What technology intrigues you the most?

[Maugena]

Electronics? (Computers, gadgets, etc.)
Electromagnetism? (More on the 'mechanical side' of electricity.)
Plumbing?
Aerodynamics?
Space travel?
Architecture?

I'm intrigued more by electromagnetism than anything else that's out there. What about you?

[oss spy]

I'm going to go a step beyond and say particle accelerators

[Maugena]

Very good.
Sad they retired the Fermilab. -I live like 25 some miles away from it, lol.

In other news, I had heard that the Navy was actually developing a rail gun.

[natty dread]

Didn't they already develop one? I remember seeing some footage of a railgun being operated some time ago.

[oss spy]

They've been developing rail guns for quite some time now, it's just that we've recently made an effective one. Something's exciting about launching a bullet at a significant (but still small) percentage of the speed of light

[Haggis_McMutton]

Electronics, more specifically computer science, more specifically AI, more specifically general artificial intelligence research.

Cause when we get that we get everything else as well.

Or we die a horrible death. Either way.

[shieldgenerator7]

hey oss spy! welcome to the forums! I haven't seen you around before so you must be new!

I like computers! especially programming them. The internet and wireless capabilities we have now are really impressive. And some of the software and hardware that's out there is just mindblowing. They have terrabyte sized flashdrives the size of a wrigley gum package, and a whole bunch of other accessories that are so cool

-SG7 ( )

[BigBallinStalin]

Electronics, more specifically computer science, more specifically AI, more specifically general artificial intelligence research.

Cause when we get that we get everything else as well.

Or we die a horrible death. Either way.

Don't worry. I got your back.

[Baron Von PWN]

Methods/ processes that would make burning coal a clean source of energy. Also processes that might render nuclear waste usable as an energy source.

[thegreekdog]

Electronics, more specifically computer science, more specifically AI, more specifically general artificial intelligence research.

Cause when we get that we get everything else as well.

Or we die a horrible death. Either way.

Computers + medicine. I believe that in the next 20 years we'll develop a system to map out brainwaves and we'll be able to live on after death (or maybe I read that in a Dan Simmons book).

[shieldgenerator7]

Electronics, more specifically computer science, more specifically AI, more specifically general artificial intelligence research.

Cause when we get that we get everything else as well.

Or we die a horrible death. Either way.

Computers + medicine. I believe that in the next 20 years we'll develop a system to map out brainwaves and we'll be able to live on after death (or maybe I read that in a Dan Simmons book).

you mean entering our consciousness into computers so that we are artificially living forever? yeah that would be kind of cool... don't know if you'd know it or not if you were dead

[rdsrds2120]

Hydroponics and efficient, sustainable methods of food production along with agricultural science and investments in sciences that reuse waste.

-rd

[pearljamrox2]

yes, plumbing.

One minute you are pinching one off, then you pull the lever, and then..."whooooooosh". Then it's like, "where did it go?"

Sometimes when I'm in a particular grumpy mood, I taunt it. I'm all like, "Eat shit, eat my shit!"
And it does. And I'm like, "that's what's up."

Then I stare down the tough guy looking back at me in the mirror, and he's like, "who's bad?"
And I'm like, "you are, and you know."

[Phatscotty]

1984 technologies





GBTV's 1984 episode

[Maugena]

Didn't they already develop one? I remember seeing some footage of a railgun being operated some time ago.

It's not weaponized yet, I think. Their current design can shoot a 40 lb. projectile at roughly 5000 miles an hour or so. I don't remember the speed, exactly, but it was 5000 something... :S

Electronics, more specifically computer science, more specifically AI, more specifically general artificial intelligence research.

Cause when we get that we get everything else as well.

Or we die a horrible death. Either way.

I'm all for AI. My mind would be blown if we made something that was completely self-sustaining and independent.

Methods/ processes that would make burning coal a clean source of energy. Also processes that might render nuclear waste usable as an energy source.

Energy is a marvelous thing. I'm really surprised, considering all of the technological innovations mankind has cranked out over the past couple of millenia, we have pretty much just barely tapped its potential.

Computers + medicine. I believe that in the next 20 years we'll develop a system to map out brainwaves and we'll be able to live on after death (or maybe I read that in a Dan Simmons book).

