# Lifestyles & Discussion > Science & Technology >  Are you disappointed with today's technology?

## Rael

The other day Back To The Future II was on TV. They traveled just slightly ahead of our own time to 2015, which featured everyone using flying cars and all kinds of other neat stuff.

Or you could look at movies like 2001 which show space explorers and artificial intelligence.

We have a few cool toys like cell phones and computers, but it seems like we are missing the really cool $#@! like flying cars that we were supposed to have now.

Were these portrayals of the future unrealistic? Or do we not have these types of high tech inventions due to government stifling innovation, or other factors?

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## Vessol

Eh. I'm actually more nostalgic of a lot of things rather than looking forward to the technology of the future.

A secret part of me wishes that technology was stuck so that the world was forever stuck on 56k modems, Pentium III PCs, and the best gaming consoles being the Playstation and SNES.

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## Southron

Honestly, I'm surprised we have made it as long as we have without having a world war hit the reset button.

If we can keep the peace and gain more liberty, I think we can advance much faster. 

But something like a land war with China this century might reverse a lot of progress.

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## silus

How can anyone be disappointed with todays technology?  Just think about what has been accomplished in the past 100 years.  It is simply astounding.

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## crazyfacedjenkins

> *How can anyone be disappointed with todays technology?*  Just think about what has been accomplished in the past 100 years.  It is simply astounding.


Are you kidding me? Where's your imagination? 

Automobile, airplanes, fission reactors, etc. all 100 year old technology. The only advancement we got going nowadays is the miniaturization of the transistor. I want to see fusion reactors and wormhole generators.

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## nate895

> Are you kidding me? Where's your imagination? 
> 
> Automobile, airplanes, fission reactors, etc. all 100 year old technology. The only advancement we got going nowadays is the miniaturization of the transistor. I want to see fusion reactors and wormhole generators.


Which are not possible, but what the heck, I'm going to continue to live in fantasy land. Cold fusion doesn't work. All the experiments have failed and further research is at a dead end. The idea of a wormhole generator comes from science fiction, not science.

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## brenden.b

I think that there is a lot of useless technology that people think they need, but really only promotes laziness. This is the type of technology that I hope will die off.

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## Vessol

> I think that there is a lot of useless technology that people think they need, but really only promotes laziness. This is the type of technology that I hope will die off.


Examples?

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## Anti Federalist

> Examples?


Twitter.

Seriously, I agree with BB, but I'm not even looking at the "laziness" technology but the juggernaut of technology that is being used to build the surveillance state and the prison that will go along with.

The technology is now available that would make a 20th century totalitarian drool.

If there is not some sort of effective controls put in place and right $#@!ing soon, we will be well and truly $#@!ed.

Me? I'm praying for a solar flare of biblical proportions that fries every single satellite in earth orbit.

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## Cowlesy

I agree with Louis CK on technology.

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## Fox McCloud

some things? Yes, I'm hugely disappointed in; others? I'm pleasantly surprised. 

'course we're about 10-15 years behind in terms of technology, thanks to Watt delaying the industrial  revolution due to his rent-seeking behavior with the patent.

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## Toureg89

i love today's technology. 

i have a  1K$ gaming computer (which i hardly using for gaming, when i use it). 

i have a 1TB external HD to have enough space to store Cato, Reason, and Mises podcasts. 

i leave the house in either a car that has more computers than the first rocket ship, or a motorcycle, and a helmet that was engineered to provide the maximum amount of safety for my head. 

i get to school, and have an internet accessing ipod, whose internet/app qualities allow me to stay connected with/talk to friends, check up on the news via 10 different providers, watch the stock market, look up a place to stop at on my way home, and brush up on my french if im bored. 

i have an uber small, uber light, uber cheap netbook for taking notes. 

and some of the technology im most pleased with is firearms technology

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## jbuttell

> Which are not possible, but what the heck, I'm going to continue to live in fantasy land. Cold fusion doesn't work. All the experiments have failed and further research is at a dead end. The idea of a wormhole generator comes from science fiction, not science.


There are always people who think like yourself, so stuck in the present that you never know what's possible until it's in your hands. Fortunately there are artists, scientists who work tirelessly to bring you new toys. With every generation, there are those tho dismiss everything as science fiction when in reality it is science fiction that has proven more often than not, that what we imagine is a virtual blueprint for the future.

Unfortunately, science fiction isn't always fun and games.

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## Fox McCloud

one thing I'd like to point out that's getting better all the time and cheaper year after year is....Video games.

