It's 2010. Weren't we supposed to have, you know, affordable flying cars ten years ago? Futurism has let us down again.
The main modes of transportation are still based on fire, and mostly variations on the theme of the steam engine (we've done away with the steam mostly, but still). Our computers are, by and large, as finicky as they were in the early 1980s -- we just have our friendly neighbourhood systems programmers to make everything look nice for the end users.
Tesla -- both quite a genius and quite mad (and it is sometimes difficult to tell which is which) -- managed to get better range out of 'free energy' devices than we can now (we probably shouldn't, of course -- nobody wants to blow out all the wifi receivers on the block), and heavier-than-air load-bearing craft based on the Hall effect is for now science fiction.
Maybe it's just me, but most of the stuff around seems pretty anachronistic lately. It's not even a necessary anachronism, either -- not only has the notoriously hairy intel x86 architecture survived, but it has become the de-facto standard even for macs, growing more and more bags on its side between long mode, multiple cores, various and sundry incompatible domain-specific auxiliary instruction sets, etc. rather than much of anyone switching over to some architecture that supports these things cleanly (MIPS? PPC? ARM? Well, maybe not ARM. Nobody likes to implement software division routines). Hybrid cars aren't nearly the improvement they are hyped to be, and electric cars aren't worth it either. Hydrogen fuel cells kind of fail a priori because of the second law of thermodynamics. I don't mean to go all Gernsback Continuum, but at the same time, I feel like 2010 really shouldn't be (and doesn't need to be) a slightly smaller slightly faster version of 1996.
Wtf, future?
IT'S 2010, WHERE THE FUCK ARE THE LASER BEAMS?
I EXPECTED WAY MORE LASERS.
And where are the teleportation devices??? C'mon Al Gore. Who the fuck cares about an electric car. If I can just fucking beam myself from my kitchen to my office, now that's green!
I seriously want teleportation.
However, most of the time I are amaze by all the technology and how much things have actually changed in my lifetime.
Quote from: Rev. What's-His-Name? on January 04, 2010, 04:03:11 PM
If I can just fucking beam myself from my kitchen to my office, now that's green!
Yes.
Most agreed with the above.
Ohoh and and the automated food machines, please!~
I'm still waiting for vat meat.
How are hydrogen fuel cells worse at energy storage and conversion than rechargeable batteries of other sorts?
Quote from: Cramulus on January 04, 2010, 04:00:27 PM
IT'S 2010, WHERE THE FUCK ARE THE LASER BEAMS?
I EXPECTED WAY MORE LASERS.
You just have to take the right college courses.
(http://images.somethingawful.com/mjolnir/images/cg09012004/grutz.jpg)
Cram, I must note that many children's toys now come equipped with lasers, which, when Mario discovered this, first made him completely flabbergasted, and then made him proceed to shoot me in the ass with a Nerf gun every time I turned my back.
They also make superb cat toys.
WELCOME TO THE FUTURE!
Quote from: Enki v. 2.0 on January 04, 2010, 03:58:45 PM
It's 2010. Weren't we supposed to have, you know, affordable flying cars ten years ago? Futurism has let us down again.
No, it probably saved our lives. I don't trust humans to drive on the ground, let along fly while texting/calling/being dumbasses.
I'm waiting for some kind of change in our reproductive skills. We should totally keep sex, but drop the whole nine-month gestation thing. It's bad for women's health for starters, and a pain in general.
Pods, people. Pods. We must build them.
For the children.
Louis CK has this to say: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LkusicUL2s
Quote from: yhnmzw on January 04, 2010, 05:47:31 PM
How are hydrogen fuel cells worse at energy storage and conversion than rechargeable batteries of other sorts?
Hydrogen fuel cell works kinda like this: hydrogen goes into a box, and the box strips the bare proton away from the bare electron. The electron goes through the circuit, rejoins its brother, hydrogen goes out, meets oxygen, and we have water. Problem is, the easiest way to generate hydrogen is to use an electrolyzer. By the second law of thermodynamics, the hydrogen fuel cell is an overcomplicated contraption that uses a bottle of flammable and highly reactive gas to turn a good battery into a slightly less good battery.
