What do you think the next big technological advance will be?

I just had a flickering light bulb removed from my light hanging from the kitchen ceiling, and replaced with a new one. (Much too high for me to reach). I was thinking what an old-fashioned nuisance this is.

I predict that in about 20 years, maybe less we will have chips embedded in the ceiling, and can get them recharged from whatever kind of mobile phones are being used by then. Or maybe they'll just recharge themselves, or change the wattage, the color of the light, etc. by cell phone request.

The chips would remotely control lamps, ceiling fixtures, etc.
 

Sunny said:
I just had a flickering light bulb removed from my light hanging from the kitchen ceiling, and replaced with a new one. (Much too high for me to reach). I was thinking what an old-fashioned nuisance this is.

I predict that in about 20 years, maybe less we will have chips embedded in the ceiling, and can get them recharged from whatever kind of mobile phones are being used by then. Or maybe they'll just recharge themselves, or change the wattage, the color of the light, etc. by cell phone request.

The chips would remotely control lamps, ceiling fixtures, etc.
Click to expand...
LED lamps/lights that can be remotely controlled by mobile phone already exist!
https://www.amazon.com/Bedroom-Daym...e+via+mobile+phone&qid=1759860319&sr=8-6&th=1
 
 
AI is revolutionizing pharmaceutical pipelines—from discovering new antibiotics to optimizing molecular structures. With models capable of predicting protein folding and simulating complex reactions, AI is reducing development timelines while increasing accuracy in targeting diseases. It will only get better once it gets all the tbugs worked out,
 
BCI (brain-computer interfacing) technology is showing promise. BCIs are enabling individuals with paralysis or limb loss to control prosthetic limbs and robotic arms with their thoughts, and enabling people to "speak" who have lost that ability through diseases like ALS.

Stephen Hawking used eye-gaze and / or cheek movements to speak which requires motor or external control, but BCI is a direct connection to the brain that can bypass that need.
 
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I keep waiting for that quantum leap forward in battery technology. I know that incremental progress has been slow and steady, but I think a giant leap that results in lower cost and very long, rechargeable battery life would have a substantial impact on many things. (This is, perhaps, colored by the fact that one of my kids is in a battery engineering group with a major car manufacturer.)
 
Will they ever develop airless tires? Yes, I already know they have them for golf carts, lawnmowers, and such - I'm writing about airless tires for standard automobiles and trucks.This Bridgestone site wrote about it over 3 years ago, but haven't heard anything more.
 
I'll be the boring one (for a change :D)

AI.

It's not AI sitting by itself that'll make the difference, but its application.

The application of AI will effect every industry you can name. Nothing will go untouched. From diagnostics to research, to modelling, everything will be accelerated and improved through AI models. Healthcare, business decisions, wars.... will all be tuned and informed by the use of AI.

The amount of time between conception of a new idea and actual delivery will shorten, and that will impact energy, production, you name it. Then the ability to crunch huge data sets, and to selectively draw in result sets it needs to further development is just incredible.

AI will have the biggest impact on us.

On the fun to imagine front - robotics. We'll see the greater use of machines in every day life, and as has been mentioned in another thread, the role of robotics in conflict which could change a lot about our planet. The big difference is that combined with AI, robotics and wearable tech will be able to respond not simply to our actions, but based on our intention and behavior. This then moves the dial when it comes to the difference between replacing humans with robots, toward augmenting them (implants, wearables, etc.)
 
There is an enormous amount of ongoing battery research due to the EV market. That will hopefully reduce production of fossil fuel combustion engines, necessary to reduce that major facet of greenhouse gas emissions. The even larger issue of power plant emissions will take longer. By the end of this decade, we should see the first newer vehicle battery technologies.

There are also still being researched much higher energy density battery technologies that will replace lithium-ion for portable devices. Most new battery technologies are found not to be practical for mass production or have other issues like limited temperature range, limited charging lifetimes, rare minerals, and safety concerns.

What Are Solid-State Batteries, and Why Do They Matter for Electric Vehicles?

https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a63306863/solid-state-batteries-evs-explained/

Solid-state cells promise faster recharging, better safety, and higher energy density.
They replace the liquid electrolyte in today’s lithium-ion cells with a solid separator.
Honda, Toyota, and others hope to use solid-state cells in vehicles to go on sale before 2030.