The average price of a new video-game is $50, and it's been this way for eons (well, eons in terms of the video-game industry) If you factor in inflation, the games have not only been getting larger (in terms of size) and better graphics, they all fall in price; if you factor in inflation, a $50 game in 1984 costs roughly $104.46 in 20109 dollars (If you reverse it, paying $50 for a game in 2010 would be like paying roughly $23.93 back then). If we had a stable money supply/gold/commodity standard, then you would see the price of these games falling, drastically, over time.

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## Toureg89

> one thing I'd like to point out that's getting better all the time and cheaper year after year is....Video games.
> 
> The average price of a new video-game is $50, and it's been this way for eons (well, eons in terms of the video-game industry) If you factor in inflation, the games have not only been getting larger (in terms of size) and better graphics, they all fall in price; if you factor in inflation, a $50 game in 1984 costs roughly $104.46 in 20109 dollars (If you reverse it, paying $50 for a game in 2010 would be like paying roughly $23.93 back then). If we had a stable money supply/gold/commodity standard, then you would see the price of these games falling, drastically, over time.


not only that. you can buy diskless games, to be stored on xbox harddrives, that take as long to complete, and will entertain you as long as a disced game, for 10-20$, depending on how much in bulk you purchased the xbox points for.

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## surf

i have diabetes and have since i was 10 years old. i think the research and development of a "cure" should have occured by now. sure, i've gone from pork based insulin and pissing on a piece of paper to a more human type of insulin and blood tests that can give me my glucose level in 5 seconds. but innovation has been hampered by limits on stem-cell research (i believe), by the test-strip manufacturers that for obvious reasons ($1 per strip!) don't want to develop or market a glucose monitor that will provide constant results - ala a wristwatch type device that can measure glucose levels through the skin, and imo the prevelance of fat diabetics - type 2. and, believe me, i know that if i had been a diabetic 100 years ago i would have died many years ago.

but transportation is where i'm also very disappointed. where it not for the tire manufacturers pushing through legislation and taxation pushing for more roads many years ago i'd like to think that i could just sit my ass in a pod and program where i want to go and be there without having to suffer through traffic, police stops, etc.

that's my  .02 on this subject.

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## Nate-ForLiberty

I think the technological environment we have today is skewed. On the one hand we are using 100 year old technology that we know for a fact is obsolete, and yet there is tech that exists that would make our senior citizens' heads explode. (i.e. HAARP, etc.) This state of affairs is (of course) caused by the ruling elites' virtually complete control over the planet's resources.

What we have today is not the natural progression of things, imo.

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## JoshLowry

I think the poll results on this are screwed up.

Your thread title is the opposite of the question in the poll.  I almost voted no to the thread title.

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## Philhelm

I'm disappointed with modern tech.

I'd like to see wooden furniture, and clothes and architecture that is aesthetically pleasing for a change.  I'd also like to see people put down the $#@!ing cell phone, just for a minute.

My ultimate goal is to create EMP transmitters in order to fry every cell phone in the world.  Then, people won't text message when I'm trying to talk to them.

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## Toureg89

go ahead and do that, and ill be knocking on your door, waiting for the reimbursement of the cost of all my electronics (easily passing 5K$)

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## nate895

> There are always people who think like yourself, so stuck in the present that you never know what's possible until it's in your hands. Fortunately there are artists, scientists who work tirelessly to bring you new toys. With every generation, there are those tho dismiss everything as science fiction when in reality it is science fiction that has proven more often than not, that what we imagine is a virtual blueprint for the future.
> 
> Unfortunately, science fiction isn't always fun and games.


This isn't like people who denied the possibility of computers, TV, or radio. Those had demonstrable ways to make it possible. On the contrary, the actual science/evidence now suggests that lots of our sci-fi dreams cannot happen, not even in theory. There are a few calculations that say that wormholes might be consistent with relativity. A few calculations that something might be consistent with a theory that has some flaws in it in its present state is a long way off from even discussing the possibility of generating said phenomena. 

We have worked with cold fusion. It doesn't work. I mean, if someone thinks of someone no one else has thought of before, maybe. Cold fusion has better theoretical base than wormholes. We actually have evidence that some form of fusion occurs, so at least we have a starting point. On the other hand, wormholes don't have a shred of real evidence, and you want to call people who doubt whether a wormhole generator is possible the equivalent of 19th century reactionaries who rejected the idea we could create a telephone?

Of course, I never even touched on faster-than-light travel.

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## youngbuck

There is a lot of technology that is being artificially depressed - controlled progression.

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## Philhelm

> go ahead and do that, and ill be knocking on your door, waiting for the reimbursement of the cost of all my electronics (easily passing 5K$)


You'd have to find my secret lair first, and then get through my legions of inept minions.

