The history of Man is a story of innovations in technology that profoundly changed the lives of ordinary people. I placed the following list of ideas, the ones that I could think of in a few minutes, in their general chronological order:

Fire
Domestication of Animals
Development of Agriculture
Hunting Weapons
Use of Metal Implements
Invention of the Wheel
Travel by Ships
Travel by Railroad
Invention of Refrigeration
Telephone
Other Electrical Devices
Mass Production
Travel by Automobile
Travel by Flight
Computers
Internet

What is the next major technological breakthrough that will change our lives as much as these have done? The first impulse is to identify space travel. The problem though is that it will remain incredibly expensive. This means that the average person will not be vacationing on the Moon or Mars any time in the next few centuries. There is though the possibility that the world of the very small will have our immediate descendants living very differently than we do now.

Physicists classify particles as real or virtual on the basis of how long they last. If they come into existence and annihilate almost immediately with their counterpart, we call them virtual. If they hang around a while, we call them real.

In great numbers, particles come into existence and then go away again all the time, even in the supposed vacuum of space. The next innovative technology that will change how Man lives will be the discovery of a way to induce significant quantities of these particles to become real as opposed to just virtual.

While initially this would result in the creation of atomic hydrogen gas, we would soon refine the technique to make more massive collections of particles, starting with molecular hydrogen. The next jump would give us oxygen. It is a small step from there to create a particle conglomeration of ten protons, eight neutrons, and ten electrons—a molecule of water.

This particle would have come from nowhere. It would require no energy supply to fashion, just one to guide its creation. Once you have created one water molecule, you can generate a second and a third. Repeat the process and you create a visible amount of liquid water that never existed anywhere in the world, or universe, before.

The world has an insatiable need for clean, pure water. If these devices were to become commonplace and compact, the effect on the human race would be as revolutionary as any other in history.

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http://members.elirion.net/~maddad
There are ten kinds of people. Those that understand binary, and those that do not.

Do you have any reason or evidence to believe such a thing is even possible? I don't know, but I would think it is not. It would seem to violate to many well established laws of physics.

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At night the stars put on a show for free (Carole King)

One Earth, One Sky - IYA 2009

More realistically, I think the next major technologies that will have truly profound effect on everyday life will be:

1. Medicine and nutrition tailored to individual's genes

2. Implanted brain-computer connection

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Fiction has to be plausible. Reality is under no such constraint.

That's an interesting prediction, since it also suggests that we will develop the means to collect copius amounts of anti-matter.

I don't regard this prediction as very likely. I think that is there's anything out there likely to be the Next Major Technology, it is nanotech. Nanotech can come in many forms, and nanotech medicine and electronics are going to be the first big forms of it, but there is more to come, and I suspect you will later look back and divide the nanotech revolution into distinct technologies.

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Forming opinions as we speak

No sir Swift, we do not have any such technology. I am not so sure that it violates laws of physics, and have spent quite some time speculating on results should we pass the technology hurdle.

I'm not wanting to start a fight, but what laws were you thinking of?

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http://members.elirion.net/~maddad
There are ten kinds of people. Those that understand binary, and those that do not.

I go along with Ilya. I think the next major breakthrough is going to be in the area of biology and/or medicine.

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Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.

Technologies are an ambivalent concept. Chicken and egg.

I see the biggest changes coming in the health and genetics field. Just as some of the biggest changes in the past have been in health. The whole structure of a society changes when you can expect to live to 80 instead of 50 and 5 out of 7 children don't predecease you.

The ability to manufacture smallpox vaccine or antibiotics in mass quantities had much more impact than my ability to surf the Internet. Most of us wouldn't be around to surf the internet.

In the near term (50 years) more artificial organs. Over the same 50 years but continuous and beyond are genetic tinkering and advances through stem cell research, etc.

The chicken and egg comes into it because what infrastructure has to in place in society for new technologies to come about? Is a spacecraft the new breakthrough technology or is it the invention of the technology to produce strong lightweight composite materials that are used in the spacecraft?

i agree with antoniseb... nanotechnology.

however, there is one caveat which may make a difference. quantum computing is in a sort of race with nanotech right now to see which hits the scene first. qc is behind as only rudimentary computing systems have been develope (10 atoms for example) whereas nanotechnology has seen plenty of little developments recently. granted, the nanomachines that have been developed are virtually useless from a practical standpoint, but they do exist nonetheless. should there be some major breakthroughs with qc, their relative positions may change.

the next 10 years should be telling.

taks

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goodbye richard pryor :(...

