What technology has completely blown your mind?

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**kitch102**

I'm sat here watching Tomorrow's World with Stephen Hawking, and they're showing this 3d printing machine (aka additive technology), where instead of making a mold, then creating duplicates through injection molding to make, say, a dash board, you can come up with a 3d design, put it on this printer, press print and it duplicates exactly what it sees, right down to the little details.

Kinda got me thinking, "Christ if this is what we're being shown, what's deemed top secret, that we don't know about?"

So I'm interested to know what technology has completely blown your mind. I admit to being most interested in current and future (real life) technology, though the floor's open to all to discuss whatever tech they want.

Cheers!!

**Nerivant**

kitch102 wrote:
So I'm interested to know what technology has completely blown your mind.

Spoiler:

What? It's Halloween. I'm allowed to be dark.

In reality, though, the evolution of the computer and its future is pretty mind-boggling.

**kitch102**

Ha! Nice one pal

Apparently someone once said that there would only be 5 computers in the world, spread out amongst the richest royals or something (don't quote me, it's one of those "so I've heard things) and now I have an Xbox with god knows how many 100 x's the processing power of that computer in my living room, that's pretty cool

**Avatar 720**

Nerivant wrote:
kitch102 wrote:
So I'm interested to know what technology has completely blown your mind.

Spoiler:

What? It's Halloween. I'm allowed to be dark.

In reality, though, the evolution of the computer and its future is pretty mind-boggling.

I'll see that and raise you this:

Spoiler:

**mega_bassist**

My friend's smart phone has a fingerprint "scanner" you run your finger across to unlock it. Craziness.

**Grakmar**

kitch102 wrote:Apparently someone once said that there would only be 5 computers in the world, spread out amongst the richest royals or something (don't quote me, it's one of those "so I've heard things) and now I have an Xbox with god knows how many 100 x's the processing power of that computer in my living room, that's pretty cool

"I think there is a world market for about five computers."

-Thomas Watson, Chairman of IBM, 1952

Of course, this quote can't be traced back any further than a usenet forum in 1986. So, it's doubtful it's an accurate quote.

**Ahtman**

The internet. SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much porn and gaming. And I guess useful ways to communicate with other people around the world in a way never before available. Still, mostly porn and gaming.

**chromedog**

It was one of the honchos at IBM who predicted the global market for computers was around 10.

Scanning tunnelling electron microscopy did it for me.

**Toastedandy**

Pockets. I know there not a technology, but damn there useful.

**Nerivant**

Toastedandy wrote:Pockets. I know there not a technology, but damn there useful.

They are when they're bigger on the inside.

**warpcrafter**

Febreeze
triple-roll toilet paper
M&M's

**Chowderhead**

Lolcats.

Shut up, it counts!

**d-usa**

Total surveillance.

The ability for governments to track every action of citizens. Via CCTV implementing iris scanning/gait recognition/voice recognition. Via GPS in phones and cars. Whole body imaging in airports. Working on technology to detect crime before it happens, which will lead people to be charged with pre-crimes.

Dark enough for ya?

**Coolyo294**

Netflix. Undoubtedly man's greatest creation.

**malfred**

Widely available GPS.

I mean, I was the guy who would call you from the middle of
nowhere and ask you to use Google Maps to get me home.

Also, now I have someone else to blame if I get lost.

**Corpsesarefun**

malfred wrote:Socks

Fix'd

**FITZZ**

..

..I grew up when phones were mounted to walls in your house and had rotary dials , cars didn't talk and couldn't tell you with way you should go, television got a total of 7 channels ..and if the President was on...he was on every one of them, and there was no internet to see porn or fight on...you had to buy magazines and you had to either be able to back your words up or hush up.
...So...all technology blows my mind.

**ShumaGorath**

**malfred**

corpsesarefun wrote:
malfred wrote:Socks

Fix'd

Got yours.

**DIDM**

I was born 02/18/1980

I grew up with a Dad who was a tech geek. In the 31 years I have been alive computers have blown my mind every 3-6 months. I went from a few squares being a character to real life characters shooting gak. My cellphone is as powerful as my old PC, and that was nowhere near my first PC.

Dead Operating System was my first OS, and now it is just

, 8 GB Ram just because, a switch on my motherboard that auto overclocks, no BIOS BS, and a nice video card. Plus the whole thing was built by me and cheap as hell.

**sebster**

Mobile phones. They've completely changed the way we function. Used to be I'd have a phone call with a mate, and we'd set out detailed plans about where to meet and when, and if something went wrong then someone would be left standing on a street corner in the middle of the city until they got annoyed and went home. If it was for more than two people, you'd need to plan things like a week ahead of time, with all kinds of contingency plans, and you'd need exact commitments from everyone about exactly when they were going to arrive.

