Why Don't We Invent That Tomorrow?

museumpeace writes "In the NYTimes book review blog, David Itzkoff takes a look at a new book devoted to predicting which 'science fiction' technologies may really fly some day. The author is Michio Kaku, one of the inventors of string theory, so he bears a hearing. His picks include light sabers, invisibility and force fields." Which sci-fi tech do you think needs to get invented over the weekend?

That's an easy one!

[The Ancients]

Which sci-fi tech do you think needs to get invented over the weekend?

I don't expect much. Time travel of course. D'uh.

String Theory

[eln]

I dunno, string theory always seemed to me like something you would come up with at 3am while smoking a joint after having spent the past 6 hours polishing off a keg with your physicist friends.

"Hey man, you know what would be awesome? What if the whole Universe was really made up of a bunch of vibrating strings?"

"Whoa...I think you just blew my mind man...Hey, don't bogart that!"

One word

[AresTheImpaler]

Which sci-fi tech do you think needs to get invented over the weekend?

Fembots

Re:"Mr Fusion"

[The Ancients]

Or something to cancel out the noise of accordion players.

Already been invented. Called a gun.

bears a hearing?

[Red Flayer]

FTS:

The author is Michio Kaku, one of the inventors of string theory, so he bears a hearing

I've got a friend who also likes to talk about things that should be invented, he's a mechanic, so he hears a bearing.

Re:I could certainly use...

[eln]

I don't see why you're putting all this pressure on GM to get all of this done. Surely Ford or even, God help us, Chrysler could pitch in too?

Re:String Theory

[PC and Sony Fanboy]

"DUDE ... have you ever seen a molecule on WEED? Totally different ... its all ... stringy"
motions a bunch of other scientists over to look in the microscope
"Duuude... why're we staring into a bong?"

Obvious answer

[Anonymous Coward]

Dupe detection for news websites.

Re:That's an easy one!

[The Ancients]

It's worse than you thought - you're mom was real cute when she was younger ;-)

My pick ...

[garett_spencley]

Automated lawn sprinkler systems capable of delivering hydrochloric acid.

I'm sick of those damned teenagers hanging out on my lawn.

Duh

[Gat0r30y]

Duke Nukem Forever!

Been Done

[my $anity 0]

We are sexy, sexy von Neumann Machines

Re:That's an easy one!

[TheLazySci-FiAuthor]

It's worse than you thought - you're mom was real cute when she was younger ;-)

That sounds like something my Dad would say....hey wait a minute!

Re:That's an easy one!

[Soleen]

I just invented a time machine, without the problem that you described.

It has some limitations but it already works!
Limitations are following: it drives in one direction only (forward), and with speed no faster than 60 seconds a minute!

This in 60 seconds you can travel 1 minute in future!

Re:bears a hearing?

[PiMuNu]

The author is Michio Kaku, one of the inventors of string theory, so he bears a hearing.

After all, an inventor of string theory must be an expert on science fiction...

Re:"Mr Fusion"

[Weaselmancer]

How about an identical accordion 180 degrees out of phase with the offending accordion?

Re:Kaku bears a hearing?

[gardyloo]

The hunters arrow creates a hole a few inches in diameter - the hydrogen bomb creates a crater many hundreds of meters in diameter, so a weapon of a few thousand years from now should be able to create a blemish in matter approximately 1000 miles in size, a few thousand years past that and the weapon would make a big hole almost 6 million miles in size.

Yay for extrapolation through two points! Apparently, several thousand years ago, hunters' darts could actually *fill up* craters!

CowboyNeal replicator

[that_itch_kid]

Replication! That way, every Slashdot guy and gal can have his or her very own CowboyNeal!! Even your pet CowboyNeal can have his or her very own CowboyNeal!!

A peace ray.

[smellsofbikes]

We need about 6.8 billion of those.
Although if someone could recreate the "camera" that Oliver Wendell Jones [wikipedia.org] first built, that'd be good for some laughs, too.

I'd settle for a teleporter, if worse came to worse.

Re:Kaku bears a hearing?

[TheLazySci-FiAuthor]

A few inches in diameter? Is that a ballista in your pocket, or are you happy to see me?

Both!

Needs inventing by Saturday night

[snowful]

Free beer and pizza

Re:Lightsabers...

[techno-vampire]

Voila! Nice hissing, glowing column of energy that looks like a sword, cuts like a plasma torch, and can be yielded with one hand.

Thank you, Sir Rodney, [wikimedia.org] for that very important piece of information.

Re:bears a hearing?

[proxy318]

Yeah, well I've got a friend who's a fisherman, and he bears a herring. I've also got a friend who's a pirate, and he wears an earring. I could do this all day.

Re:That's an easy one!

[ByteSlicer]

you're mom was real cute

I already thought time travel was weird, but this? He's his own mother !?

Re:Von Neumann Machines

[Oktober Sunset]

Interfaces with the human nervous system? Try Meningitis.

Re:That's an easy one!

[_Hellfire_]

I suppose the easy way to find out would be to send a series of transponders out into the past, and then analyse the location data you already gathered.

My brain just came up with a scenario whereby a bunch of NASA scientists sit around a boardroom table and plan such an experiment. It'd go something like:

week 1: build/program receivers on earth
week 2: listen for signal
week 3: build probe
week 4: send probe back in time to week 2, and record precisely what time and date you did it so... you can analyse signal from week 2 and figure out how far earth moved!

And then my brain 'sploded.

Re:That's an easy one!

[Anonymous Coward]

With a time machine at hand, why would he 'wait'?

I want to believe!

[Jorophose]

I get to have something invented over the weekend??

GNU Hurd!

Re:My pick

[shadwstalkr]

Physically staying 27 until I die from something other then natural causes.

I vote for asphyxiation by breasts.

Re:String Theory

[toastee]

My bong has been known to cause passage of time to speed up in a very localized fasion.

Re:Fembots...

[Viceroy Potatohead]

Granted it's not sci-fi tech, but...Fsck that sh!t. If I have my choice of sci-fi female/femaleish characters, I'll take the Bene Gesserit over lousy robots, any day...

Crap... now I want to create a lulzcat image of a 300lbs, slick skinned, unshaven geek with exaggerated, plaintive eyes and the caption "U Has Bene Gesserits?"

Re:bears a hearing?

[fucket]

A friend of mine fondly remembers serving on the same ship with your pirate friend. Sometimes, when he closes his eyes, he still hears the ARRRRRing.

Re:That's an easy one!

[c4miles]

If only there were some way to account for both Time And the Relative Dimension In Space.

Re:That's an easy one!

[Clueless Nick]

Everybody knows that when you travel in time, your arrival at your destination is heralded by strong winds, electric storms, and thunder. Don't believe me? Refer to these:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088247/ [imdb.com]
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103064/ [imdb.com]
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0181852/ [imdb.com]
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118689/ [imdb.com]

No rational car driver, sane bird or other sentient being would want to pass through that!

Re:That's an easy one!

[Fred_A]

Well, maybe you could use the earth's gravity then; you would step into your time travel vehicle, move back a second, fall back to earth, move back another second, fall back to earth again (or reposition yourself). If you do it quickly, you wouldn't notice, and you'd still be on earth when you arrived.

That's pretty much the system I'm using, except I'm moving forward in time, not back, and it takes a second to move a second. But it's very reliable so I'm confident I'll get there eventually.