Which field of science holds the most potential in the coming century

[untypable]

testing

[Jack Flak]

Your test has Failed.

[AllAboutSoul]

whoopsy. :cheese:

[Usehername]

I'm very intrested to hear thoughts aobut this... but am entirely unqualified to do anything but guess.

[reason]

Astrology

[The_Liquid_Laser]

It depends on what you mean by potential. I voted for Robotics and AI, because I think it has the most potential for new technology. However if you want to know what has the most potential to make money I'd say alternative energy sources.

[Jack Flak]

It's still silly to lump robotics and AI. If AI gets going, robotics and everything else in the list will be taken care of.

[Kora]

Biotechnology. Well, I'd like to.

[Randomnity]

Wasn't this a longer thread somewhere, or am I going crazy?

Uhh...I'd vote for a combination of at least two of those at once.

For instance, a research project I'm looking into involves a combination of nanotech with biotech.

[disregard]

I say computers, because of the demand. Everyone wants one. Everyone thinks they need one. Money is a great incentive.

[Uberfuhrer]

Nanotechnology.

[kuranes]

Wasn't this a longer thread somewhere, or am I going crazy?

Uhh...I'd vote for a combination of at least two of those at once.

For instance, a research project I'm looking into involves a combination of nanotech with biotech.
Ditto.

I guess they wanted a poll attached to it this time. I can't recall if the other one had one. Since Nano starts with miniaturizing things, it could miniaturize computers and other items on the list.

[Aimahn]

Great point about Nano Tech, I think one of its greatest potentials is to be used in conjunction with other sciences and technologies. In terms of computers I think the future lies not necessarily in improving the current technology but utilizing it in a novel way. I think there is already enough advancements and always will be in computers, so people should invest more time in using them in an effort to advance other fields.

Basically I'm a big proponent of advancing knowledge and expertise in one area, while at the same time keeping an eye out for the interesting ways you can apply them in different situations.

[Nocapszy]

Potential for what?

[Nocapszy]

I say computers, because of the demand. Everyone wants one. Everyone thinks they need one. Money is a great incentive.

Surely that's why they're being sold for as low as $100 brand new.

[Babylon Candle]

the biotech is waaaay far ahead primed to strike above all of those.

its getting cheaper by the quarter year to have someones genome mapped. eventually it will be like 100 bucks and everyone will be doing it. With this in hand, we will gain a better and better idea of what problems originate where in the genome. Once we know the genes involved, drugs to fix it become much more a reality. Also, with the genetics info becoming common to each person, Preventative medicine will become an ACTUALITY rather than some feel good health psychology bullshit.

[Didums]

String Theory, there is no debate. Understanding of String Theory leads to understanding all other fields, it could very well be the base theory ontop of which everything else can be explained

[Babylon Candle]

String Theory, there is no debate. Understanding of String Theory leads to understanding all other fields, it could very well be the base theory ontop of which everything else can be explained

is it really a testable theory? will we have to wait for a few designs AFTER the hadron collider?

[kyuuei]

It's a bit of a vague test! I wanted to choose so many... >.>..

I definitely chose computers because not only are they NOT going away, but they'll continue to advance out of necessity and otherwise. New technology is always sprouting up for them.

As far as what needs attention, that would definitely be Alternative energy sources. but I also feel the research behind nanotechnology could become beautifully useful in the near future.

Medical research is another that can only get better with time and hard work.. but it's neither going to decrease or become dramatically important throughout the century. It'll continue to progress as it has throughout the ages, one discovery and piece at a time.

Robotics and AI just rock.

Global warming ftl. I like my environment.. but I don't think my lungs are going to rupture from the sun tomorrow. Or in the next 100 years.

[Splittet]

I voted nano technology, because it will push all the other technologies, and is necessary for pushing them. But it's all interconnected... Some of the problems nano technology will solve are poverty and global warming...

[Antisocial one]

Impossible to determine.

[Little Linguist]

Dude, I don't know, but I certainly hope they do NOT 'cure' immortality. :shock:

[ygolo]

I thought the intention of the OP was to create a poll to be merged with the other thread.

I originally said the next advance would be some combination of things we haven't yet labeled. That's still what I believe.

Still, I've recently been reviewing the research on various fields, and I have to say genomics (which is most appropriately placed under bio-tech) is yielding the most promising looking research.

This affects a lot of other fields, including energy research (researchers have created a biological hydrogen fuel-cell, and also designed variants of e-coli and yeast to "ferment" fuel).

The ability to genetically design organisms that produce and consume what we want is phenomenal, and growing at exponential pace.

If proper VC funding is given to this field, it will make Moore's Law look quaint by comparison (though genomics makes extensive use of bio-informatics and therefore computing).

[Splittet]

I originally said the next advance would be some combination of things we haven't yet labeled. That's still what I believe.

I think you are wrong about that. Here you can read about how far Raymond Kurzweil thinks we will reach developing existing technologies: Raymond Kurzweil - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Kurzweil) Some of the things he predicts:

2020
* Personal computers will have the same processing power as human brains.

