Realistically?
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Housing that doesn’t cost a fortune
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Healthcare that doesn’t bankrupt you
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Food that’s both affordable and worth eating
None of it is futuristic. All of it feels further away than ever.
That’s not tech, that’s policy. Technologically there are no holdups to this, capitalism just needs it to not be so
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I thought VR/AR would be farther along. There was a pitch 10 years ago that VR would be the “final platform” in that anything a phone, TV, tablet, or computer could do could be easily emulated in VR.
Unfortunately it’s still all walled gardens. Also nobody wants to wear that shit for more than an hour.
More specifically I thought one of the approaches to an omni-treadmill would catch on enough for an at-home model to be available to the public.
There are a few that you can buy, they just aren’t cheap. KAT Walk is a usable omni-“treadmill”, FreeAim has their motorized shoes. Again, not cheap, but still within the budget of a motivated enthusiast.
Brain implants are progressing, so I’m still hopeful to see full-dive VR in my lifetime. Also scared of how it will be enshtitfied.
I feel dumb for buying the valve index.
Better general medical science. So much of what we use is very old tech. We still can’t regrow cartligage. We still pin bones together with titanium screws. We still mostly use fiberglass casts (though better alternatives exist). We still catch the common cold.
When I went to the hospital for a broken bone, I thought this tech was already there since tech was advancing so quickly, going from Pac-Man to Super Mario 64 in 16 years.
My vision:
‘At the very least I’ll get to see a 3D image of my broken bone and maybe there’ll be ‘dentist chair tools’ that can straighten and fill up the bone like a dentist does with your teeth. I mean, we advanced a lot in computer technology right?’The reality:
‘Here’s your 1950s X-ray picture. You see that Rorschach test blotch? That’s where it’s broken. We’ve done our job, have a good day!.. Your visit is over!.. You can leave now!..’That was 30 years ago.
LED light bulbs were supposed to last a bajillion hours. When they came out around 2010-ish they were still expensive and I spent many hundreds of dollars replacing every single light bulb in my house, thinking I would basically never have to replace a light bulb again.
It’s 2026 and I now replace the LED bulbs in my house almost as often as I replaced incandescent bulbs. Seriously? LEDs are solid-state technology. There are no moving parts, no gases, no hot filaments…
I understand that it’s probably on purpose; if everyone replaced all the light bulbs in their house with LED bulbs that lasted basically forever then who would buy more light bulbs from light bulb manufacturers.
But it’s still just dumb. Either LED technology is flawed, or our economic system that incentivizes a constant cycle of replacing bulbs is flawed. This should should not exist in 2026.
Oh that’s a fun one. Original incandescents lasted a very long time. Too long (over 10,000 hrs, and there are many examples of ones that have been lit for decades!). The various manufacturers actually conspired(spent a lot of money on research and development) to a 1,000 hr operational benchmark. Profits exploded.
This is common (engineered predictable fault.)
Something is wrong with the ones you’re buying, then.
Studies show that they do, on average, last dozens of times longer. Personally I replace them way less often than incandescent.
I suppose the earliest ones were worse and there are definitely garbage ones out there. And even good brands have a did here and there. And if you have poor/inconsistent power, or placing them in hot, enclosed fixtures, they don’t perform as well as they could.
Who were the studies done by? Philips?
The DOE, Energy Star, others
I miss incandescent bulbs and would install them if I had solar panels
Buy dimmer, filament style LEDs. They don’t burn themselves out hy heat at least.
Otherwise you’re facing planned obsolescence.
When I was a kid in the 80s I thought we’d absolutely have some kind of moon base by now. More space stuff in general. What is more “future” than space?
Green energy is maybe 10 years behind where younger me would have wished it to be, it feels we’re close to some big breakthroughs. I’m still hopefully to see some game changing things in my lifetime.
There’s just really not a very useful reason outside of “because we can”, so it hasn’t really been a priority. Still, that’s kinda the point of the Artemis program, so we’re getting there.
Usefulness is no fun. Those 80s and 90s attitudes wouldn’t worry about something like that. We’d have done it just show off and/or to keep the Soviets from doing it first. Don’t tell us we have rocks at home, I want space rocks. I want a bucket full of ice from the rings of Saturn. I want a slab of something that got melted by Venus. That stuff is cool.
I hope they do something fun with Artemis. It doesn’t feel like most people are excited for space anymore and that bums me out.
For All Mankind is coming back in a few days, so that will have to do for now.
Eh, the 80s and 90s were a marked shift towards usefulness. Gotta maximize shareholder value, dontcha know.
Ability to live in balance with the earth
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Genetic-level diagnoses and treatments.
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Inexpensive, rapid genome sequencing.
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Commonplace genetic counselling for more than just pregnancy.
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Laws in place to govern the collection, use, ownership, and patenting of human genes and genetic information.
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Cloned tissues (i.e. blood, skin), organs (i.e. heart, lungs, kidneys) for transplant or repair.
I graduated university the same year the Human Genome Project first published completion. Certainly, that project uncovered more questions than answers.
Also, we’ve done an absolutely garbage job of becoming appropriate stewards of this technology. Primarily, today, it would be used to identify, segregate, subjugate, and eventually kill a portion of the population.
Laws in place to govern the collection, use, ownership, and patenting of human genes and genetic information.
I feel that for laws to exist, you first need some accidents to prompt the public outcry to get them passed. And accidents in genetics are going to be very messy indeed
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Fusion lol.
Better space tech or at least a moon base.
Modular body parts like in cyberpunk
Hoverboards.
Level 4 self driving cars.
I too thought self driving cars would be further along. It just seemed like they were already decent… so 5 to 10 more years… and we are not much further. We have self driving cars in some select cities, but they still struggle even then.
I definitely thought we’d have Ar glasses by now
this
Synthetic meat that’s actually edible/palatable
We have that already and I’ve eaten it.
I’ve tried a lot and have not found any of it very appetizing.
Most has a very rubbery texture as soon as it cools slightly.
Very unpleasant.
I’d rather just not have any meat than have it.
But it you have had the good stuff, please send me your recommendations.
Good synthetic meat exists, it’s just more expensive to produce so you usually can’t buy it at like a corner store or something
Windshield wipers that don’t smear.
A cure for all diseases and illnesses.
You thought this would happen by 2026?
I thought that by now we would’ve commercialized at scale alternative battery technologies. We’re still using lithium ion even for grid storage and EV’s.
Also, I expected we would have put a man on the moon by now.
We wouldn’t need such a battery development if we had simply invested in a standardised electrified wiring network for the motor roads. we would have lighter cars that charge their ~100 km battery while driving on the motor road so they can easily reach their destination
Maybe give cars a second pair of axles, to keep them aligned with the overhead power on the highway and to reduce the tire wear. Maybe join them together too so each individual car doesn’t have to worry about braking and the driver can basically just sleep.
This isn’t me sarcastically reinventing trains. I see why people would rather spend their commute in a private car than in a public train carriage. These features just seem genuinely useful.
What I have sarcastically reinvented is basically just self-driving cars.
