The rules are simple.

Winner will declared in 20 years.

No bad mouthing ideas you think suck, even if they do.

If you see an idea you like, and can expand on it, do so.

If you're going to patent it, don't put it here. All ideas are fair game by he who does the work developing it. These can also be used in stories, SciFi and other.

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I'll start.

Lights will be cheap. I don't mean their initial cost, I mean their use costs. Today we are seeing LEDs and batteries going through the roof on technology. In ten years we'll see flashlights that can stay on for week, months, or even years of continuous use. House lighting will be cool, and cost pennies per year.

Home power plants (HPP) will become common. The exact tech isn't important, but it will be relatively cheap. The power grid won't die, but it will have to evolve, and serve as backup.

On a related note, house computers will become common too. One of their jobs is to allocate which devices get power from the HPP if the grid goes down. Things like the refrigerator that must keep running. It will offer choices on the other devices. Which is more important at the time, Home Computer or Air Conditioning?

TV as we know it will disappear. It will be replaced by the Internet. From a user point of view it will not be that obvious, but we see the beginnings of it now.

Wired internet (or FIOS) will not die, probably never, for security reasons. Public Internet will become available almost everywhere, and match broadband speeds, for things like TV and entertainment. Hacking will still be a major problem.

Your turn.

 

I would enter John D. McDonald's short story, "Spectator Sport" as a very likely vision. The retirement you receive consists of being literally wired into a virtual reality experience. The experiences run for years.

In another sense, Huxley's Brave New World will win out over Orwell's Big Brother.

 

I predict that greed and power will continue as in the past in many
forms.We are in the castle mode now,the gated communities are the
moats.The armed men will prevail,brain power has peaked,outer space is
is only for dreamer. There nothing out there,we have so many people
that disease will be the equalizer.There will be a new disease,brain demise
from taking in repeated Information,no cure.Famous people will cease to
exsist. The only expression left, Why me GOD.

 

While we're tossing out ideas, here's one that occurred to me the other
day: undersea mining. While doing some general-purpose reading, I
came across the fact that, for instance, the world supply of tin is due to
run out in about 20 years.

While recycling will be part of the solution, I assume that people
will still be interested in finding new mines, especially once the prices
go through the roof. Since there won't be any land sources left, the
obvious option will be to look undersea. Already we have offshore
oil drilling; my prediction is that in 20 years, offshore mining will become
common and provide most of the supply for certain metals and minerals.

As for how it might go, I suppose that submarines would do the prospecting.
Once a site is identified, something like an oil rig platform would be built on
the surface of the ocean over the mine. Since it would be too dangerous
for human miners, the mining would all be done by robots controlled from
atop the platform. The only time humans would go down is occasionally
when a submarine or deep sea diver would be sent for inspection or repair.

Expanding on Bill's idea: The cheap electricity for lighting houses, etc.
could come from fusion. I'll be optimistic and predict that in 20 years,
the fusor, or something similar will be brought to the point where it
releases more energy than goes in to run it. The Boron reaction which
the fusor people consider would be especially appealing because a. the
source of the fuel is readily available borax (put 20 mules to work
in your power plant ) and b. the reaction does not make neutrons,
thus avoiding the main source of hazard. Because of these facts
and because fusors tend to fit on table tops, they might work as the
home power plants Bill talks about. Then, instead of paying the
power bill, one would pick up some enriched boron for the home fusor from time to time. The largest cost involved would be that
of separating out the B11 --- for safety's sake, we'd want quite
pure fuel to avoid neutrons from fusing contaminants..

Third prediction: AAC will become the standard textbook for
neophyte EE's and hobbyists

 

Great a Junior member got this Thread back on track a new awareness
for the future.