What technology is mocked today but will be common within 20 years?
Electricity, computers, and the Internet were all roundly mocked at one point, but now those anti-critics are dismissed as myopic and backward.
What technology, if any, will make today's critics look foolish in 20 years?
I don't know if it's "mocked" exactly, but if nuclear energy is not much more common in 20 years, something has gone very wrong in the world akin to a major economic collapse, famine, a real plague, or a world war.
Nuclear energy is something that should unite both sides of the political aisle: whether or not you're scared of climate change, everybody wants access to cheap energy to power industry and human needs.
Onions. People devalue onions, but they add a deeper taste and texture to pretty much every single stir fry or stew.
There are very few dishes that can't be enhanced by adding just a little bit of diced onion (even many sweet or salty dishes), and many dishes benefit from adding fresh onion as well. There are also so many different varieties of onions, and each has its own subtly different taste. Learning which kind of onion is the right kind to use for which dish is a fun and rewarding pastime. Not to mention that they can be caramelized in a non-stick pan without adding oil, which is pretty useful.
In 20 years, people will no longer be sleeping on this, and as a result onions will be much more expensive than they are today. I've started going out at night and burying onions in the front yard of my apartment complex so that I'll be able to cash out when this happens.
Personal assistants like Siri or Hello Google.
They’re not be leveraged well now, but having an assistant to remind you about a complex pill regimen or physical therapy exercises will be huge for medical care (for better and worse).
Even stuff like adding things to a grocery list, then mapping across to a shopping app is mostly possible now with issues; in twenty years, that barrier will be gone.
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Also, the Yanko sink/toilet to save water. We gotta stop wasting drinkable water.
https://www.yankodesign.com/2010/01/20/all-in-one-loo-with-a...
- CO2 harvesting
- Desalination
- Nuclear power (fission & fusion)
- Robotic labor & automation
- Sustainable 3d printed structures
- EV’s
- Urban cooling chimneys
- Plant-based food tech
- Genetic engineering
- Synthetic human organs
- Weight loss meds
- Synthetic blood
- Augmented cognition
- Robotic medicine
- Online higher education
…as a start
Google Glasses got mocked 10 years ago, maybe in 10 years AR glasses will be common.
AI content generation most likely.
The DALL-E/GitHub Copilot conversations are a nice hint. They were mocked for being if/else statements or "a solution looking for a problem" 1-2 years ago. Today, we're having conversations on whether they're moral; a hint that they actually represent a threat to artists.
I think they'll probably become similar to tractors or digital marketing in the future. Despite tractors, farmers still have to do hard labor, they just make more output from their endurance. Digital marketing didn't kill offline marketing. But they'll all still change the nature of jobs.
It’s unlikely that blockchain / NFT’s will become widely adopted. History proves that human’s like a central authority, just not one that actively works against them.
Crypto / Blockchains.
Since this question routinely comes up on HN, I gathered a few legit examples[0] of how Crypto is helping.
I am also willing to have a bet about overall Crypto market cap[1] at the end of this decade (11:59pm PST on 31st Dec 2020) - I bet it will be more than 1T USD vs 932B today.
[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32406095
[1] the number at the top of https://coinmarketcap.com/
Maybe VR or AR. Maybe people will actually be wearing AR glasses and those will be the new smart phones.
Almost certainly self driving vehicles of all kinds. Even in the absence of any major ML algorithm breakthrough, I believe there is enough work already accomplished where the industry can grind out a well functioning solution in 20 years. This kind of time frame is long enough where I think that level 5 fully self driven cars will be available from major brands at prices that will make it affordable even for middle class buyers.
Vertical farming, it's a great way to grow food for the masses without having to clear land. It reduces the water and fuel needed to feed a city.
Internal Combustion Engines running on fossil fuels
> Electricity, computers, and the Internet were all roundly mocked at one point
What?
UV umbrellas for summer. People love getting tanned, and you'll see almost nobody protecting themselves against the sun in summer. In 20 years, with 50 degrees Celsius during summer for consecutive weeks, you won't get out of your house in summer (and if you have to, you'll go out using long sleeve t-shirts, a cap and a UV umbrella). Now you're probably laughing... exactly my point.
Fusion. The current pace of research is extremely slow. The Wendelstein 7-X, one of the most advanced fusion experiments, was designed on super computers almost 30 years ago, since which huge advances have been made in materials and simulations. Also fusion has always had an uphill battle against entrenched petrochemical interests, that may change in the coming decades.
Recumbent vehicles like velomobiles: https://trisled.com.au/hpv-type/road/ These bikes are insanely fast. An untrained person can easily keep up with Tour de France riders. Now add a small 300W electric motor to it and you don't need a car for most transportation at all. Their Achilles' heel is that carbon fiber production is labor intensive so velomobiles are expensive since their frames are made of carbon fiber. If someone could automate carbon fiber manufacturing and bring down costs they could revolutionize urban transportation.
mRNA immunizations. I think we're right around the corner from finding a lot of really great and useful applications for that technology.
20 years from now we should have enough data on its applications that there will be simple treatments and cures for many lifelong afflictions.
Robotic surgury. Robots will be ubiquitous in the operating room, and more than just the "dumb" teleoperated ones we have now, but ones that watch what's going on and help.
Transdermal delivery(through skin) of vitamins and other substances/medications. I’ve been using various products since 2017 and they work. No need for needle injections or large pills.
Biologics in Healthcare. Most traditional cancer treatments will be rendered obsolete, many forms of cancer will be cured with a "simple" (in use only) injection or pill.
internal combustion engines and fossil fuels. once electric crashes the grid and we lose the lithium war with china , people will pay life savings for a gas generator
Analog computing for hyper-efficient on-device ML.
I'm trying to think of technologies "roundly mocked" twenty years ago that are common today.
If NFTs actually become widely adopted it's gonna be a wild plot twist.
Network science applications to medicine.
- Lab-grown/3D-printed meat
- Nuclear power
- AR
- EVs
- Alternative style EVs like the Arcimoto.
privacy and ad blocking, fully synthetic vaccines, 3G mobile.