Advances in battery technology—for consumer electronics and electric vehicles alike—are largely incremental, and have been since the advent of modern lithium-ion cells almost 30 years ago. Three factors combine to reduce costs at roughly 8 percent a year: tweaks to battery chemistries, higher yields at cell factories, and economies of scale from high-volume production.

The next big battery advance may be solid-state cells, long a Holy Grail for battery engineers all over the world. They offer the lure of greater energy density, faster recharging, and better safety than cells with liquid electrolytes. Some do away entirely with today’s graphite anodes—a substance whose processing and supply is controlled entirely by Chinese producers.
How large are the gains? According to what Toyota has announced about its future battery plans, a pack employing a solid-state battery could improve the range by nearly 70 percent and reduce 10 to 80 percent DC fast-charging time from 30 minutes to 10. Although any range claims are affected substantially by the assumptions of the underlying vehicle and characteristics such as weight and aerodynamics.

Developing solid-state cells has led dozens of companies globally to spend tens of billions of dollars on R&D over the past decade and a half. Now, the goal may be getting closer. Multiple carmakers across the globe have announced pilots, prototypes, or other advances in solid-state cells. Expect that pace to ramp up over the next few years.

With "solid state" as the battery buzzword du jour, it’s useful to understand how a solid-state cell differs from today's cells with liquid electrolytes. The problem is compounded because "there is no broad agreement on the definition of 'solid state,'" notes Haresh Kamath, who designed battery cells for spacecraft at Lockheed Martin. (He is presently the director of distributed energy resources and energy storage at the Electric Power Research Institute, or EPRI, an independent, nonprofit research organization for the U.S. electric utility industry.)

In other words, take any mention of solid-state cells for EVs, whether from a carmaker or a battery company, with a grain of salt until you dive into the particulars.

Broadly speaking, the term "solid state" refers to using a solid material for both the separator that keeps anode and cathode from touching and the medium through which the electrons pass as the cell discharges or charges. The liquid electrolyte in today’s cells, a flammable organic solvent, is absorbed by the three materials (anode, cathode, and separator), all somewhat spongy. Unlike a lead-acid starter battery, the cell has no excess liquid sloshing around, only enough to moisten the electrodes.
Losing the Liquid Electrolyte

Several variations of separator and medium exist between today’s liquid electrolytes and tomorrow’s full solid-state cells:
  • Semi-solid electrolytes in quasi-solid-state cells, of which so-called lithium-polymer batteries (using liquid electrolyte held in a polymerized gel) may be the best-known.
  • High-temperature, non-liquid, ionically conductive polymers (extensively tested a decade ago).
  • Ceramic-coated polymers, also requiring high operating temperatures.
  • Pure ceramics (oxides, sulfides, phosphates) or glass solid electrolytes, also requiring high temperatures.
The last three allow the use of lithium metal anodes, with a cathode of either lithiated metal oxide (nickel oxide, aluminum oxide, manganese oxide, cobalt oxide, or some blend of those), or iron phosphate.

Alternatively, using lithium metal as a cathode with a solid-state separator can also allow what are called "anode-free cells": those in which the anode is supplanted by a copper current collector on which lithium metal is deposited during charge. This obviates the need for graphite—a substance for which China presently controls the bulk of global production.

But lithium metal has its own safety risks. Solid lithium metal is highly flammable at any temperature, reacting violently with moisture, water, or steam. Any cell maker using solid lithium will be under intense scrutiny to prove its new cells are at least as safe as today's, let alone supporting claims of much greater safety.

...Siva Sivaram, CEO of pure solid-state cell startup QuantumScape, told Reuters in December that he expects, "In 2025, at least two companies will announce that they have a solid-state battery. And by the end of 2025, somebody will announce that that hey, they are planning on a car with solid state batteries . . . [though] they won’t tell you when."

And, he added cautiously, "Solid-state batteries are going to be in high volume [production] in the late part of this decade."...

So the pace of announcements now suggests solid-state cells will indeed come to EVs to be sold in North America, perhaps before 2030. But we wouldn’t bet on any particular year in which that’ll happen—at least, not yet.
 
I think that it’s time to have smart trash cans and smart grocery trolleys.

Imagine a trash can that rolls itself to the curb when the garbage truck is within 100 yards and rolls itself back into the garage when it is empty.

A grocery trolley that takes itself back to the store’s entrance after you’ve put the groceries into your car.

All of the technology currently exists, all it needs is for someone to bundle it into a cost effective package.
 

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