> With our current level of technology, that level of polish is impossible.
Hence the anticipation and excitement. I can’t wait for jet packs, hoverboards, and flying cars too - one can geek out over cool tech even if it ain’t right around the corner.
> jet packs, hoverboards, and flying cars too - one can geek out over cool tech even if it ain’t right around the corner
Two of those three are entirely doable (and have been done) - the main problems with them are 1) economy, and 2) that, while cool for individual, they'd be absolutely disastrous if ubiquitous. You don't want everyone to get themselves a jet pack or flying car, not unless 99.9% of flying is done by a foolproof AI.
> > This is a tech and nerd forum. Let us be excited about new technology.
It's the same old re-inventing the wheel with Musk cult of personality marketing slapped on top of it.
New thing of the 2020s is the mRNA vaccine which solved a big problem, people took it and then endlessly bitched about it while mirin and salivating at the Tesla cybertruck or the 300k Tesla Roadster which will never enter into production.
It doesn't pay to build stuff and innovate nowadays, it's more about conning people into thinking that some stuff will be built sometime in the future™ and it will be revolutionary, and then move the goalposts perpetually into the future™
>I'd guess we're very close to the peak of attainable technology.
Not many people, and pretty much no research scientist, would agree with that statement. I can personally think of several technologies I'm 100% certain will exist in < 40 years that will drastically alter everything about day to day life.
> The cool thing is, technology innovations are accelerating as well, so we will develop better engines faster than the old ones will arrive to the destination.
So all we have to do is wait long enough, and at some point we will have already gotten there.
> There are no garage spaceships, automobile plants, novel surgical procedures (I hope), or nuclear reactors (excepting that wacko who tried to make one from material from hundreds of smoke detectors and turned his yard into a superfund site).
The thing is, when I realized this, these things stopped being cool.
I think there was a lot of hope a long time ago that future technological progress was going to be a lot more open to individuals than it actually is now.
> Any specific tech or breakthrough you are personally waiting for coming to fruition ?
Honestly, no. When I look back 40 years when there was little tech, and think about the future with more tech... I'm quite comfortable where we are now. We are in a decent middle ground where we have vast improvements vs. my childhood. But we also are a bit overwhelmed - society is still navigating the current tech and its impacts to our selves, our governments, our culture, and figuring out how to integrate tech with the whole of humanity. I think slowing down for a while to get all that sorted out is just fine before we make any new large moves.
> Every few years a shiny new toy enters the hype cycle
I'd agree, but it's not good to forget that every few decades a new shiny toy shines so brightly that it razes two whole cities to the ground in seconds.
Hence the anticipation and excitement. I can’t wait for jet packs, hoverboards, and flying cars too - one can geek out over cool tech even if it ain’t right around the corner.
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