Future inventions.

[terryweide]

Okay, then I'll suggest another possible invention. I think that at some point, the wheel will be surpassed as a basic means of transportation because a practical form of antigravity will be developed.

[They]

[quote=asdar]
Watch for the space elevator, if you haven't read about it I think it'll start construction in about ten years, but won't be completed for 30-40 years. It'll be a line going to space with a transport that can take things up and down for very little cost per trip.

The space elevator would have to be made of very hard materials, all of which we do not have the money to buy. So look for the "Elevator" in about 70-100 yrs.

[They]

And antigravity is impossible. Most likely we would use superconducting plates to repel against the Earth's magnetic feild

[terryweide]

Uh, huh. It's also impossible to send a man to the moon.

[kyektulu]

Originally Posted by terryweide

Uh, huh. It's also impossible to send a man to the moon.

I have always had doubts about the authenticity of the moon landing myself.
I would like to believe it is true but even if man does eventually travel space and find an inhabitable planet we would probably just consume its natural reasources and spoil that planet anyway.

[chrispenycate]

To start with (quoth the pedant), let us be very clear what we mean by the word « invention ». The « salon des inventions » is dominated by gadgets, rather than original ideas- automatic swimming pool cleaners, things to detect when you’ve gone to sleep on the motorway (and modify the situation- or were those called « passengers » ?) The telephone is an invention, the mobile phone an evolution, a hodge-podge of minor developements and improvements, with no clear creation point- even television, that major lifestyle modifier, is a developement rather than a clearcut crutch on the trousers of time. Recreational drugs may be invented, but medical ones are developed. No one considers a philosophy allowing humans to live together in peace and tranquility to be an invention (or, rather, no one would so consider one if it existed) despite it fulfilling all the conditions of the dictionary definition, and something really fundamental is classed as a « discovery » You are now going to tell me « You know science fiction when you read it, despite the lack of a clear definition- well, I know what an invention is »(Oh, you were’nt going to say that ? Sorry) Can you even tell me what it definitely isn’t ?(patent offices are having problemswith this every day- and if we require a lawyer to tell us what the world is, it’s time to change planets)

Let us take as an example something I’m sure will come into being in time, assuming mankind survives and continues along the path of technological developement (neither of which is certain), the synthetic womb. With in vitro fertilisation at one end, and ever more sophisticated incubators at the other, sooner or likely later the intermediate stages will be conquered, a substitute placenta either grown from stem cells or made from a sufficiently anti-allergic plastic (or yet another solution found, techniques of diffusing in oxygen adapted from heart/lung machine technology, diffusing in nourishment from extreme life support material, cloning maternal blood to supply essential antibodies, continuous electronic monitoring to reduce the need for human vigilance- who knows, pre-recorded maternal heartbeat and soothing music to stimulate the developing embrio. To start with, all of this will be purely for medical reasons (like the bottle of brandy in the studio) for mothers who can’t carry their own children, but as the technologies mature and prices fall, it could be that a number of our distaff companions choose not to go through the months of discomfort and inconvenience and take advantage of the technology, perhaps with in vivo fertilisation- a minor change (after all, the final result is babies, no ?) but one which could cause major socialogical change. Still, I’m not sure the thing could be classed as an invention.

[kyektulu]

What can I say to that??????????

[Rosemary]

Originally Posted by kyektulu

What can I say to that??????????

The Chris is pedantic Unless of course we can invent a different word

Or should that be an evolution of the word pedantic?

[chrispenycate]

Originally Posted by Rosemary

The Chris is pedantic Unless of course we can invent a different word

Or should that be an evolution of the word pedantic?

Oh, to speak italian so I could be "pedantissimo" (carefully avoids charging Leto)

But I have done (and overdone and done to death) one gadget- there's no reason to abandon the thread (chris of death strikes again) I get scared to post because my absolute authority, combined with my ineffable sagesse, bring potentially interesting threads to grinding, juddering halts (avoid mixed metaphors- some of the mental images I get of derailled sewing machines are a bit surrealistic)

Best is, I think, simply to ignore any posts that have my avatar and continue regardless

[Leto]

Originally Posted by chrispenycate

Oh, to speak italian so I could be "pedantissimo" (carefully avoids charging Leto)

But I have done (and overdone and done to death) one gadget- there's no reason to abandon the thread (chris of death strikes again) I get scared to post because my absolute authority, combined with my ineffable sagesse, bring potentially interesting threads to grinding, juddering halts (avoid mixed metaphors- some of the mental images I get of derailled sewing machines are a bit surrealistic)

Best is, I think, simply to ignore any posts that have my avatar and continue regardless

Err, dear, you should develop a gadget to avoid mixing languages, unless sagesse (wisdom) has been one more word stolen into english. And don't worry, Como is close enough to Lugano, I won't charge for use of Italian.