Well, I don't know about your prediction, per se, but I definitely think it would be possible to indefinitely extend the life of a person, given the right technology.

Hydroponics and efficient, sustainable methods of food production along with agricultural science and investments in sciences that reuse waste.

-rd

I literally google'd hydroponics to find out what that is, haha. Makes sense, seems pretty awesome. I know that we could have already made enormous amounts of vertical farms using hydroponics/aeroponics and essentially ended world hunger, but I know that no one really gives a flying f*ck without benefiting from it in a major way.
I mean really, yes, you can send food to starving kids anywhere, but that's a temporary solution to a long-term problem. Build them farms in such a way and in due time, the problem of starvation could be solved.

yes, plumbing.

One minute you are pinching one off, then you pull the lever, and then..."whooooooosh". Then it's like, "where did it go?"

Sometimes when I'm in a particular grumpy mood, I taunt it. I'm all like, "Eat shit, eat my shit!"
And it does. And I'm like, "that's what's up."

Then I stare down the tough guy looking back at me in the mirror, and he's like, "who's bad?"
And I'm like, "you are, and you know."

Hue.

1984 technologies





GBTV's 1984 episode

Not watching that.

[Maugena]

Hydroponics and efficient, sustainable methods of food production along with agricultural science and investments in sciences that reuse waste.

-rd

Also, in a closed environment that sustains a human population for many many years, in a space ship travelling to some place outside of our current solar system, you would end up needing to recycle human beings after they have passed away.
Kind of a fucked up thought, but I can pretty much guarantee you this will be the case if we get that far.

[Maugena]

@Railgun Sorry, mach 5. So like a mile a second. 1700 meters/second.

[TA1LGUNN3R]

Electronics, more specifically computer science, more specifically AI, more specifically general artificial intelligence research.

Cause when we get that we get everything else as well.

Or we die a horrible death. Either way.

HEY GUYS HAGGIS' REAL NAME IS RAY KURZWEIL!! LOLOL I CAUGHT YOU, RAY!

Computers + medicine. I believe that in the next 20 years we'll develop a system to map out brainwaves and we'll be able to live on after death (or maybe I read that in a Dan Simmons book).

This. I'm really interested in biotech and all its applications (like nanotech and regenerative medicine), and that's the field I'm planning to get into. The thing is, I believe these will be intrinsically related in the coming years as both medicine and computer science/A.I. advance. So, for me, biological technology would be #1 and comp. sci. #2.

And guys... there's a vid the Navy just released of a rail gun being fired... let me find it.



-TG

[shieldgenerator7]

Hydroponics and efficient, sustainable methods of food production along with agricultural science and investments in sciences that reuse waste.

-rd

Also, in a closed environment that sustains a human population for many many years, in a space ship travelling to some place outside of our current solar system, you would end up needing to recycle human beings after they have passed away.
Kind of a fucked up thought, but I can pretty much guarantee you this will be the case if we get that far.

wow. Actually I think they'd develop stasis tubes so the body is practically dead for the time it takes to travel, and then revived at the journey's end so that you don't have reproduce on the starship or transfer your brain pattern to cyber data like in Fallout.

also, on a personal note, when I look at your avatar I imagine a cute little anime lover and when you cuss that image is shattered and I think to my self, 'what is this world coming to?' Many people cuss on this site (not including me) but it has more of an impact coming from you. Just a side note.
Still would like to play that first game with you tho

-SG7 ( )

[Maugena]

Hydroponics and efficient, sustainable methods of food production along with agricultural science and investments in sciences that reuse waste.

-rd

Also, in a closed environment that sustains a human population for many many years, in a space ship travelling to some place outside of our current solar system, you would end up needing to recycle human beings after they have passed away.
Kind of a fucked up thought, but I can pretty much guarantee you this will be the case if we get that far.

wow. Actually I think they'd develop stasis tubes so the body is practically dead for the time it takes to travel, and then revived at the journey's end so that you don't have reproduce on the starship or transfer your brain pattern to cyber data like in Fallout.

also, on a personal note, when I look at your avatar I imagine a cute little anime lover and when you cuss that image is shattered and I think to my self, 'what is this world coming to?' Many people cuss on this site (not including me) but it has more of an impact coming from you. Just a side note.
Still would like to play that first game with you tho

-SG7 ( )

Well it's completely impossible to bring matter down to 0 Kelvin... so to that point, your cells can never not continue about their business. Perhaps you could have a rehabilitation system that refreshes them to the point of having (at least, seemingly) never aged. But that would be too complicated for a single person for anyone to care. -You'd basically have to already know how to elongate a persons life indefinitely in order to do that. I do not doubt that we can achieve that, however, I think it will be too far off by the time we want to start sending people in ships to extremely distant places. Either that or just having multiple generations would take less effort than making such a system.

