/sci/ - Science & Math

Life extension

genome editing

Producing synthetic fuels from atmospheric CO2.

Either soft robotics or biotech. Too early to tell if they won't turn out to be dead-ends though.

Supersonic
Flight
For the General Public

Not actually that excited because it’ll make the world smaller and it’ll be easier for poor ethnics to come to my country

Damn I hate poor ethnics

Real-time photorealistic rendering

>>10606653
>biotech
>dead-end
that's like calling computers a dead-end

Fusion. Hopefully not just a meme.

>>10606690
Looks cool, but I guess still only achievable on supercomputers

>>10606651
Reddit tier opinion

>>10606651
>Expend a gorillion watts of energy for a tiny amount of fuel

Or

>Plant a fucking tree
>Use 99% less energy than the extraction to run electric vehicles

DURRRRRRRRRR

>>10606627
all I want is molecular nanotechnology.
>>10606653
soft robotics is a dead end. Why do we want to make robots soft? So that they don't kill people if they hit people. If we can make robots that don't hit people we don't need soft robots. We also want soft robots because we can make soft things pick up stuff without actually understanding how to pick up stuff. If we actually figure out how to pick up stuff we don't need soft grippers. In fact, one of the biggest reasons why soft robotics is a dead end is that as you make a system softer its resonant frequency decreases. This means that a soft robot will never be able to move as fast as this robot because it'd jiggle around too much:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RmJGWp_K4s
Another issue is that basically all elastomers we know of experience stress relaxation. This means if you stretching something over and over, eventually it won't stretch back. This could limit the life of soft robots. Hard robots currently have lifetimes of 10 years or more.
>>biotech
we just need to keep making steady progress. It will happen, it will take a while.
>>10606651
CO2 exists at ppm concentrations in the atmosphere
>>10606898
>>.t tree farmer
biofuels are an incredibly huge meme. Do you have any idea how long trees take to grow and how hard it is to do anything useful with cellulose? Damn out of all biofuel memes you pretty much picked the biggest one. Solar to chemical conversion is also pretty shitty for plants. That's most just because solar panels have such a great efficiency compared to plants.

Super aids

the cure for aids. Lets face it, this is the only way some of us will ever be able to have sex. People will literally start fucking in the streets when they cure aids.

Quantum computing. It will accelerate the progress of all other technologies.

>>10607032
yeah in like a couple of decades at best. Who knows maybe they won't actually help with solving quantum multibody systems as much as we think. We thought computers would be used for weather forecasting and even control, but that didn't pan out.

>>10607041
>We thought computers would be used for weather forecasting
They are.

>>10606877
The phone in your pocket is a super computer from 30 years ago

>>10607017
Keep dreaming

>>10606627
Fusion power plants. Virtually unlimited free energy with no radioactive waste or greenhouse gas emissions.

Artificial intelligence.

It's the can of worms that's almost open, the genie that's about to escape the bottle. It feels like we're on the cusp of something that can't be undone. Consequences will never be the same.

>>10607905
fusion makes radioactive waste, just less of it. Fusion still makes assloads of neutrons. Even aneutronic fusion isn't completely free of neutrons.

>>10607905
>the popsci answer

catgirls

>>10606627
Cars

>>10609929
SPARC is already beginning construction and several private companies are using the new YBCO superconductors to work on their own over unity devices. These superconductors were the real breakthrough needed for proper fusion. ITER is a joke compared to this new stuff. A molten salt surrounded vacuum chamber eliminates neutron bombardment to the magnets and other complex components so the only high maintenance part is the vacuum vessel and because this isn't some shitty meme design they are going to be able to pop the top and swap the vacuum vessel out. Having no bullshit fission byproducts in the molten salt means that it is actually feasible and won't fuck the pipes like LFTR would. Using a Lithium based salt also produces Tritium as a byproduct of neutron bombardment which means you only need dirt cheap deuterium as fuel. Catch up mate it's 2019.

>>10609579
What I mean is radioactive waste that will last for centuries or millenia

>>10607867
eloquently stated

>>10607867
miniaturization has hard limits, phones 15 years from now won't be that much more powerful than current ones

>>10606627
Honestly I'm still waiting for that fancy "oxygen" stuff I've been hearing about

technology no longer gets me excited

>>10607867
apparently we're reaching the peak of the power we're able to get out of a certain area of silicone, even with quantum computer technology being easier to facilitate it wont help out very much in terms of video rendering

Big pee pee pills

>>10610020
If you're so sure it's gonna work this time, why don't you invest your life savings in it on 2x leverage?

>>10610648
this
I was going to say life extension, but I'll never be able to afford that. I can barely afford a dental prosthetic (incisive broke in bike crash) prolly not gonna be able to afford living past 80-ish

>>10610978
This. I want to be able to pee waterfalls.

SLAM weapons

zero calorie nacho cheese tortilla chips

>>10609336
>>10606632
>>10606921
LET'S FUCKING GOOOOOO

Better commercial spectrophotometers; Instant and affordable spectral analysis will help break down the barrier between academic and recreational chemical research.

>>10612098
Based

>>10612098
Yes.

I am excited about a project I just started on involving edible 3d printing. It's cool to be part of a team trying to create some random shit. Plus who knows where 3d printing will end up.

Virtual companions, not just stupid chatbots to keep people preoccupied but intelligent agents that can continually improve their knowledge base, help out, and give accurate answers to tough questions or at least give paper recommendations. This would help my research immensely yet at the same time I probably wouldn't have to do it anymore.

maglev transport systems

>>10610702
So whats post-silicon? What will be necessary to get the most out of quantum computing without silicon limiting us?

>>10606627
molecular magnets
because I like to synthesize em