Now, it's quite possible that in some situations a hydrogen fuel tank and fuel cell will be so much lighter than the number of batteries needed to move the same thing that the lost energy is worth it. This is, however, in comparison to an electric car, and with the exception of the Tesla, electric cars generally suck at everything (except for transporting golf clubs). It also does not change the flammability risk, and I figure a tank of hydrogen is probably more flammable than a bunch of nickel metal hydride or lithium-ion batteries.
The other thing, of course, is that you probably want to carry a tank of oxygen around too, in order to make sure that the hydrogen binds to oxygen rather than to something else in the air that will turn nasty. That, of course, makes the whole unit even more flammable, and further makes you wonder why you bothered electrolyzing in the first place -- and then you remember that you can't electrolyze on-board because then you'd just be carrying a battery with more capacity than the fuel cell that you should really be using instead.
Quote from: Alty on January 04, 2010, 06:47:31 PM
I'm waiting for some kind of change in our reproductive skills. We should totally keep sex, but drop the whole nine-month gestation thing. It's bad for women's health for starters, and a pain in general.
Pods, people. Pods. We must build them.
For the children.
No, because then it would be even easier for assholes to have even more children, because it would be easy and it wouldn't hurt. It's not really bad for a woman's health assuming she is healthy to begin with and takes care of herself... and doesn't crank them out year after year.
I'm more in favor of male pregnancy, and a genetic alteration that requires BOTH people to consciously desire a pregnancy for it to be able to happen.
ooh that would be pretty cool, yeah.
Quote from: The Right Reverend Nigel on January 04, 2010, 07:24:44 PM
Quote from: Alty on January 04, 2010, 06:47:31 PM
I'm waiting for some kind of change in our reproductive skills. We should totally keep sex, but drop the whole nine-month gestation thing. It's bad for women's health for starters, and a pain in general.
Pods, people. Pods. We must build them.
For the children.
No, because then it would be even easier for assholes to have even more children, because it would be easy and it wouldn't hurt. It's not really bad for a woman's health assuming she is healthy to begin with and takes care of herself... and doesn't crank them out year after year.
I'm more in favor of male pregnancy, and a genetic alteration that requires BOTH people to consciously desire a pregnancy for it to be able to happen.
I have a skewed view on that as Mrs. Alty reacted to pregnancy badly. Then again she has a pretty bad coke(a cola) habit. From other women I've talked to I've gathered in can go lots of different ways. Some are just fine, like nothing's happening, some are infected with the dreaded case of the babies and just wantitoutohgodgetitoutofme!
I'm all for male pregnancy (whooo lactation!) and the genetic thing. Though...I would be the biggest, laziest candy-ass if I were pregnant. I would
work that angle.
Quote from: Enki v. 2.0 on January 04, 2010, 07:19:43 PM
Quote from: yhnmzw on January 04, 2010, 05:47:31 PM
How are hydrogen fuel cells worse at energy storage and conversion than rechargeable batteries of other sorts?
Hydrogen fuel cell works kinda like this: hydrogen goes into a box, and the box strips the bare proton away from the bare electron. The electron goes through the circuit, rejoins its brother, hydrogen goes out, meets oxygen, and we have water. Problem is, the easiest way to generate hydrogen is to use an electrolyzer. By the second law of thermodynamics, the hydrogen fuel cell is an overcomplicated contraption that uses a bottle of flammable and highly reactive gas to turn a good battery into a slightly less good battery.
Now, it's quite possible that in some situations a hydrogen fuel tank and fuel cell will be so much lighter than the number of batteries needed to move the same thing that the lost energy is worth it. This is, however, in comparison to an electric car, and with the exception of the Tesla, electric cars generally suck at everything (except for transporting golf clubs). It also does not change the flammability risk, and I figure a tank of hydrogen is probably more flammable than a bunch of nickel metal hydride or lithium-ion batteries.
The other thing, of course, is that you probably want to carry a tank of oxygen around too, in order to make sure that the hydrogen binds to oxygen rather than to something else in the air that will turn nasty. That, of course, makes the whole unit even more flammable, and further makes you wonder why you bothered electrolyzing in the first place -- and then you remember that you can't electrolyze on-board because then you'd just be carrying a battery with more capacity than the fuel cell that you should really be using instead.
