Media's Influence on Technology

Well, I'm not sure that I can say what will come in the next 100 years. Hell, just look at the last 100. This topic is here more for ideas. Many people looked at the future, namely 2000, and thought we'd have hover-cars and completely automated lives (and we do, to an extent) but what I'd really like to discuss is the media's influence on technology. Movies and the public have shaped what and when new technology comes about. There are things that were beyond all technological possibilities and yet, because of Science Fiction and Science Fiction movies, they have gotten the attention they deserved and were made possible. So this thread is for all of those amazing things that you've seen, read, or thought about that you think could come about in the next century.

Something that I've always wanted to be able to do is stay underwater for an extended period of time without having to have a lot of equipment and, in rare cases, being able to come to surface without decompression stops when diving deep enough. It seems as though this would make the sport of scuba diving much easier for people to get into and would reduce the amount of class time needed in order to dive, thus making it a much more widely supported activity. Anyway, that's just my first idea I suppose. Enjoy

nufan

Well I believe that we are are now in an exponential growth curve that is likely to continue well in next century. We are going to see things in the next 10 years that will blow away expectations... and they will arise in a multitude of fields. The next hundred years will be like the dawn of man to the twentith century in comparitive terms of development.

Oh and don't worry about hovercars... they are coming!

I guess a truely immersive world, similar to the Matrix would be cool to play in, but the world could be anything I wanted.

[edit on 24-3-2005 by Sigma]

I have come to the conclusion that we are going to see an exponential increase in the rate we acquire knowledge and subsequently use it to invent new technologies. This is completely due to a revolution in communication and data manipulation that is taking place right now all over the developed and developing world, researchers have access to almost all the info they want and they can communicate with oneanother in real time no-matter where they are. Soon enough even language will no longer be the barrier it once was, i mean how many scientists of foreign nationalities are there that would like to communicate with their pears but can't because of the time and money it takes to translate all their work etc, in the near future we will all be multilingual.
This is just an example of how integration will make many things happen faster and it will eventually lead to instantaneous knowledge and understanding when computer systems and the mind can be fully brought to bear on the problems we must slove.

[edit on 24-3-2005 by ufo3]

Building one of those BattleCurisers from StarCraft would be cool!