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## JohnEngland

Space travel has been a disappointment. 40 years ago, we were taking trips to the moon. Now... well, we stick to Earth's orbit... Adventurous!

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## Danke

Until they perfect female cyborgs slaves, the verdict is out.

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## crazyfacedjenkins

> Which are not possible, but what the heck, I'm going to continue to live in fantasy land. Cold fusion doesn't work. All the experiments have failed and further research is at a dead end.


Who the $#@! said anything about cold fusion? So you don't study _your_ fantasy book, the bible, and you don't study physics as well. 

I suggest you start reading about Tokamak one of several types of magnetic confinement devices used for producing controlled thermonuclear fusion power. You should take a look at JET where four megawatts of alpha particle self-heating was achieved. Of if you don't like all those magnets maybe you should read about the National Ignition Facility which uses lasers to heat the tritium that ultimately compresses it.




> The idea of a wormhole generator comes from science fiction, not science.


Wormholes are science fiction? You need to read up on your modern physics.

"_Lorentzian wormholes known as Schwarzschild wormholes or Einstein-Rosen bridges are bridges between areas of space that can be modeled as vacuum solutions to the Einstein field equations, and which are now understood to be intrinsic parts of the maximally extended version of the Schwarzschild metric describing an eternal black hole with no charge and no rotation._" --Einstein-Rosen Bridge

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## JoshLowry

> Who the $#@! said anything about cold fusion? So you don't study _your_ fantasy book, the bible, and you don't study physics as well. 
> 
> I suggest you start reading about Tokamak one of several types of magnetic confinement devices used for producing controlled thermonuclear fusion power. You should take a look at JET where four megawatts of alpha particle self-heating was achieved. Of if you don't like all those magnets maybe you should read about the National Ignition Facility which uses lasers to heat the tritium that ultimately compresses it.
> 
> 
> 
> Wormholes are science fiction? You need to read up on your modern physics.
> 
> "_Lorentzian wormholes known as Schwarzschild wormholes or Einstein-Rosen bridges are bridges between areas of space that can be modeled as vacuum solutions to the Einstein field equations, and which are now understood to be intrinsic parts of the maximally extended version of the Schwarzschild metric describing an eternal black hole with no charge and no rotation._" --Einstein-Rosen Bridge


If you continue to be rude when conveying your points to fellow forum members you will be banned.

Please change or leave.

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## nate895

> Who the $#@! said anything about cold fusion? So you don't study _your_ fantasy book, the bible, and you don't study physics as well. 
> 
> I suggest you start reading about Tokamak one of several types of magnetic confinement devices used for producing controlled thermonuclear fusion power. You should take a look at JET where four megawatts of alpha particle self-heating was achieved. Of if you don't like all those magnets maybe you should read about the National Ignition Facility which uses lasers to heat the tritium that ultimately compresses it.


Oh, when you said fission I read fusion, especially considering I was thinking about stuff that doesn't exist at all yet, which fission certainly does. I apologize.




> Wormholes are science fiction? You need to read up on your modern physics.
> 
> "_Lorentzian wormholes known as Schwarzschild wormholes or Einstein-Rosen bridges are bridges between areas of space that can be modeled as vacuum solutions to the Einstein field equations, and which are now understood to be intrinsic parts of the maximally extended version of the Schwarzschild metric describing an eternal black hole with no charge and no rotation._" --Einstein-Rosen Bridge


I know about those, and if you would have read my second post, I acknowledged them, but not by name. These are simply calculations that say that a wormhole is consistent with relativity in relativity's present state. However, it is possible that the theory of relativity may have to undergo changes to makeup for the pioneer anomaly if it isn't caused by some mundane problem. Also, there is no actual evidence that any such wormholes exist anywhere in the universe either, and if we can't go up and study them, how do you ever expect to generate one? 

The thing with modern sci-fi is that it left most of the accepted paradigms of physics a long time ago, and many in the pseudo-scientific establishment really want stuff like wormholes, faster than light travel, and alien life to exist. In their search for these things, they have spent countless hours making calculation on how, maybe, these conjectures might be in line with relativity and other physics paradigms. In the process, they are shifting the paradigm more towards wishful thinking than an actual passive discovery of how the universe actually works.

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## silus

People are exaggerating.  Look at technology now, and look at technology in your parents lifetime.  They had no idea what a computer could even do for them.  I'm 30, and in JUST the past 15 years internet and cell phones have gone from rare to ubiquitous.  I remember in 1999 debating with a fellow student who thought the internet would be only for the rich who could afford it.  Sounds like people are just spoiled.

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## JohnEngland

Oh, and what about Concorde - the commerical, supersonic aircraft! A great leap in air-flight...