Wut? None of the existing models use an oxygen tank. And the idea isn't to use a tank of hydrogen gas (though most of the existing models do), you bind the hydrogen to something else that has a low energy cost of extraction (tetraborohydride is the candidate I'm familiar with, there are others too), otherwise you can't get enough density and have to refuel every 50 miles. Hydrogen can be gathered much more efficiently than electrolysis by extracting it out of coal (this still takes energy, just not as much).
More likely it'll be beaten by the next generation of batteries being able to charge faster (assuming they don't kill the power grid in the process).
Oh, my bad.
Enki,
Science knowledge courtesy of three attempts at Introductory Engineering Seminar I
Im still waiting for soylent green. :pouts:
Personally, I sort of like the idea of self cloning. Having a six-pack of clones like in Paranoia. Death would stop being such a scary concept if you could just clone yourself a new one. Now you'd just be afraid of a painful death.
Quote from: Alty on January 04, 2010, 07:43:42 PM
Quote from: The Right Reverend Nigel on January 04, 2010, 07:24:44 PM
Quote from: Alty on January 04, 2010, 06:47:31 PM
I'm waiting for some kind of change in our reproductive skills. We should totally keep sex, but drop the whole nine-month gestation thing. It's bad for women's health for starters, and a pain in general.
Pods, people. Pods. We must build them.
For the children.
No, because then it would be even easier for assholes to have even more children, because it would be easy and it wouldn't hurt. It's not really bad for a woman's health assuming she is healthy to begin with and takes care of herself... and doesn't crank them out year after year.
I'm more in favor of male pregnancy, and a genetic alteration that requires BOTH people to consciously desire a pregnancy for it to be able to happen.
I have a skewed view on that as Mrs. Alty reacted to pregnancy badly. Then again she has a pretty bad coke(a cola) habit. From other women I've talked to I've gathered in can go lots of different ways. Some are just fine, like nothing's happening, some are infected with the dreaded case of the babies and just wantitoutohgodgetitoutofme!
I'm all for male pregnancy (whooo lactation!) and the genetic thing. Though...I would be the biggest, laziest candy-ass if I were pregnant. I would work that angle.
So long as guys can lactate something manly. Like beer, or antifreeze.
Quote from: Dr. James Semaj on January 04, 2010, 08:50:26 PM
Personally, I sort of like the idea of self cloning. Having a six-pack of clones like in Paranoia. Death would stop being such a scary concept if you could just clone yourself a new one. Now you'd just be afraid of a painful death.
The key to that is mind transference, which is quite a bit harder. We've cloned all sorts of things successfully; we have, however, only recently simulated the brain of a cat (or attempted to, and not even all of the brain of a cat). Cloning as a technology is a lot more advanced than mind transference, and if you had mind transference, you could do without cloning at all -- just put your mind on the internet. Make seven back up copies, and load them into robots upon your death. Build an android that looks like you but has six times the strength and seven telescoping vibrating glow in the dark penises with built in can-openers, and then jack into it when you're bored.
Hmm. Your idea is better.
We can have flying cars you know, the technology is close enough to do it.
its just that no company is gonna develop a product that will never be allowed to be used.
damn government, cramping our style.
Quote from: Regret on January 04, 2010, 09:53:33 PM
We can have flying cars you know, the technology is close enough to do it.
its just that no company is gonna develop a product that will never be allowed to be used.
damn government, cramping our style.
Flying cars were marketed in the 30s. Nobody bought them. Still, I'd be happy enough if cars stopped being run on fire.
an illustration of how some things have changed significantly in the last twenty years.
My mom and I were talking about book ordering, and the particular systems they have in libraries now to minimize cost and maximize circulation. One of these is an automatic purchase of bestsellers and other books with high sale rates; they don't even have to be ordered, they are delivered directly to the library. This discussion lead into amazon.com, alibris and other web booksellers, and I realized that up until very recently, it was a HELL of a trial to be a bibliophile. To purchase any books, they would have to either order out of a catelogue or at a book store. To find a copy of an older book may have taken years of searching in used bookstores. Now I just search google, find the title, check the seller sites for price comparison, purchase for a relatively low price, and have it shipped to my house in two weeks.
