this post was submitted on 17 Apr 2024
69 points (82.9% liked)

Asklemmy

43739 readers
1157 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy πŸ”

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

  1. Open-ended question
  2. Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
  3. Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
  4. Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
  5. An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_[email protected]~

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

For me it’s quantum computing - especially considering its impact on most current encryption methods

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 70 points 6 months ago (4 children)

lab meat will be the norm for future generations

[–] [email protected] 13 points 6 months ago (5 children)

At that point, scientists might as well invent a way to produce concentrated nutrients.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago

Eat your pills Morty

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 59 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Anything decentralized and open source.

I'm really excited at the improvements made to gnome-mobile.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago (4 children)

What about FOSS decentralised webpages, would that pick your interest?

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago (3 children)

self hosted services that automatically and safely scale to global p2p services is about to happen

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 48 points 6 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago (1 children)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Good news, there's a trial starting soon.

Although they can't guarantee the number and location of teeth regrown.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 32 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (2 children)

Reversible Computing

In theory, we could make computers consume orders of magnitude less power, enabling extreme miniaturization of systems.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

When I was learning computing on the electron level I was floored just how much electricity is wasted being converted to heat turning a 1 into a 0 and theorized that a system which would knock electrons around rather than just erasing them, cool to see it's becoming a real thing.

I guess we can look forward to superconducting Light Emitting Capacitors that have 100% efficiency, with the unideal component being centralized on a thermoelectric unit to capture waste heat, since that was the other thing that I was successfully theorizing about at the time.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 29 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

RISC-V and getting even more low power+max performance

[–] [email protected] 28 points 6 months ago

Not sure if anyone here would say AI regardless of the title, but for me it would have to be nuclear fusion

[–] [email protected] 24 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Realistic Batteries. It's holding back a LOT of things. A lot of technologies are solved, but just require power.

Semi-Realistic Room Temperature Super-Conductor.

If that can be solved, the power density and efficiencies would just be astronomical.... It would absolutely destroy multi-billion industries overnight.

Way-Out-There-Stuff If they ever prove out an actual functional EmDrive-like thruster, that would absolutely open up space travel to our species.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago (3 children)

Batteries are the big one. Can you imagine how many people (homeowners/renters) will go out and buy a tiny 100W panel knowing that even though it will fill a battery with energy very slowly, they can still bank on it for a week?

Right now we have batteries that can survive about a day, using a modern solar panel system with inverter (~1000€). Imagine when we have batteries that can store weeks of power.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 22 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Fusion. I think it’s our only hope of making it through climate change without massive losses.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I don't think fusion has any chance of being widely deployed by the time that becomes an issue.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 18 points 6 months ago (3 children)

Nuclear Fission, it's amazing how far the technology has come.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 17 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Regrowing / regenerating certain body parts.

This could theoretically be done with stemcell stuff, but it's not there yet. However, when we finally reach the point where we can infinitely regenerate our body cells, we'll become effectively "ammortal"; unable to die due to natural causes (such as illness), but we will still die from other people (for example, a bullet to the head)

Besides that, I think nuclear fusion would be an incredible development if we can finally harness it to power our homes.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 14 points 6 months ago (3 children)

Reusable rocketry, specifically SpaceX Starship. If it pans out it's going to completely change our access to space and make many of those old dreams from the 1970s plausible.

RNA vaccines for basically everything, including customized vaccines for cancer. There's also actual progress happening in general cures for autoimmune diseases.

Is robotics too close to AI? There are multiple companies working on general-purpose humanoid robots intended for mass production with price targets in the ten to twenty thousand dollar range, we may be getting within sight of actual robot butlers.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago (3 children)

I'm really not looking forward to the commercialization of low earth orbit, and SpaceX seems to be an accelerator of this.

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 13 points 6 months ago (7 children)

Computing at the edge.

Reduces the need to send everything to the cloud and maintains privacy.

load more comments (7 replies)
[–] [email protected] 11 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Internal alpha-therapy. Imagine attaching a radioactive atom to an antibody that would fix to a cancer, then as alpha radiation do a lot of damage, at a very short range destroy the cancer without doing much damage to the rest of the body

See that documentary for example
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DkhSFS0FY4

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 15 points 6 months ago (2 children)

I used to be pretty excited about 3d printed homes, but an argument I've seen, that's made me a lot more skeptical of them, is that much of the work of building isn't putting up the actual walls, it's all the wiring, plumbing, installing windows and climate control and insulation and roofing and whatever else like that that turns a building from essentially an artificial cave into a more livable space. A 3d printer that prints you walls out of concrete or whatever is only doing the easy part for you in that case, and not necessarily even in the most efficient or desirable manner. Not to say that the idea of more efficient ways to build housing cheaply isn't interesting to me, I just think that it'd be something more boring, like a a bunch of improvement to modular prefab construction. 3d printing is an awesome technology, but it's not a good option for everything

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago

I agree, I used to work for a company that made mobile homes in a an assembly line fashion. Two of us could cut and assemble all of the interior and exterior walls in under two days for an 80 foot home. It's all the other stuff that took time and a lot more people to piece together.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

The democratization of embedded programming and the capacities it offers. Coupled with 3D printing you can build your own robots or machines with minimal knowledge and money.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (3 children)

Nothing. I've learned that anything capitalist media gets excited about is always going to fucking suck for everyone the instant it comes out.

I know that's a cop-out answer so i'll point out that sodium ion batteries are rolling out and it's causing prices to drop, which is great.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago

whatever linux + rust + unified architecture chips is going to be in 10 years

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago

more single use plastics and pesticides, personally

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (6 children)

Efficient apps, everywhere. For example the COSMIC desktop is modern AND fast.

load more comments (6 replies)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago (3 children)

Longevity research, it has really taken off in the last ten years, hopefully we're on some cusp for multiple breakthrough in the next ten years.

Atomically Precise Manufacturing but it's hard to find information about it.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

I always find stories about carbon emissions exciting. The reason why a Malthusian view of things hasn't panned out in recent centuries is because of technology. I am always interested in if humans can find a breakthrough technology that basically does something with carbon emissions that could eventually be done on a scale to reduce climate change. Unlikely, but fun to imagine.

Here's an example: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/01/240111113214.htm.

I believe I have also seen efforts to convert carbon emissions to hydrogen.

Stuff around making clean water from bad water sources is also pretty cool.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago (2 children)

COSMIC desktop environment.

Maybe not as spectacular as quantum computing or things like that, but personally I can't wait for it.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

Zero knowledge and multi-party computation, and technologies that allow, like TLS Notary and proof of email

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago (2 children)

I tried the Meta Quest 2 and felt it was pretty awesome but I felt sick within minutes of using it.

So something like that without the sick would be revolutionary.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago (2 children)
load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

Nuclear fusion. The Starship rockets. If they ever cure cancer.

load more comments
view more: next β€Ί