Technological progress delayed because of one accident with a tyre...



Shame... We need commercial supersonic flight back!

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## nate895

> People are exaggerating.  Look at technology now, and look at technology in your parents lifetime.  They had no idea what a computer could even do for them.  I'm 30, and in JUST the past 15 years internet and cell phones have gone from rare to ubiquitous.  I remember in 1999 debating with a fellow student who thought the internet would be only for the rich who could afford it.  Sounds like people are just spoiled.


Good points. I'm only 18* and can remember when computers were incredibly slow contraptions (64 MB of RAM, baby, woohoo!!!), cell phones were for business people, and dial-up internet was the only option. We have gone fast. I'm not sure if society could take it going much faster than it has over the past 2 centuries. 

*If you use that against my _ethos_, I'll point out to you that I already have a college degree to show for it, and am already thinking about dissertation topics in the back of my mind.

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## silus

This sums it up best...  When I grew up there was only one teenager that had a cellphone.

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## Working Poor

All of the best technology is kept from the public. Tesla's work comes to mind.

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## pacelli

We'd probably have more advanced technology if it wasn't for the military-industrial complex's desire to keep everything behind lock and key.  For example, imagine what today would look like if all of Tesla's writings and schematics were completely public.

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## Cowlesy

> i love today's technology. 
> 
> i have a  1K$ gaming computer (which i hardly using for gaming, when i use it). 
> 
> i have a 1TB external HD to have enough space to store Cato, Reason, and Mises podcasts. 
> 
> i leave the house in either a car that has more computers than the first rocket ship, or a motorcycle, and a helmet that was engineered to provide the maximum amount of safety for my head. 
> 
> i get to school, and have an internet accessing ipod, whose internet/app qualities allow me to stay connected with/talk to friends, check up on the news via 10 different providers, watch the stock market, look up a place to stop at on my way home, and brush up on my french if im bored. 
> ...


I enjoy flying in a comfy chair while being served drinks and peanuts to practically any point on earth within 24 hours.

Flying.  In a chair.  While drinking a beer.

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## Nate

> We'd probably have more advanced technology if it wasn't for the military-industrial complex's desire to keep everything behind lock and key.  For example, imagine what today would look like if all of Tesla's writings and schematics were completely public.



^this

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## Kludge

I am disappointed in the effects technology seems to have facilitated: interdependence created by the Internet, motorized vehicles, and technology permitting higher population density demands much-increased social interaction and a dependence on laws (contracts) to facilitate business; farming technology where many crops are of the same strain (rented from the same corporation) puts us at great risk for widespread crop failures; military technology is $#@!ing terrifying and gives people (IMO) way too much power to destroy; hard to escape people who really want to talk to you and with communication technology, there's no longer an easy excuse not to talk to people; technology has allowed the US census to continue and allows gov't and people to easily gather info on us remotely; politics is no longer local and is mostly dominated by talking heads with no connection to "real" people who are allowed to repeatedly blast their message to voters through media technology; piss beer 

I dislike the death of artistry and believe societal favoring of college over vocational school and simply autodidactism to be a major contributor. I think a lot of that had to do with the interdependence brought on by free trade facilitated by motorized vehicles where everyone is now encouraged to specialize and the big money is said to be in assisting in business, not a craft where you independently create and market (this is sometimes not true with the Internet, but e-commerce makes up a very small % of US business and generally still involves mass-production in China). Technology mostly benefits business (production), entertainment, and sustenance. I dislike a population density above something like 5 person/sq. mile, am almost never excited by any modern games except those I help create, and object to how all legal business must fund illegal wars. Obviously, there are things I like about technology, but I take the ultra-curmudgeon position of disliking the progress of technology as a whole and believe it detrimental to the quality of living. So, yes, I am disappointed with today's technology.

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## pcosmar

> I enjoy flying in a comfy chair while being served drinks and peanuts to practically any point on earth within 24 hours.
> 
> Flying.  In a chair.  While drinking a beer.

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## newbitech

completely disappointed.  

Our research and development structure in this country is controlled by the military industrial complex.  We only invent things that help us kill and maim other people.  Even the internet was created as a way to keep our communications going in the event of all out nuclear war.

So yes technology sucks ass.

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## Todd

I'm no luddite, but technology isn't all it's cracked up to be.

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## Cowlesy

Good society and technology rag

http://www.thenewatlantis.com/public...28-summer-2010

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## Original_Intent

I am more disappointed in the use to which we have put our existing technology, than in the amount of technology we have developed.

I am more afraid of what uses our current masters would find for fusion power and a wormhole generator than I am excited by the possibilities such inventions might provide.