2020s
* Highly advanced medical nanobots will perform detailed brainscans on live patients.
* Accurate computer simulations of the entire human brain will exist due to these hyperaccurate brainscans, and the workings of the brain will be understood.
* Nanobots capable of entering the bloodstream to "feed" cells and extract waste will exist (though not necessarily be in wide use) by the end of this decade. They will make the normal mode of human food consumption obsolete.
* By the late 2020s, nanotech-based manufacturing will be in widespread use, radically altering the economy as all sorts of products can suddenly be produced for a fraction of their traditional-manufacture costs. The true cost of any product is now the amount it takes to download the design schematics.
* By the later part of this decade, virtual reality will be so high-quality that it will be indistinguishable from real reality.
* The threat posed by genetically engineered pathogens permanently dissipates by the end of this decade as medical nanobots--infinitely more durable, intelligent and capable than any microorganism--become sufficiently advanced.
* A computer passes the Turing test by the last year of the decade (2029), meaning that it is a Strong AI and can think like a human (though the first A.I. is likely to be the equivalent of a very stupid human). This first A.I. is built around a computer simulation of a human brain, which was made possible by previous, nanotech-guided brainscanning.

2030s
* Mind uploading becomes possible.
* Nanomachines could be directly inserted into the brain and could interact with brain cells to totally control incoming and outgoing signals. As a result, truly full-immersion virtual reality could be generated without the need for any external equipment. Afferent nerve pathways could be blocked, totally canceling out the "real" world and leaving the user with only the desired virtual experience.
* Using brain nanobots, recorded or real-time brain transmissions of a person's daily life known as "experience beamers" will be available for other people to remotely experience. This is very similar to how the characters in Being John Malkovich were able to enter the mind of Malkovich and see the world through his eyes.
* Recreational uses aside, nanomachines in peoples' brains will allow them to greatly expand their cognitive, memory and sensory capabilities, to directly interface with computers, and to "telepathically" communicate with other, similarly augmented humans via wireless networks.
* Human body 2.0 (as Kurzweil calls it) is incrementally accumulated into this decade. It consists of a nanotechnological system of nourishment and circulation, obsolescing many internal organs, and an improved skeleton.

2045: The Singularity

* $1000 buys a computer a billion times more intelligent than every human combined. This means that average and even low-end computers are vastly smarter than even highly intelligent, unenhanced humans.
* The Singularity occurs as artificial intelligences surpass human beings as the smartest and most capable life forms on the Earth. Technological development is taken over by the machines, who can think, act and communicate so quickly that normal humans cannot even comprehend what is going on. The machines enter into a "runaway reaction" of self-improvement cycles, with each new generation of A.I.s appearing faster and faster. From this point onwards, technological advancement is explosive, under the control of the machines, and thus cannot be accurately predicted.
* The Singularity is an extremely disruptive, world-altering event that forever changes the course of human history. The extermination of humanity by violent machines is unlikely (though not impossible) because sharp distinctions between man and machine will no longer exist thanks to the existence of cybernetically enhanced humans and uploaded humans.

Please tell me if you can think of anything more revolutionary. I am simply wondering what we would need something unlabeled for...

[Nocapszy]

Seriously. Potential for what?

[Splittet]

Seriously. Potential for what?

To change the way we live, for example?

[ygolo]

I think you are wrong about that. Here you can read about how far Raymond Kurzweil thinks we will reach developing existing technologies: Raymond Kurzweil - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Kurzweil) Some of the things he predicts:



Please tell me if you can think of anything more revolutionary. I am simply wondering what we would need something unlabeled for...

I didn't mean to imply that there will be some weird new thing.

I just see too many interconnections.

All "new" technologies are really combinations of old ones and discoveries in science. New discoveries in science are facilitated by old technologies. The distinction is a really fuzzy one. People are researching and publishing original work all the time. Most are not really ground-breaking. Even the "ground-breaking" research has a lot of research leading up to it.

What field of science would you place the singularity under? AI? Nanotechnology? Medical Imaging? Neuroscience?

Perhaps by the time it become a real program, it will be call "singularity technology" instead?

There are still a lot of things to be worked out. Our ability to model the human brain in terms of direct functioning is a ways off still. Being able to model at the level individual neurons needs a "Human-Genome-Project-like" initiative to be done within the next 20 years.

[Edahn]

Psychology

[Splittet]

I didn't mean to imply that there will be some weird new thing.

I just see too many interconnections.

Ah, in that sense I agree, and I said everything was interconnected, which makes it at best almost impossible to call...

There are still a lot of things to be worked out. Our ability to model the human brain in terms of direct functioning is a ways off still. Being able to model at the level individual neurons needs a "Human-Genome-Project-like" initiative to be done within the next 20 years.

Well, the brain is a 20 MB program, and it's that program code we need to find. Once we find it the computers of the future will be powerful enough to simulate the brain basically perfect. I think they'll figure it out, I really do. When we doubt a machine can simulate human intelligence because we think there is something inherently unique about it I think we are simply being arrogant, but you maybe guessed I don't believe in free will.