I'm a bibliophile. To me, thats pretty fucking incredible. Not that I don't enjoy used book stores, but man, I just returned to my office today to find five packages of books for me, one of them a 1909 copy of Darwin's Voyage of the Beagle.
who needs flying cars and lazers when you can spend all day on the internet?
Lasers are for consumer electronics or warfare. Flying cars require that average spags become pilots, and that very notion is silly.
No, this future is an interconnected network of silicon-based counting machines accessible by anyone who can afford it.
Quote from: Cainad on January 05, 2010, 05:16:52 AM
Lasers are for consumer electronics or warfare. SAFE Flying cars require that average spags become pilots, and that very notion is silly.
No, this future is an interconnected network of silicon-based counting machines accessible by anyone who can afford it.
fixed.
screw safe, that is not the point of flying cars.
make em suicidal deathtraps and slap a "enter at own risk" sign on 'em.
oh and make 'em loud as fuck(staple a whistle on the front or something) so only deaf people will be hit by one falling out of the sky.
we wouldn't want our tranportation to end a lot of lives now would we?
Killed in car accidents 42,116*
Killed by the common flu 20,000*
Killed by murders 15,517*
Killed in airline crashes
(of 477m passenger trips) 120 (1)
Killed by lightning strikes 90*
Killed by Anthrax 5
(1) Annual average over 19 year period.
*Average annual totals in United States.
(http://www.unitedjustice.com/death-statistics.html)
The Delorean from 'Back to the Future' DAMMIT!!! :argh!:
Personally, I would be happier with more affordable solar power options!
The energy thing is a pretty big way in which we're clearly not entirely in the future yet.
I love dicking around the internets; I wouldn't have it any other way. But in some other cases I'm a bit disappointed about how archaic we really are.
Quote from: Remington on January 04, 2010, 06:01:02 PM
Quote from: Cramulus on January 04, 2010, 04:00:27 PM
IT'S 2010, WHERE THE FUCK ARE THE LASER BEAMS?
I EXPECTED WAY MORE LASERS.
You just have to take the right college courses.
(http://images.somethingawful.com/mjolnir/images/cg09012004/grutz.jpg)
(http://blogs.amctv.com/scifi-scanner/Real_Genius_560x330_MSDREGE_EC012_H.jpg)
Quote from: Enki v. 2.0 on January 04, 2010, 09:21:16 PM
Quote from: Dr. James Semaj on January 04, 2010, 08:50:26 PM
Personally, I sort of like the idea of self cloning. Having a six-pack of clones like in Paranoia. Death would stop being such a scary concept if you could just clone yourself a new one. Now you'd just be afraid of a painful death.
The key to that is mind transference, which is quite a bit harder. We've cloned all sorts of things successfully; we have, however, only recently simulated the brain of a cat (or attempted to, and not even all of the brain of a cat). Cloning as a technology is a lot more advanced than mind transference, and if you had mind transference, you could do without cloning at all -- just put your mind on the internet. Make seven back up copies, and load them into robots upon your death. Build an android that looks like you but has six times the strength and seven telescoping vibrating glow in the dark penises with built in can-openers, and then jack into it when you're bored.
Just create a teleportation machine that doesn't kill the original.
Quote from: Hangshai on February 02, 2010, 11:24:31 PM
Quote from: Remington on January 04, 2010, 06:01:02 PM
Quote from: Cramulus on January 04, 2010, 04:00:27 PM
IT'S 2010, WHERE THE FUCK ARE THE LASER BEAMS?
I EXPECTED WAY MORE LASERS.
You just have to take the right college courses.
(http://images.somethingawful.com/mjolnir/images/cg09012004/grutz.jpg)
(http://blogs.amctv.com/scifi-scanner/Real_Genius_560x330_MSDREGE_EC012_H.jpg)
(http://bowlofpork.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/real-genius.jpg)
And more
htoys as well.
Quote from: Nigel on January 04, 2010, 05:13:49 PM
I seriously want teleportation.
No you don't.
TGRR,
Can think of no end of really, really nasty applications for teleportation.
Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on December 22, 2010, 06:07:05 PM
Quote from: Nigel on January 04, 2010, 05:13:49 PM
I seriously want teleportation.
No you don't.
TGRR,
Can think of no end of really, really nasty applications for teleportation.
That's precisely why I want it. No-one else, just me.
