Poll: You can make a type of technology from sci-fi real. Which do you choose?
- Thread starter Mr. Omega
- Start date
Stuck halfway between FTL and biological enhancements.
Without FTL, space travel is all but impossible, which means that anything related terraforming etc, is useless as well. Since future fuel, androids, and bio enhancements would all serve to increase problems of overcrowding I think they would be bad without space travel.
So my solution.
Bio Enhancements to make living on the Moon and Mars feasible. Then as society grows begin expanding through our solar system.
Without FTL, space travel is all but impossible, which means that anything related terraforming etc, is useless as well. Since future fuel, androids, and bio enhancements would all serve to increase problems of overcrowding I think they would be bad without space travel.
So my solution.
Bio Enhancements to make living on the Moon and Mars feasible. Then as society grows begin expanding through our solar system.
But we already are time traveling at the rate of one second per second!Womplord said:
On a more serious note, I'd rather not mess with that, once you break causality, you're screwed, not to mention all the new grammar rules we'll have to adopt. "I'm starving, haven't eaten since tomorrow" and all. Also, if time travel will have been invented (see what I mean!?) at any point in time, why will nobody have traveled to our current present?
So, for the answer on this thread I suppose I'd have to go with cryogenics. FTL travel runs into causality troubles too, so that's the next best thing if you want to get somewhere.
Those PC glasses from Dennou Coil. The internet is mapped across the real world as a virtual reality, and you can interact with it by wearing these special glasses.
Fucking awesome.
Fucking awesome.
Out of that list FTL travel would be the most revolutionary and awesome. That or teleportation as those are the only two that are not already in the pipe line of happening in some form.
- We can already terraform all it requires is the capital (man-power and resources) to fund the project.
- Robotic limbs and such already are being developed and exist in a limited sense. They will be refined as time goes on
- Biological Enhancements already exist its just unethical to use them in most cases. Some have undesired side effects, but refinement is possible. For example it would be theoretical possible to alter your eyes with gene therapy so that you could see a wider spectrum of color. Steroids and the like have existed for a long time. If taken at its most extreme (immortality) then it would be the best on the list.
- Jetpacks exist but are impractical. Flying cars could also exist but would be even more impractical. Anti-gravity is likely an impossibility but that would be pretty cool and put it in 3rd place.
- Future Fuel: Its called a combination of nuclear (fission currently; fussion in the future) and environmentally (solar, wind, geothermal) generated electricity. Done and done.
Time Travel which somehow did not make it to your list is by far the most interesting Sci-fi trope. Time Travel kicks the shit out of everything else. Although it also trivializes the options so that may be why you didn't include it. Even if it was only time travel between the past and present day it would still be as good as FTL travel.
Also Portals would be equally awesome to FTL travel if they could be applied to any physical surface. They would presumably go light speed (allowing for light speed travel to new destinations and instantaneous travel to places already colonized), and could have infinite application including but not limited to infinite energy. Of course such things are more on the extreme end of sci-fi that they are more akin to magic than science. Heck you could even have a form of time travel with the use of the magic portals.
- We can already terraform all it requires is the capital (man-power and resources) to fund the project.
- Robotic limbs and such already are being developed and exist in a limited sense. They will be refined as time goes on
- Biological Enhancements already exist its just unethical to use them in most cases. Some have undesired side effects, but refinement is possible. For example it would be theoretical possible to alter your eyes with gene therapy so that you could see a wider spectrum of color. Steroids and the like have existed for a long time. If taken at its most extreme (immortality) then it would be the best on the list.
- Jetpacks exist but are impractical. Flying cars could also exist but would be even more impractical. Anti-gravity is likely an impossibility but that would be pretty cool and put it in 3rd place.
- Future Fuel: Its called a combination of nuclear (fission currently; fussion in the future) and environmentally (solar, wind, geothermal) generated electricity. Done and done.
Time Travel which somehow did not make it to your list is by far the most interesting Sci-fi trope. Time Travel kicks the shit out of everything else. Although it also trivializes the options so that may be why you didn't include it. Even if it was only time travel between the past and present day it would still be as good as FTL travel.
