell and other genetic diseases
-- everyone's favorite here: decentralized pB11 fusion to make cheap electricity
-- a desperate need for intervention via desalinization and some method to induce global cooling
-- quantum computing (probably the least likely of the list)
-- self-driving trucks (on highways, anyway)
-- Internet of Things (everything has an IP address -- reporting to, and controllable from, the Cloud) (this is already real in industry -- whether it makes sense for consumer products seems more like hype for now)
Each one of those would be transformative in ways no model can help predict. For example, the rapid phase out of gasoline cars means no more catalytic converters, which means less demand for the platinum they require, which means potential effects on countries that use platinum.
Bad time to open a muffler shop or truck stop.
Beyond that who knows...
===================
adding
- photonics and increasing integration of electrical and photon elements in a chip
- hyperloop! Canada (!) seems to be the leader And 2 San Francisco companies are working on tunneling via plasma (faster!) instead of mechanical drilling
-sensors too! Both small (smart watches that detect blood oxygen, stairs walked, etc. etc.) and sensors for industry (industrial Internet of things)
- ultrasound patch! https://www.theguardian.com/science/202 ... al-imaging
None of which is directly related to fusion, of course, but it gives me hope a new age of dramatic tech made commercial is here, or will be soon
Of course in the 1950s everyone imagined they're be driving nuclear powered Fords and flying in nuclear airplanes...
My theory is the 2020 decade may turn out to the most transformative since 1920 -- the decade that democratized automobiles (with the increasingly cheap Model T and highways built for them), the transformation of airplanes into real transportation, the rise of the first national communications medium (radio), and the rise of Hollywood and the idea of the movie star.
Every decade has its claim to massive change from technology (in the 1930s rural electrification in the USA, in the 1940s antibiotics and nuclear weapons, 1950s television); but the only thing close to the transformations of the 1920s was the late 1990s (democratization of the Internet)
And with such technological change comes political and social changes.
BUT WHAT ABOUT THE NEXT 10 YEARS? Possibly it will produce:
-- rapid adoption of electric cars (already at the tipping point -- occurring superfast)
-- potential medical treatments to cure Type 1 diabetes, some types of cancer, and sickle cell and other genetic diseases
-- everyone's favorite here: decentralized pB11 fusion to make cheap electricity
-- a desperate need for intervention via desalinization and some method to induce global cooling
-- quantum computing (probably the least likely of the list)
-- self-driving trucks (on highways, anyway)
-- Internet of Things (everything has an IP address -- reporting to, and controllable from, the Cloud) (this is already real in industry -- whether it makes sense for consumer products seems more like hype for now)
Each one of those would be transformative in ways no model can help predict. For example, the rapid phase out of gasoline cars means no more catalytic converters, which means less demand for the platinum they require, which means potential effects on countries that use platinum.
Bad time to open a muffler shop or truck stop.
Beyond that who knows...
===================
adding
- photonics and increasing integration of electrical and photon elements in a chip
- hyperloop! Canada (!) seems to be the leader And 2 San Francisco companies are working on tunneling via plasma (faster!) instead of mechanical drilling
-sensors too! Both small (smart watches that detect blood oxygen, stairs walked, etc. etc.) and sensors for industry (industrial Internet of things)
- ultrasound patch! https://www.theguardian.com/science/202 ... al-imaging
None of which is directly related to fusion, of course, but it gives me hope a new age of dramatic tech made commercial is here, or will be soon
Of course in the 1950s everyone imagined they're be driving nuclear powered Fords and flying in nuclear airplanes...
Statistics: Posted by CharlesKramer — Sun Jul 24, 2022 1:33 am