scipaSix Fantastic Tech Ideas
November 28th 2007 18:15
To be honest, the original title is 'Six Ideas That Will Change the World' (my boldface)... but I couldn't bear the idea of committing to the ideas that these technologies will 'change the world'.
After all, it'd be easy to argue that every technology, simply by existing, has changed the world. Existence vs. non-existence is change. However, in this context, it would seem that 'change' really means 'have a profound effect on', and that's what I can't commit to.
In fact, these technologies are nothing special, but I'm just pleased that Esquire managed to veer away from the exasperatingly common 'Nanobots! Solar Power! Virtual Reality!' prediction that mark these types of articles.
Although, to be fair, no ones heralded nanobots, solar power and VR for years. That's so, like, 2001.
Anyway, the Esquire list goes:
1) Breaking down the Firewall - some hackers are allowing people in censored countries to piggyback banned material from other IP addresses. It's nothing special, but it's a half-hearted good cause. I'm not blown away by this.
2) Electronic Skin - these bad boys from Princeton found a way to make metal rubbery, which means that electronics could be made on a flexible circuit. This is definitely a move to the future, and I've seen other technologies that aim for the same goal - organic transistors, printable circuits, etc. It's a cool thought, but old news for a savvy cat like me. Dig?
3) The Pollution Magnet - a novel idea... fry rust in a pan with oil and lye and the resulting mix can be picked up with a magnet and used to clean arsenic from water. The slick idea here is that it's a simple enough process for villagers in rural areas affected by polluted water to use. Will it really change the world? It needs to clean a whole lot more things than arsenic, I think.
4) Machines That Fix Themselves - snorrre... while the research behind this idea is some great work, really, this field has been plodding along for years. How is this going to change the world? The writers at Esquire must think that we'll send a robot back in time to stop another robot from killing this dude when he was a young kid. Luckily, his tough-as-nails mom will intervene and we'll teach the robot some really ironically funny one-liners.
5) Burying our CO2 - ergh... this is the best solution? It's not so bad, pumping CO2 down into the ocean, at depths where it'll liquefy and won't float back up. Sure, ok. Really, to change the world, I think we'll need a better way of dealing with waste products.
6) The Next Plastic - researchers at Cornell are making a biodegradable plastic from a substance found in orange peels... out of all these ideas, I think this could have the greatest impact. While we need to reduce the amount of plastic waste we produce, it'd be fantastic if the plastic just degraded on its own accord. Nice!
* this image is from the Esquire article.
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