We have plenty of technology that we could have a utopian society - under which technology would continue to accelerate as the population as a whole was lifted up and more people became educated, and more was devoted to research because less would need to be devoted to survival needs. The existing power structures and the agenda of those who wish to maintain the strangle hold on power is the obstacle, technology is not what is restraining us.

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## Todd

"The Technological Society"  by Jacques Ellul

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## newbitech

although I will say this.  Recently facebook has helped me hook up with an old friend that I thought I would never ever see or hear from again.  So I am cheering on this little development, as much as I hate facebook, with out it I might still be rowing with one paddle.

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## pcosmar

I voted other.
I think the industrial revolution was a mistake, or at least very poorly handled.
That said I have made my living turning wrenches and repairing autos. So I do use the technology.

As far as present day,,,
I was playing around with Ion and Photon drive technology 30 years ago. 
I have been an advocate for Hydrogen power since that time.

Yeah, a bit disappointed.

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## crazyfacedjenkins

> I am more disappointed in the use to which we have put our existing technology, than in the amount of technology we have developed.
> 
> I am more afraid of what uses our current masters would find for fusion power and a wormhole generator than I am excited by the possibilities such inventions might provide.
> 
> We have plenty of technology that we could have a utopian society - under which technology would continue to accelerate as the population as a whole was lifted up and more people became educated, and more was devoted to research because less would need to be devoted to survival needs. The existing power structures and the agenda of those who wish to maintain the strangle hold on power is the obstacle, technology is not what is restraining us.


So true, it's a wonder anyone has to even labor over much other than academics at this point. You are so dead on, it's not even funny,

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## crazyfacedjenkins

> I am disappointed in the effects technology seems to have facilitated: interdependence created by the Internet, motorized vehicles, and technology permitting higher population density demands much-increased social interaction and a dependence on laws (contracts) to facilitate business; farming technology where many crops are of the same strain (rented from the same corporation) puts us at great risk for widespread crop failures; military technology is $#@!ing terrifying and gives people (IMO) way too much power to destroy; hard to escape people who really want to talk to you and with communication technology, there's no longer an easy excuse not to talk to people; technology has allowed the US census to continue and allows gov't and people to easily gather info on us remotely; politics is no longer local and is mostly dominated by talking heads with no connection to "real" people who are allowed to repeatedly blast their message to voters through media technology; piss beer 
> 
> I dislike the death of artistry and believe societal favoring of college over vocational school and simply autodidactism to be a major contributor. I think a lot of that had to do with the interdependence brought on by free trade facilitated by motorized vehicles where everyone is now encouraged to specialize and the big money is said to be in assisting in business, not a craft where you independently create and market (this is sometimes not true with the Internet, but e-commerce makes up a very small % of US business and generally still involves mass-production in China). Technology mostly benefits business (production), entertainment, and sustenance. I dislike a population density above something like 5 person/sq. mile, am almost never excited by any modern games except those I help create, and object to how all legal business must fund illegal wars. Obviously, there are things I like about technology, but I take the ultra-curmudgeon position of disliking the progress of technology as a whole and believe it detrimental to the quality of living. So, yes, I am disappointed with today's technology.


Well said. I think those are the concerns of most practical people. Although we all have a sweet utopia worked out in our heads where technology can flourish without being used to torch some guy.

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## crazyfacedjenkins

> If you continue to be rude when conveying your points to fellow forum members you will be banned.
> 
> Please change or leave.


I'll lighten up. The Dude not takin' 'er easy for all us sinners?

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## ChaosControl

Where is my hover board and auto-drying jacket?

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## MelissaWV

> Where is my hover board and auto-drying jacket?


My clothes dry when left out long enough   Automatically!

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## fatjohn

> Space travel has been a disappointment. 40 years ago, we were taking trips to the moon. Now... well, we stick to Earth's orbit... Adventurous!


Don't worry.
If they would made it into a race to get the first airplane back in 1850 they would have made an airplane in 1860.
But the airplane was instead made by two brothers and not an army of engineers in 1903. I think if government would have stayed out of it, we only would have seen the beginning of spaceflight in the last decade.
But in the next forty-fifty years it's going to go fast.

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## newyearsrevolution08

> Don't worry.
> If they would made it into a race to get the first airplane back in 1850 they would have made an airplane in 1860.
> But the airplane was instead made by two brothers and not an army of engineers in 1903. I think if government would have stayed out of it, we only would have seen the beginning of spaceflight in the last decade.
> But in the next forty-fifty years it's going to go fast.


I don't buy that

the only reason the government was able to do anything was off of our taxes and other fees and funds.

the two brothers, if they were backed by even a BIT of what our government uses for r&d odds are would have come through with something far superior to their first successful flight.