[chrispenycate]

But "sagacity" doesn't have the same rhythm- and while I might avoid mixing vocabulary between languages (my spellchecker waved a white flag some time back, my cunstruction of phrases beyond all mortal hope is, and no computer sufficiently understand idiom to correct that can.
The Tessinois consider that the Swiss have rights on Italian anyway. but what ateared me most was the invention of a word in someone elses language- I do it im mine all the time.

[Leto]

I love word invention, and tend to do lots of them in both my native languages and in English. That's the way a language evolve.

[chrispenycate]

I will not make bad poliglot puns. I will not criticise other members on their grammar, spelling or syntaxe. I will stop pontificating (as much) I will not hijack an inventions thread to discuss the evolution of language and the interreaction between concept, symbol and reality. I will check my spelling before posting. I will live down the fact that, apart from me, my entire family is in education and stop lecturing people.

I will be good.

[Leto]

Originally Posted by chrispenycate

I will not make bad poliglot puns. I will not criticise other members on their grammar, spelling or syntaxe. I will stop pontificating (as much) I will not hijack an inventions thread to discuss the evolution of language and the interreaction between concept, symbol and reality. I will check my spelling before posting. I will live down the fact that, apart from me, my entire family is in education and stop lecturing people.

I will be good.

Nope, but you can create your own thread about this. In as many languages as you want.

[chrispenycate]

[quote=They]

Originally Posted by asdar

Watch for the space elevator, if you haven't read about it I think it'll start construction in about ten years, but won't be completed for 30-40 years. It'll be a line going to space with a transport that can take things up and down for very little cost per trip.

The space elevator would have to be made of very hard materials, all of which we do not have the money to buy. So look for the "Elevator" in about 70-100 yrs.

I've stopped being good.

Building a space elevator from terrestrial materials is an economic no-no. Lifting all those megatonnes out of earth's gravity well through earth's atmosphere is a task that would make anyone flinch- imagine the cost per kilo of shuttle lifting something into orbit (in dollars, energy and air pollution) multiplied by that mass, or imagine how many launches it would take, whether shuttle, laser launch or preferably Orion, at two or three an hour it'll take your thirty years just to get the bits up. No worries, we'll get the bits out there, plenty of unused matter in the solar system, either mine it on the moon and linearly accelerate it into geosynchronous orbit, or, preferably, find a nice asteroid containing the requisite minerals and fly it were you want it (still uses enormous quantities of energy, but no risk of an ecologist complaining that the hydrogen bomb you just set off to nudge its orbit by a few degrees has destroyed the environment for a type of butterfly) Still, bringing something larger than a dinosaur killer gently into orbit could rend some earthbound politicians nervous, and some terrorists excedingly enthusiastic. I find your "ten years to start construction" somewhat over optimistic.

As regards your materials problem, the argument is that no substance could hold it's own weight over that length- which is sort of equivalent to the argument "no chemical reaction can give enough energy to push it's components above escape velocity" True, and irrelevant- most of the matter in a rocket never gets ou of the lower atmosphere, and we can increase the strength of the bits that need to be strong, while reducing the weight of the bits that need to be light- so while it would be nice to have multi kilometer single crystal diamond ribbons, we can build it using conventional techniques, with a section in compression nearest the surface (a very, very high muntain) welded to the point of a pyramid. the base of which is our asteroid in geostationary orbit, base too to a second pyramid leading out into space so the center of gravity stays geostationary ( suppose you could put the asteroid outside geostationary orbit, and slow it as you build down, though the idea of the lower end of the construction whipping through the stratosphere at hndreds of kilometers an hour is a bit worrying- or for that matter, prefabricate it out by the moon, and nudge it into orbit, knowing that a minor error of "left hand down a bit" could eliminate all multicellular life on earth)

Then all you need is to work out energy distribution (you're really going to need superconducting wire), design lift cars your happy to stay in for hours and look to the entertainment franchises (glossed over a couple of problems, have I?)

Now, about this maglev vehicule…