The other week I went to a wine festival with a whole pile of mates. No-one was particularly certain exactly who was turning up and who wasn't, most people probably didn't even decide for certain they were going until that morning. We all just showed up whenever we felt like, and messaged the others when we got there. We had no arranged place to meet if we got seperated, when my fiance bumped into a friend of hers everyone else wandered off, and we messaged them again when we were ready to meet up once more.

And that's just the phone itself, and it completely changed the way we operate. Smart phones are beginning to do the same, with the constant access to vast amounts of information right there, I think in ten years we'll look back and realise how much it's completely changed the way we operate.

**Locclo**

I think it has to be the iPod for me. I grew up with tapes and CDs, so I remember times when you got maybe 8-10 songs on a single disc. I remember carrying around the (relatively) big CD player that never fit in any pocket, just so I could have tunes on the go. And now there's this piece of technology called the iPod that can literally hold thousands of songs on a single device, I can switch to any of them at any given time, and I can, with a great deal of ease, set up my own playlists of songs I like, rather than going through the process of burning a limited CD.

And yeah, I'm aware that records went even further back (2 songs per gigantic record? Whacky!) but as I grew up in the 90s, I was more impacted by the iPod vs. CDs and tapes.

**sarpedons-right-hand**

There is so much tech that has blown my mind over the past 25 years that I've been old enough to notice. From the instant hot water kettle (I love me a cup o tea!), to the digital radio. But it's in medicine that we have made the best advances. CAT scanners, SATS testers that work in seconds, the rapid advance of cancer busting drugs etc.
I remember reading in a paper a few months ago that some boffins in Oxford (iirc), had developed a Cancer Smart Bomb that is injected into the victim. It then flows through the body actively searching for Cancerous cells. When it finds them, it wraps itself around the tumour and cuts off the supply of oxygen, effectively strangling it.

If human tests prove successful (they start next year), this has the potential to be huge.

Apart from things like this, I distinctly remember the MegaDrive blowing me away. For years I had been addicted to my Spectrum ZX81 and my NES, then along came this awesome machine. What! 16bit Graphics?! Sonic The Hedgehog! Super Monico Grand Prix!! Populous!!!

It was awesome

**girgam**

sliced bread, still my favorite

**Orlanth**

In general:

Manned space exploration.

I was under two years old during Apollo 11, yet I have an awaeness of that time, because even a tiny baby could understand that something momumental was about to occur. That awe might have gone away in the press but it never left me.

Specifically

Centrifugal gravity.

It captures my imagination, I would like to see wheel habitats in space before I die. I might yet.
I blows my mind even though we arent there yet, all space missions still do, especially if they are manned.

**Mr. Burning**

Space Exploration in general. The Hubble Telescope and its asscoiated imagery has constantly astounded me.

Also

TRACTOR BEAMS!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15535115

US space agency Nasa has funded a study of "tractor beams" to gather samples for analysis in future missions.

The $100,000 (£63,000) award will be used to examine three laser-based approaches to do what has until now been the stuff of science fiction.

Several tractor-beam ideas have been published in the scientific literature but none has yet been put to use.

Nasa scientist Paul Stysley says the approach could "enhance science goals and reduce mission risk".

"Though a mainstay in science fiction, and Star Trek in particular, laser-based trapping isn't fanciful or beyond current technological know-how," said Dr Stysley of Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Center, whose group was awarded the research funding.

High-beam profile

The team has identified three possible options to capture and gather up sample material either in future orbiting spacecraft or on planetary rovers.

One is an adaptation of a well-known effect called "optical tweezers" in which objects can be trapped in an area where two laser beams cross. However, this version of the approach would require an atmosphere in which to operate.

The other two methods rely on specially shaped laser beams - instead of a beam whose intensity peaks at its centre and tails off gradually, the team is investigating two alternatives: solenoid beams and Bessel beams.

The intensity peaks within a solenoid beam are found in a spiral around the line of the beam itself, while a Bessel beam's intensity rises and falls in peaks and troughs at higher distances from the beam's line.

I would also say the internet as a whole.

"Who wants to read fething newspapers and magazines online, It will NEVER catch on?" Attrib Mr. Burning Circa 1994

Yep, how wrong I was, thank you for many happy hours shopping, browsing for pointless information and Porn.

**CT GAMER**

The design and mass production of pizza bites and/or the hot pocket...

**kronk**

Cell phones and internet have made ~~cheating~~ meeting new people so much easier!

**Melissia**

http://www.economist.com/node/21534748

This.

**mega_bassist**

kronk wrote:Cell phones and internet have made ~~cheating~~ meeting new people so much easier!

Bahaha, it's only funny because it's true