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## Captain Bryan

> I think that there is a lot of useless technology that people think they need, but really only promotes laziness. This is the type of technology that I hope will die off.


The entire purpose of technology was to promote laziness.
The wheel made it easier to transport things.
Fire made it easier to see.
Typewriters made it easier to make letters, copy machines made it easier to mass produce letters, etc.

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## fatjohn

> I don't buy that
> 
> the only reason the government was able to do anything was off of our taxes and other fees and funds.
> 
> the two brothers, if they were backed by even a BIT of what our government uses for r&d odds are would have come through with something far superior to their first successful flight.


thats the point. The government needs ten times the money of the commercial sector to do it as quick. But they receive a hundred times the money, so they were able to make it to space back in the sixties. But now the commercial sector is finally ready to do it with a small budget, however due to history, they have unfair competition from semi commercial companies that developed a lot of their technology on the government dime. 
So it might not go as fast as it should have gone. But still faster then in the last forty years though.

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## Andrew-Austin

I think it can realistically be said, that there was potential to be further along in terms of technological/medical standards than we are now. Not sci-fi better, but a ways better than it is at present. It can easily be said our living standards could be much higher. If we had more freer markets and less government.

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## amy31416

Climate-controlled underpants do not exist, therefore I am disappointed.

I guess I'll just have to invent them myself.

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## TheBlackPeterSchiff

Where is my hover board!!!????

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## pcosmar

> Climate-controlled underpants do not exist, therefore I am disappointed.
> 
> I guess I'll just have to invent them myself.


Crotchless panties exist.( Air conditioned)

no,, I'm not going to post pics.

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## MelissaWV

> Crotchless panties exist.( Air conditioned)
> 
> no,, I'm not going to post pics.


You could also, you know, not wear any.

I'm confused at some of the posters.  We already have auto-drying jackets, for sure, and climate-controlled underwear.  If it's too hot, don't wear any (and, if you're REALLY overheated, there are actually some with... cooling methods involved).  If it's too cold, wear long underwear.  

Perhaps part of the reason we have fewer meaningful inventions of late is because those are the most regulated and least profitable in the longrun, while creating the newest gadget garners you fame, prestige, and money, and gives you more creative freedom and satisfaction?

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## pcosmar

> You could also, you know, not wear any.


I don't, as a rule.
TMI

was just trying to be helpful.

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## fisharmor

> I dislike the death of artistry and believe societal favoring of college over vocational school and simply autodidactism to be a major contributor. I think a lot of that had to do with the interdependence brought on by free trade facilitated by motorized vehicles where everyone is now encouraged to specialize and the big money is said to be in assisting in business, not a craft where you independently create and market (this is sometimes not true with the Internet, but e-commerce makes up a very small % of US business and generally still involves mass-production in China). Technology mostly benefits business (production), entertainment, and sustenance. I dislike a population density above something like 5 person/sq. mile, am almost never excited by any modern games except those I help create, and object to how all legal business must fund illegal wars. Obviously, there are things I like about technology, but I take the ultra-curmudgeon position of disliking the progress of technology as a whole and believe it detrimental to the quality of living. So, yes, I am disappointed with today's technology.


Well then I hope you're like me... I do my best work for free, and get paid for my mediocrity.
I couldn't care less about what I do for 8 hours a day and still do it, and whenever possible (like tonight) I go out to my man cave, which is where I get to truly create.

When we need goods in our home, I don't go to WalMart.  When we run out of space for hanging coats, I go out there and bend and weld and drill until there's a freaking giant metal hand jutting out of my wall.

Incidentally, when I do that, I don't use bottled O2 - I pull oxygen for my torch out of the air using cast-off medical oxygen concentrators, something I'd never even heard of 10 years ago and I'm pretty sure didn't exist 25 years ago.  Oxygen is pretty much the most expensive industrial bottled gas.  If I don't have to buy it, I get to buy more fuel, and I get to do more art for the money.

I'm also keeping my eyes out on Craigslist for a couple broken rear-projection TVs, so I can scrap the giant fresnel lenses out of them and create a solar powered blacksmith forge.

I'm an artist, and I LOVE technology.

