Building the future.
Jun. 20th, 2008 11:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
davywavyThe latest issue of New Scientist magazine has a very interesting competition in it. Due to my buying the magazine late in the month, I've already missed the deadline date so it's something to think about as a purely intellectual exercise, but the question is "What do you think the most important invention of the next fifty years will be, and why?"
This might seem to be an impossible question; after all, who knows what will be invesnted? Even so, John brunner predicted the internet and its social implications in Shockwave Rider written in the 1970s, Olaf Stapledon predicted the twentieth century very well in Last and first men written in 1930 and HG Wells predicted Atom Bombs in 1913 in The world set free.
Ask people what the most important inventions of the 20th century were and you get a variety of answers; the Atom Bomb defined politics for the second half of the century, the jet engine completely changed how we uinteract and view the world, and we're still unaware of the long term social effects of the internet and mobile telecommunications revolutions. personally, I'd argue that the most important invention of the C20 was reliable female contraception as that's definitively changed the social expectations and lives of half the human race (at leat in those bits of the world not run by bearded nutters).
in the late 1990s, the Ministry of Information, Trade and Industry of the government of Japan came up with a list of what they regarded as the one hundred most important inventions of the twentieth century. Somewhat gratifyingly, more than fifty of them were invented by the British.
So as it's a Friday and I bet you're all skiving, today's question: What will be the most important invention of the 21st century, and why? Is it something we already have, or something that is yet to be?
Off you go.
This might seem to be an impossible question; after all, who knows what will be invesnted? Even so, John brunner predicted the internet and its social implications in Shockwave Rider written in the 1970s, Olaf Stapledon predicted the twentieth century very well in Last and first men written in 1930 and HG Wells predicted Atom Bombs in 1913 in The world set free.
Ask people what the most important inventions of the 20th century were and you get a variety of answers; the Atom Bomb defined politics for the second half of the century, the jet engine completely changed how we uinteract and view the world, and we're still unaware of the long term social effects of the internet and mobile telecommunications revolutions. personally, I'd argue that the most important invention of the C20 was reliable female contraception as that's definitively changed the social expectations and lives of half the human race (at leat in those bits of the world not run by bearded nutters).
in the late 1990s, the Ministry of Information, Trade and Industry of the government of Japan came up with a list of what they regarded as the one hundred most important inventions of the twentieth century. Somewhat gratifyingly, more than fifty of them were invented by the British.
So as it's a Friday and I bet you're all skiving, today's question: What will be the most important invention of the 21st century, and why? Is it something we already have, or something that is yet to be?
Off you go.
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Most important invention...
Date: 2008-06-20 10:39 am (UTC)Re: Most important invention...
Date: 2008-06-20 10:41 am (UTC)Re: Most important invention...
Date: 2008-06-20 01:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-21 12:50 pm (UTC)We have plenty of cool technology ready to go, just waiting for the right power source.
no subject
Date: 2008-06-20 10:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-20 10:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-20 01:02 pm (UTC)H
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Date: 2008-06-20 01:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-20 01:29 pm (UTC)However, if this can be applied generally and works on all forms of cancer, this might well be it.
no subject
Date: 2008-06-20 02:02 pm (UTC)From DNA to protein structures, to nanoscale modification. Applications vary from:
fast & cool computing (remember the NS article on mould computing?);
integrating tools with biological organisms (yay! brain boost!);
advanced cancer mitigation & treatment (e.g. "cure");
advanced catalysts and filters for fuels production (perhaps replicating chlorophyll processes to industrial needs);
re-engineering HIV ("cure" - effectively restructure the virus or receiving cells into something benign/effective); etc.
Would go a long way towards dealing with a constellation of 20thC problems we're living with in the 21st C.
Oh, and I fully expect the West's "Bearded Nutters" to go batshit over these developments at every step of the way, and seriously threaten & slow the vital applications of this research. We will inevitably be confronted with questioning the entire inherited notional identity of 'human.'
no subject
Date: 2008-06-20 02:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-20 02:14 pm (UTC)Actually, one of the more interesting thoughts that crossed my mind is - where biofuels are concerned, deliberately engineering a plant to produce a toxin, or hydrophobic layer to protect the sugars or alcohols, may be necessary.
no subject
Date: 2008-06-20 02:16 pm (UTC)http://kk.org/ct2/2008/06/unthinkable-futures.php
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Date: 2008-06-20 03:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-20 05:55 pm (UTC)No, I'm not flying off into tinfoil hat territory. I just think that computers / IT haven't played out yet. They are still in their infancy and the full impact of the information age is yet to be felt.
Failing that - practical space travel and colonisation. Seriously, we need to start working on getting the hell off this rock if the species is going to last the next 40 million years.
no subject
Date: 2008-06-20 07:46 pm (UTC)If I could, I would - and patent it...
http://www.genepax.co.jp/en/
Date: 2008-06-23 09:03 am (UTC)