Armchair assassinations, bank robberies and holidaying would be so much easier.
Quote from: Cain on December 22, 2010, 06:10:12 PM
Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on December 22, 2010, 06:07:05 PM
Quote from: Nigel on January 04, 2010, 05:13:49 PM
I seriously want teleportation.
No you don't.
TGRR,
Can think of no end of really, really nasty applications for teleportation.
That's precisely why I want it. No-one else, just me.
Armchair assassinations, bank robberies and holidaying would be so much easier.
Sheriff Joe could just beam smudgy people into orbit around Mars, sans spacesuit, and nobody would ever know.
Indeed.
That is why only I should be allowed to have one. I'm the only person trustworthy enough.
Quote from: Cain on December 22, 2010, 06:54:30 PM
Indeed.
That is why only I should be allowed to have one. I'm the only person trustworthy enough.
I can't argue that. I know I can't be trusted with one. I'd be the terror of Calvinist churches all over the Southwest.
Shouldn't we solve hunger and stuff like that first?
Quote from: Charley Brown on December 22, 2010, 06:57:30 PM
Shouldn't we solve hunger and stuff like that first?
Um.
No.
Quote from: Charley Brown on December 22, 2010, 06:57:30 PM
Shouldn't we solve hunger and stuff like that first?
I usually just eat a cheeseburger or something. That seems to take care of the problem.
ECH,
visionary
Quote from: East Coast Hipster on December 22, 2010, 11:15:25 PM
Quote from: Charley Brown on December 22, 2010, 06:57:30 PM
Shouldn't we solve hunger and stuff like that first?
I usually just eat a cheeseburger or something. That seems to take care of the problem.
ECH,
visionary
Sorted. :lulz:
You know what I really wish existed? Sophisticated communications that used entanglement. Because fuck waiting for, like, the speed of light.
Okay.
It's motherfucking 2010.
Where the FUCK are our skin graft prosthesesies. Where the fuck are our cephlalopod arms and gills and rending claws? Where are the dinosaurs, the mammoths, the giant killer sloths and terror birds? Why the FUCK has a T. rex not destroyed San Diego? Why are there no algae encrusted solar powered houses and methane eating nanomachines? Why are there no kinky virtual reality gay brothels?
And where the FUCK is my fucking recreational sex change pill?
I agree about getting a t rex down in san diego. It might be prudent to give it cyborg limbs and gen-engineer it with komodo dragon spit.
Quote from: East Coast Hipster on December 22, 2010, 11:15:25 PM
Quote from: Charley Brown on December 22, 2010, 06:57:30 PM
Shouldn't we solve hunger and stuff like that first?
I usually just eat a cheeseburger or something. That seems to take care of the problem.
ECH,
visionary
There was a hilariously huge argument on the bead board about whether poor people should be judged for eating fast food. After my cheeseburger experiment research last year, I determined that fast food cheeseburgers are actually the cheapest protein-rich food, calorie for penny.
I went to a semi-cheap cafe yesterday and had the worst cheeseburger I have ever had in my life. Pro-tip: a cold bun with a steak and that grated cheese you buy in bags from the supermarket is not a "cheeseburger" by any standard definition of the term.
I would've been better off, nutritionally, financially and in terms of customer service if I had gone to Burger King instead.
Quote from: Nigel on December 23, 2010, 08:16:36 AM
Quote from: East Coast Hipster on December 22, 2010, 11:15:25 PM
Quote from: Charley Brown on December 22, 2010, 06:57:30 PM
Shouldn't we solve hunger and stuff like that first?
I usually just eat a cheeseburger or something. That seems to take care of the problem.
ECH,
visionary
There was a hilariously huge argument on the bead board about whether poor people should be judged for eating fast food. After my cheeseburger experiment research last year, I determined that fast food cheeseburgers are actually the cheapest protein-rich food, calorie for penny.
That's precisely why I eat so many buck doubles from BK. Quick and cheap as hell. Makes snagging a quick lunch while in transit easy, especially if I don't want to bother going to the bank to grab a couple of bucks.
Didn't read the thread, just the title and well...it is now 2011.
8)
Good point.
Where the hell is my personal spacecraft?
I WANT COFFEE I CAN FREEBASE!!!!