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## dannno

> i have diabetes and have since i was 10 years old. i think the research and development of a "cure" should have occured by now. sure, i've gone from pork based insulin and pissing on a piece of paper to a more human type of insulin and blood tests that can give me my glucose level in 5 seconds. but innovation has been hampered by limits on stem-cell research (i believe), by the test-strip manufacturers that for obvious reasons ($1 per strip!) don't want to develop or market a glucose monitor that will provide constant results - ala a wristwatch type device that can measure glucose levels through the skin, and imo the prevelance of fat diabetics - type 2. and, believe me, i know that if i had been a diabetic 100 years ago i would have died many years ago.
> 
> but transportation is where i'm also very disappointed. where it not for the tire manufacturers pushing through legislation and taxation pushing for more roads many years ago i'd like to think that i could just sit my ass in a pod and program where i want to go and be there without having to suffer through traffic, police stops, etc.
> 
> that's my  .02 on this subject.



Do you use stevia as a blood sugar stabilizer? Sometimes the best technology for our health is already in nature.

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## newbitech

this is how we devolve through technology...

YouTube - FACEBOOK SEX - Getting Poked

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## MelissaWV

> Do you use stevia as a blood sugar stabilizer? Sometimes the best technology for our health is already in nature.


Cinnamon.  It's excellent help with blood sugar issues, and it's delicious   It also provides a number of other health benefits, and is available in convenient capsules of varying doses (so if you take 1000 and your blood sugar drops too fast, switch to 500, then 300, then 250, etc.).

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## Expatriate

> I do my best work for free, and get paid for my mediocrity.


Quote of the day right there. I sure wish I could give up the mediocrity part of my life.

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## BuddyRey

I would have been grateful for flying cars, cancer cures, etc. but under the unhappy circumstances of government growth and corresponding decline in entrepreneurship and innovation, I feel grateful just to have the Internet.

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## madengr

There are already cures for many cancers.  The Star Trek TNG style touch computer is passé now.  The universal translator is at most 20 years off.  Cloning has been done for animals.

It's really Hollywood that has poorly predicted the future.

I think the big innovations of this century will be fusion and gravity manipulation, probably within the next 50 years.

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## Carl Corey

I always thought the Internet was pretty awesome, though it's easy to take it for granted.

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## DamianTV

Technology has advanced, I just think it has gone in the wrong direction, as in, make big companies bigger, and more money, not provide anything useful to people.  Its all about the residual income, not a decent product.

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## Rael

> Do you use stevia as a blood sugar stabilizer? Sometimes the best technology for our health is already in nature.


Stevia extract is a pretty good sweetener.

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## Fredom101

Government stands in the way of innovation, technology is way behind where it should be, if we had a free market.

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## pcosmar

It's not the development or the innovation.

It's all the damn idiot proofing.

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## Brooklyn Red Leg

> We actually have evidence that some form of fusion occurs, so at least we have a starting point.


Yep. Zeta-Pinch Fusion, IIRC, has been demonstrated. All courtesy of Plasma Physics.  




> On the other hand, wormholes don't have a shred of real evidence, and you want to call people who doubt whether a wormhole generator is possible the equivalent of 19th century reactionaries who rejected the idea we could create a telephone?


Also true. Wormholes are based on the irrational concept of the expanding gravity-based universe. The final nail is coming to bury that coffin soon enough. Plasma Cosmology is where the future is.

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## silus

> completely disappointed.  
> 
> Our research and development structure in this country is controlled by the military industrial complex.  We only invent things that help us kill and maim other people.  Even the internet was created as a way to keep our communications going in the event of all out nuclear war.
> 
> So yes technology sucks ass.


Survival is a great motivator for technological development.  Probably the most brilliant minds ever assembled did so in developing the atom bomb.  And regardless of its destructive potential, it still significantly advanced science and our understanding of it.

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## Anti Federalist

> I don't, as a rule.
> TMI
> 
> was just trying to be helpful.


Same here.

Nothing says "freedom" like an unfurnished basement.

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## Fox McCloud

> Also true. Wormholes are based on the irrational concept of the expanding gravity-based universe. The final nail is coming to bury that coffin soon enough. Plasma Cosmology is where the future is.


I'm not sure if plasma cosmology will take off, but I honestly believe (and not just because I'm a Creationist) the big bang theory will collapse or drastically shift in the next 50 years; there are a number of glaring problems with it that haven't been able to be resolved....there's also a few individuals who have put forth that the universe may not be as large as we think and that it could be effects that distort out observations (heck, there was a recent article that discussed that physics may not be as universal as we think, and may be localized to our area of the universe).

Either way, I have no idea what will happen in 50 years, but my gut tells me that cosmology will be vastly different than what it currently is.

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## legion

What the hell is plasma cosmology? Let me guess... the next "string theory" that the hand waving new agers are latching onto?

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## DamianTV

Totally off topic but Legion, you just won the Lottery with this:




> Join Date: May 2007
> Posts: 777

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## lx43

I'm more worried about how the govt will use new technology to enslave us and tighten their grip on power.

