What technology do you wish was out there but isn't yet?

theacoustician said:
I bet you'd see an assload of change if you told people they could drive around for $0.25/gallon and it would only take a 2-3 hour service visit and $1000-$2000 dollars (basically what it takes to make a diesel engine compatible with bio-diesel).
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Oh I know all that.
But trying to spread that, THEN trying to get the EPA to allow the building of a refinery or even the ADAPTING of current refineries is next to impossible because they have their heads shoved so far up their asses.

I liked what crazymike was thinking: produce biodiesel yourself. I'm going to have the opportunity to talk to my grandfather about it. If I can find a way to mass-produce it for myself, I'm set and I'm going to take advantage of my knowledge if I'm able to do it.
 
The only problem with biodiesel is that it's still limited to diesel engines, which have their own issues.
Synthetic oil/gas would be the best because gas engines are really more amazing than people think. They aren't just fuel-burning machines, they can become truly productive when you really get down and dirty with them.
 
wr3kt said:
Oh I know all that.
But trying to spread that, THEN trying to get the EPA to allow the building of a refinery or even the ADAPTING of current refineries is next to impossible because they have their heads shoved so far up their asses.

I liked what crazymike was thinking: produce biodiesel yourself. I'm going to have the opportunity to talk to my grandfather about it. If I can find a way to mass-produce it for myself, I'm set and I'm going to take advantage of my knowledge if I'm able to do it.
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I have one better for you. Start a business to collect old oil from fast food joints. Do it free for them. Filter and refine it a bit and you should be able to use it. A person here in Atlanta has a system developed where if you can get the oil, the personal refinery costs about $50k with very little ongoing costs.
 
theacoustician said:
I have one better for you. Start a business to collect old oil from fast food joints. Do it free for them. Filter and refine it a bit and you should be able to use it. A person here in Atlanta has a system developed where if you can get the oil, the personal refinery costs about $50k with very little ongoing costs.
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I gotta know how to refine it first. :D
 
theacoustician said:
Oh, I'm not disagreeing. I think bio-diesel and ethanol could be in much wider use TODAY if we wanted them. We could elminate farm subsidies if we had all our farmers raising plants for fuel. It would also boost the economy and lower forgein dependencies. Why we don't is way beyond me.
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Its like when gas went from leaded to unleaded there were people who hated it because it somehow stole performance. people think the same thing about bio-diesel and ethanol thus why its always been a mixture but not a conversion outright. However if they did do it outright even if all the corn we produce went into it it wouldn't completely get us away from all the oil that we use.
 
theacoustician said:
Buy the dude's personal refinery. Or research bio-diesel a bit. Apparently its not hard to make cooking oil into fuel.
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I've researched it.
It takes a few trial runs in order to figure out necessary balances and scrubbing.
And that's in small batches.
Up the batch amount and it increases the problems.
 
1. A pre-emptive OS. The OS would know that it's Wednesday and on Wednesday I check the logs on the back-up. Or at home it knows that on Monday I go grocery shopping so it shoots out my grocery list. An OS w/ an AI in it I guess.

2. Automated interstates - I drive up on the interstate/freeway and the on board computer takes over the driving for me. The cars communicate w/ on another so that they can keep them selves safely spaced apart and brake in an efficient manner. Keep the processing in the cars - distributed - and just bury sensors in the road so they know where the lanes are. At first you could have a lane or lanes designated for this w/ the other lanes old school self driving. You get to your exit and you take over again.
 
Ryokurin said:
Its like when gas went from leaded to unleaded there were people who hated it because it somehow stole performance. people think the same thing about bio-diesel and ethanol thus why its always been a mixture but not a conversion outright. However if they did do it outright even if all the corn we produce went into it it wouldn't completely get us away from all the oil that we use.
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Yes, but it would eliminate the farm subsidies he was talking about.
We're paying farmes to NOT grow, why don't we stop doing that, and allow private companies to pay farmers to grow the proper plants. Economic boost right there. Not just for farmers, but the companies paying for it and their employees. It creates another industry that is needed badly and won't burst.
 
Integrated hand / eye tracking technology. No more input devices on our computers. We control everything by looking at it, moving our hands, using our body.

...I remember reading a while back they were developing these visors that would beam HUDs to your eye. An example they gave was a car mechanic who would put the visor on and anything he looked at would have an overlay read out...so he'd look at a manifold and the visor would display serial number of the part.

This stuff is getting pretty close to reality as it is. I mean stuff like the eye-toy, while just a novelty now, I think represents the kind of component interaction we'll have in the future.

Oh and lightsabers. I want a lightsaber.
 
lemon_fresh said:
2. Automated interstates - I drive up on the interstate/freeway and the on board computer takes over the driving for me. The cars communicate w/ on another so that they can keep them selves safely spaced apart and brake in an efficient manner. Keep the processing in the cars - distributed - and just bury sensors in the road so they know where the lanes are. At first you could have a lane or lanes designated for this w/ the other lanes old school self driving. You get to your exit and you take over again.
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Technically, they can do that right now, honestly, but it comes down to people giving up their "right" to drive.
Not everyone's going to want to use that, and they'll be the one's that disrupt a harmony among ones that do.
It becomes dangerous really fast.
 
lemon_fresh said:
2. Automated interstates - I drive up on the interstate/freeway and the on board computer takes over the driving for me. The cars communicate w/ on another so that they can keep them selves safely spaced apart and brake in an efficient manner. Keep the processing in the cars - distributed - and just bury sensors in the road so they know where the lanes are. At first you could have a lane or lanes designated for this w/ the other lanes old school self driving. You get to your exit and you take over again.
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Kinda like in Minority Report.... cool
 
wr3kt said:
Technically, they can do that right now, honestly, but it comes down to people giving up their "right" to drive.
Not everyone's going to want to use that, and they'll be the one's that disrupt a harmony among ones that do.
It becomes dangerous really fast.
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I see your point but there are ways to prevent people from coming over into the special lanes. Just like the carpool lanes or go even one better and use an actual barrier to keep the lanes seperated. And really what I see is a hybrid system where you would voluntarily give up control or decide to drive under manual control in the other lanes.
 
lemon_fresh said:
I see your point but there are ways to prevent people from coming over into the special lanes. Just like the carpool lanes or go even one better and use an actual barrier to keep the lanes seperated. And really what I see is a hybrid system where you would voluntarily give up control or decide to drive under manual control in the other lanes.
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Yea, that makes more sense. :D
 
Technology, I don't mind. Knowledge is more important to me and there's lots out there waiting to be discovered.
 
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