Science
Related: About this forumPhysicist says future 'more outrageous than fantasy'
The future, according to physicist Michio Kaku, "is more outrageous than fantasy."
At a sold-out Kentucky Author Forum talk Wednesday at the Kentucky Center, the author of "Physics of the Future" outlined the century to come as one that will render powers to humans to rival those of Greek Gods.
Biotechnology advances will result in the ability to render reproductions of organs, even the liver. Medicine will advance to such heights that our thoughts, even our dreams, will be read by machines that can interpret blood flow in our skulls.
Computer power will continue to grow exponentially even as it shrinks to nano levels. As a result, coming soon to a contact lens is an Internet application that lists crucial information in real time according to what the eye sees.
http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20120222/NEWS01/302220120/Physicist-says-future-more-outrageous-than-fantasy-
Newest Reality
(12,712 posts)the present is already outrageous enough. The past was also outrageous.
An outrageous future suggests more the same as novelty compels impels the notion of progress.
Life as it is.
Lint Head
(15,064 posts)in the back of my mind when I hear talk about the future. When humans get to the point of regenerating and never dying will there not be a problem with overpopulation?
zazen
(2,978 posts)the underlying premise is that we'll always have as much energy as we have now. . .
zipplewrath
(16,646 posts)Huge numbers of devices use vastly less power today than they did 30 years ago. Many of the devices he is describing may even be powered by our own bodies. I'm actually expecting the "bio-battery" in the next 100 years in which the power is generated by a living organism. There are potentially large gains to be made in turbine efficiency as well, which may allow significantly more "useful" energy to be produced from the same amount of fuel.
But your point is well taken. Much of technological advancement in the next 100 years will be tied to the ability to power it. "Plugging it in" may become a hinderance to progress and more focus on locally/directly powering processes may be where progress resides.
muriel_volestrangler
(101,082 posts)(including decent efficiency even under cloud) and good storage technology. There are advances being made now, and there's no reason to think any fundamental limit has been reached yet. The energy is around us, we just need to capture it on its way to becoming heat.
Kaku says, in the article:
Speck Tater
(10,618 posts)So when we get enough power we will destroy ourselves utterly and the future will belong to the cockroaches.
FiveGoodMen
(20,018 posts)And just as well.
A species that will follow Michele Bachmann or Rick Santorum really shouldn't exist.
qazplm
(3,626 posts)we've had nukes for how long? And only used them twice, in one conflict, before quite frankly we even knew what we really had?
Seems to me that power hasn't been abused.
I know it's more popular to be anti-human/humans suck, but the reality is, ever so slowly, we are getting better.
Is there another better time in human history for minorities? Women? Gays?
Is it good enough? Hell no, not by a long shot, but it's better, and it's on a slow (too slow) glidepath to even better.
Orsino
(37,428 posts)You'd think that along with all those marvels for the elect, we could maybe slap together some food, water, shelter and medical treatment for each other.
JoeyT
(6,785 posts)"As a result, coming soon to a contact lens is an Internet application that lists crucial information in real time according to what the eye sees." will turn out as "Let's see you peasants adblock THESE advertisements!"
I also read the biotechnology line as "Rich people can live forever! Your great-great grandchildren will toil in squalor for the same asshole you did! Marvel at the wonders we've wrought!"
I should probably stop reading about the primaries before I become a technophobic hermit.
FiveGoodMen
(20,018 posts)Science and technology are amazing...
...but these days EVERYTHING gets used against us.
Odin2005
(53,521 posts)I hate the "technology is evil and we are going to destroy ourselves" crap.