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## Natural Citizen

Wormhole Is Best Bet for Time Machine, Astrophysicist Says




> Davis said, scientists' current understanding of the laws of physics "are infested with time machines whereby there are numerous space-time geometry solutions that exhibit time travel and/or have the properties of time machines."
> 	A wormhole would allow a ship, for instance, to travel from one point to another faster than the speed of light  sort of. That's because the ship would arrive at its destination sooner than a beam of light would, by taking a shortcut through space-time via the wormhole. That way, the vehicle doesn't actually break the rule of the so-called universal speed limit  the speed of light  because the ship never actually travels at a speed faster than light.

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## GunnyFreedom

'Other,' it's not the pace of technology that is dissatisfying, it's the idiocracy regulating and consuming it.

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## Natural Citizen

> 'Other,' it's not the pace of technology that is dissatisfying, it's the idiocracy regulating and consuming it.


Yep. Security companies are really cashing in more than anything now. Is unfortunate that there is a financial stake in keeping people afraid and so the technology that is applied to infrastructure through that particular industry is a big deal. Chertoff Group made a fortune off of it. Among other companies.


Fear Pays: Chertoff, Ex-Security Officials Slammed For Cashing In On Government Experience... hxx p://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/23/fear_pays_chertoff_n_787711.html

Booz Allen almost 6 billion last year as well.

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## ClydeCoulter

> Yep. Security companies are really cashing in more than anything now. Is unfortunate that there is a financial stake in keeping people afraid and so the technology that is applied to infrastructure through that particular industry is a big deal. Chertoff Group made a fortune off of it. Among other companies.
> 
> 
> Fear Pays: Chertoff, Ex-Security Officials Slammed For Cashing In On Government Experience... hxx p://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/23/fear_pays_chertoff_n_787711.html
> 
> Booz Allen almost 6 billion last year as well.


It's easy to spend, or collect, other peoples money (labor).  You could spend 1 trillion and only get 1 billion and that's a good deal, if it's other peoples money.

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## Natural Citizen

Clyde....those eyes are freaky, man. I was like "Oh $#@!" and then hit the back button....

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## ClydeCoulter

> Clyde....those eyes are freaky, man. I was like "Oh $#@!" and then hit the back button....


Sorry, Natural Citizen, it's my pissed off about the warmongering look

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## quezkittel

Eh, cool things have happened that those sci-fi writers didn't even dream up.  I mean... you can't play angry birds on a star trek communicator. 

Also,  we've technically done teleportation and invisibility, although not on a large scale yet. Cloning, even though we're not allowed to do humans. Google glasses, even though they scare me.  Wing suits.  Also, large Hadron collider.  Although not everybody can afford one of those.  Oh, and you can make your own hovercraft.

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## Natural Citizen

> Also,  we've technically done teleportation and invisibility, although not on a large scale yet.


Professor's quantum teleportation theory to be tested on space station...




> Bernstein and Kwiat have collaborated since the 1980s, when Kwiat was a post-doctoral researcher working with Bernstein's international team on a National Science Foundation "Quantum Interferometry" grant.
> 
> "It sounds very jazzy, but quantum teleportation is actually about making connections for information," said Bernstein. "What it does is send the complete quantum state from a single particle that comes specially prepared in that state to a different remote particle which has never interacted with it."


http://phys.org/news/2013-10-profess...space.html#jCp

Aside... Initial applications, I think, will come in the form of 3-D printing. Like sending data from here to space. There's actually another thread somewhere around here where this is far more relevant but just don't feel like looking for it at the moment.

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## Danke

Unban Rael!

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## Natural Citizen

> Unban Rael!


Who is Rael?

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## tttppp

> The other day Back To The Future II was on TV. They traveled just slightly ahead of our own time to 2015, which featured everyone using flying cars and all kinds of other neat stuff.
> 
> Or you could look at movies like 2001 which show space explorers and artificial intelligence.
> 
> We have a few cool toys like cell phones and computers, but it seems like we are missing the really cool $#@! like flying cars that we were supposed to have now.
> 
> Were these portrayals of the future unrealistic? Or do we not have these types of high tech inventions due to government stifling innovation, or other factors?


How about creating an affordable car? They can't even do that.

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## jct74

just saw this on Drudge Report today...




> *Strap an iPhone to your head for a window into your mind*
> Neurocam is an iPhone and EEG headband that automatically records footage of things that interest you. Advertisers would love everyone to wear it.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Google Glass too expensive or unobtrusive for you? How about strapping an iPhone to your head?
> 
> ...


http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-...nto-your-mind/

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## heavenlyboy34

^^ ZOMG!!

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