Also Portals would be equally awesome to FTL travel if they could be applied to any physical surface. They would presumably go light speed (allowing for light speed travel to new destinations and instantaneous travel to places already colonized), and could have infinite application including but not limited to infinite energy. Of course such things are more on the extreme end of sci-fi that they are more akin to magic than science. Heck you could even have a form of time travel with the use of the magic portals.
I know it'd be nice to jump all over FTL, but at what cost and in what way?Shock and Awe said:
Considering relativistic physics, FTL as we know it can be effected only with time dilation, so you go to Mars at FTL while your girlfriend stays on Earth. You come back a couple days later, she's aged about ten years. That OK with you?
This is why Forever War is a fucking awesome book.
Anyway... my choice isn't really in the above, but a medical advancement that allows for vat-grown 'spare parts' shall we say...
Reminds me of that episode of GitS:SAC... -_-
Other. My choice is boring, but practical: room temperature superconductors. Superconductors are materials that when cooled to a very low temperature suddenly have no electrical resistance, making them, well, super conductors of electricity. Turn on a magnetic field and presto, you have can levitate objects or personally fly. Power lines made of these materials would have zero electrical resistance, so power would be virtually eternal until used, rather than being lost over time and distance like on standard power lines.
I chose Biological Enhancements.
Come on, don't tell me nobody wants to have bio enhancements like that guy?
Especially these sunglasses. Classy. And the trenchcoat, too.
Come on, don't tell me nobody wants to have bio enhancements like that guy?
Especially these sunglasses. Classy. And the trenchcoat, too.
Replicator tech is on the list, it's essentially the same thing as teleportation, the big problem is it'll need a lot of energy, so without the "future energy tech" it would be pretty much useless... Still gets my vote though.Hazy992 said:
Ok: My brain is just screaming FTL travel, because it is the s*** when it comes to humanity's future plans, but...I really like the idea of cyborgs, in particular being one, so that is the clear winner for me. Besides, with technological enhancements, maybe I will be around to see the other technologies develop on their own, something that none of the other choices gives me. A note though, I'm keeping biological enhancements at arm's length. It's one thing to know that your mechanical arm doesn't work, but I really find the idea of something being internally, biologically wrong repulsive, especially if it's connected to organs.
Terraforming so that we could make Mars livable and ease the strain of population on Earth. A long trip there but doable and I'd rather fortify our solar system against possible external threats before leaping into the unknown with ftl.
After the terraforming then definitly the fuel source because that would ease resource burdens even more and reduce our dependence on oil countries.
After the terraforming then definitly the fuel source because that would ease resource burdens even more and reduce our dependence on oil countries.
As much as I'd love to see power armour, chainswords and boltguns become a reality, I don't want to be responsible for creating tech that'll help destroy the planet even faster.
So, I choose something constructive: Makers.
Maybe this kind of tech has appeared in other sci-fi media, I wouldn't know, I just know it from Transmetropolitan. It's basically a household appliance the size of a stove that creates... well, anything you need in everyday life. Food, drink, clothes etc - pretty much anything that's legal and not specifically trademarked, the maker will create it for you. All it needs is electricity and, of course, matter, be it in the form of high quality and density material or just recyclable garbage, to recombine at the atomic level into whatever pre-loaded configuration you choose.
Basically, instead of chucking most of your garbage in a bin, you can turn it into a delicious ham-n-eggs breakfast.
So, I choose something constructive: Makers.
Maybe this kind of tech has appeared in other sci-fi media, I wouldn't know, I just know it from Transmetropolitan. It's basically a household appliance the size of a stove that creates... well, anything you need in everyday life. Food, drink, clothes etc - pretty much anything that's legal and not specifically trademarked, the maker will create it for you. All it needs is electricity and, of course, matter, be it in the form of high quality and density material or just recyclable garbage, to recombine at the atomic level into whatever pre-loaded configuration you choose.
Basically, instead of chucking most of your garbage in a bin, you can turn it into a delicious ham-n-eggs breakfast.