You forgot the development of antibiotics. Before then, medicine just treated symptoms, not causes. The next development will be genetic medicine; specificially the use of RNAi to destroy the protiens that cause diseases, syndromes, cancer, ect... (That is of course, if phamecutical corporations decide they want to start curing diseases instead of making money by treating them).

which may be discovered using new, super fast quantum computers.

taks

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goodbye richard pryor :(...

i think the original poster must have just watched an episode of Star Trek:TNG where Picard gets a cup of "tea, Earl Grey, hot" from the replicator.

Genetic medicine and quantum computing (No reason why we can't have both at the same time!). But seriously, how many others think the overriding drive should be towards getting people off this planet? Get at least some of the "eggs" out of the basket?

Cheers, Dave.

I think that affordable space tourism technology, probably based on electromagnetic
flight propulsion, could be developed in the immidiate future. Any thoughts about
that?
Igor

I'm suprised the original list of revolutionary technology doesn't have writing (specifically an alphabet) on it. I'd actually put that as the biggest achievement we've ever had. Heck, look at the printing press and how it's use made such a huge impact (and it's only an outgrowth of writing in general).

Anyway...the next technology: I'm going to throw my weight behind gene therapy too.

YES! i know juuuuust where to start...

taks

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goodbye richard pryor :(...

Well, if the internet is on the list, along with the telephone, but not the electric power grid (without which most of those 'electrical devices' wouldn't be), I'm going to go for something rather prosaic ... the fuel cell.

Once miniturised and made sufficiently robust, it'll take a few decades to work through the economy, but the changes will be revolutionary.

In medicine, health etc, I think the next revolution will include the proper application of IT and today's biochips (no need for nanotech), to dramatically increase efficiency and effectiveness. Without these revolutions, 'genetic medicine' will remain a curiosity or available only to the very rich.

There's also a quiet revolution happening already - not quite 'replicators' yet, but 3D 'printing' may have a profound impact, one which we can barely imagine now.

If we take a broad definition of technology - to include all applications of the scientific method, codifying good theories into 'engineering' - then there's been another revolution under way for a little while. It's one that I personally hope will continue. The understanding of what makes Homo saps. do what they do, both individually and collectively. This revolution has already resulted in a substantial reduction in human suffering and death (at the hands of fellow persons), and has the potential to do much more.

However, the most dramatic revolution won't happen until all (or just most?) of us are dead - downloading.

Teleportation.

It's already possible in the strictest rudimentary sense- being used in data transfer.

There are still many more lesser advances that will be made, just in my own lifetime: implanted electronic devices (medical ones, as well as cell phones, televisions, performance enhancers, etc.), safer power supplies (solar, nuclear fusion), and maybe even a non-white, non-Christian president !

You said,
I'm not a physicist, but as I understand it, virtual particles are created as particle/anti-particle pairs. They almost instantly recombine and annihilate each other, so there is not net increase in either matter or energy.

If one or both of them become "real" particles, as you describe, then one would be creating matter out of nothing. This would violate the conservation of matter/energy.

The only idea I can think of that is similar to yours is a Hawkins idea. Imagine that one of these pairs of virtual particles is created just outside the event horizon of a black hole. If one of the particles falls into the hole, but the other one escapes, then in effect you have created a real particle. But you "pay" for that by decreasing the mass of the black hole. I believe this is his mechanism for the "evaporation" of black holes.

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At night the stars put on a show for free (Carole King)

One Earth, One Sky - IYA 2009

I'd just like to point out that hunting weapons arguably came before even fire, and definitely before agriculture. and, yes, writing belongs on the list, as does the printing press. (back in '99, A&E did a "100 most influential people of the milennium" list, and #1 was Guttenberg.)

I hope that what's coming up soon is a better way of controlling brain chemistry. then again, I just had yet another psych eval, so I'm a little focused right now.

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

Thanks for the idea about writing and printing; you're absolutely right. Somebody I was talking to in school suggested medicine, of which your psyche stuff is a part.

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http://members.elirion.net/~maddad
There are ten kinds of people. Those that understand binary, and those that do not.

how many of those "revolutionary" inventions were discovered hundreds or even thousands of years ago in China, and only recently "invented" in Europe or the USA in the last few hundred years?