[Maugena]

Hydroponics and efficient, sustainable methods of food production along with agricultural science and investments in sciences that reuse waste.

-rd

Also, in a closed environment that sustains a human population for many many years, in a space ship travelling to some place outside of our current solar system, you would end up needing to recycle human beings after they have passed away.
Kind of a fucked up thought, but I can pretty much guarantee you this will be the case if we get that far.

wow. Actually I think they'd develop stasis tubes so the body is practically dead for the time it takes to travel, and then revived at the journey's end so that you don't have reproduce on the starship or transfer your brain pattern to cyber data like in Fallout.

also, on a personal note, when I look at your avatar I imagine a cute little anime lover and when you cuss that image is shattered and I think to my self, 'what is this world coming to?' Many people cuss on this site (not including me) but it has more of an impact coming from you. Just a side note.
Still would like to play that first game with you tho

-SG7 ( )

Well it's completely impossible to bring matter down to 0 Kelvin... so to that point, your cells can never not continue about their business. Perhaps you could have a rehabilitation system that refreshes them to the point of having (at least, seemingly) never aged. But that would be too complicated for a single person for anyone to care. -You'd basically have to already know how to elongate a persons life indefinitely in order to do that. I do not doubt that we can achieve that, however, I think it will be too far off by the time we want to start sending people in ships to extremely distant places. Either that or just having multiple generations would take less effort than making such a system.

Could you imagine an era in which there are people that live their entire life solely inside of a spaceship? :'(

[shieldgenerator7]

well you wouldn't do it by freezing them because water expands when it freezes and your blood vessels would burst because the water in them over expands.
I;m talking about the stasis tubes such as the ones in Alien, War of the Planets, Pitch Black, etc. I don't think they outright freeze the people, but put them in a prolonged sleep such that their bodies don't function and hence don;t age, but can be awoken at the destination

so people really wouldn't be living all their lives on a long space journey, but all the people they knew would be dead by the time they got there.

-SG7 ( )

[Maugena]

well you wouldn't do it by freezing them because water expands when it freezes and your blood vessels would burst because the water in them over expands.
I;m talking about the stasis tubes such as the ones in Alien, War of the Planets, Pitch Black, etc. I don't think they outright freeze the people, but put them in a prolonged sleep such that their bodies don't function and hence don;t age, but can be awoken at the destination

so people really wouldn't be living all their lives on a long space journey, but all the people they knew would be dead by the time they got there.

-SG7 ( )

You still age when you sleep.
-It's not about whether you're conscious or not... it's about halting the aging of your body.

[shieldgenerator7]

yeah that's what stasis is about: halting the aging of the body. it also puts you to sleep so you don't think when you're in stasis

[Maugena]

yeah that's what stasis is about: halting the aging of the body. it also puts you to sleep so you don't think when you're in stasis

Your referencing of a vague concept doesn't really help us come to a conclusion on this.
The vision I have for what we're both essentially getting at here is a system that rejuvenates all of your cells in your body. You'd ultimately have to replace most, if not all of them. I think aging is more or less just a structural problem (on the cellular level, not the atomic level). The replication process has errors and those errors, over great periods of time, cause problems... which can ultimately lead to death.
The consciousness bit is really irrelevant to the base concept. Of course you'd rather not be awake for eons, but it's not like you have to be asleep.
That makes me wonder though... about people that wake up after having been in a coma for a long period of time... Do they actually have thought processes going on when in a coma? Can they remember them after they wake up? If so, how long of a period of time would they have felt had passed compared to how long their coma actually lasted? -What I'm getting at here is... Even if you were put to sleep, would your subconscious thoughts continue? Would you tire of them and want to wake up? <- I could see people going insane if that were the case.