Realistic advances in 10 years

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When I was a kid, the popular media would have us believe that by the year 2000, we would all have robots doing our housework, travel to work in flying cars, and that space probes could reach the stars by harnessing solar winds. It was also taken for granted that there would be manned bases on the moon (until the moon was blasted out of Earth's orbit by all the nuclear waste on the dark side .......)

So, none of that stuff happened. But a lot of other stuff that we never thought of did happen - mostly in the realm of consumer electronics. We got microwave ovens, compact discs, recordable TV, mobile telephones, GPS, and tiny computers.

What I'm wondering now is, what things can we realistically expect to be invented / available / achieved within the next 10 years? Some of the things I am thinking might be ready include:
- TV broadcasts via mobile phones being more affordable and commonplace
- the death of the 'commercial break' on TV as the ability to skip ad breaks becomes simpler
- the ability to access ANY movie you want at home (i.e. no more DVDs)
- almost ready for manned mission to Mars
- possible manned base on the moon
- more space tourism (but still really expensive)

What else do you guys predict?

 

Such as microwave ovens, blenders, dishwashing machines, toaster ovens, vaccuum cleaners, washers, dryers, toasters, refrigerators, ice machines, electric stoves and ovens, electric mixers, etc. etc.

No, we don't have the really cool stuff (flying cars), but there are plenty of 'robots' doing housework.

 

Good point, kuemper, but I was told we were going to have androids wandering around the house doing the dusting and bringing us cups of tea.

 

Hopefully before I get out of college, we can have palm-pilot like things that we can just upload and do our homework on, thus making the backpack and books obsolete.

 

USB sticks first becoming what 3.5'' floppies used to be, then becoming obsolete or at least old junk.

Probably no more CRT monitors and perhaps a new kind of monitor, something more advanced than LCD.

Compact computer cases sitting at the back of the LCD monitor (I've already taken a computer for a cable modem at my uni, so...).

Laptops being commonplace. But desktop computers becoming smaller and all and the ability to squeeze computer guts behind the LCD screen and combine it with a wireless keyboard and mouse can make it so that laptops are obsolete. Or touch screens, rollable keyboards, whatever such. All personal computers may become easily portable. The difference between mobile phones and mobile computers will blur.

Laser mice being commonplace or at least being more popular than even optical ones are now. Perhaps wireless accessories being more popular and replacing cables.

Bluetooth/IRDA connection between portable computers may become a popular way of transferring files and playing games.

Monthly bills for software may actually start gaining ground.

Pretty much everyone with a computer will have internet access and pretty much everyone who wants a computer will have one (at least in the average to rich countries). Well, at least something. And computers are going to be more and more need and more and more portable and the internet more and more common, so probably there are going to be more and more people on the net.

Perhaps internet phones and TV will become popular enough to claim a share in the normal market for such services.

 

Not really an advance, but the whole internet is bound to crash.

 

The android servant idea comes form the fact it was created by storytellers, not the people that actually need to make it. Otherwise, we would get more practical designs than human body replicas. I actually more believe in a variety of shapes, ala star wars, than the whole humanoid thing. For certain tasks, it would be great, if it needed to do alot of human interaction (like the protocol droids of said double trilogy) but for other tasks, other designs are more practical.


EDIT: I just got what we might be expecting more of concerning "advances" on these boards: I got a new gem

 

But everything around the house is designed for the human physiology, wouldn't it just be easier to make a robotic servant similar to us? I mean, it may not be the most efficient shape, but I don't see R2 walking up stairs or getting something from the top shelve.
I don't actually see this happening in the next ten years. I actually don't think people will ever be too lazy to get off their arse for a cup of tea (well perhaps rich people, but they are already too lazy for it nowadays).

I also don't think we will make much progress in manned space flight in the next ten years. Perhaps more people will get into earth's orbit, but not many will leave it.

 

... and world peace.

 

-Wireless connections will extend across all major cites. Possibly across the whole first world. Except utah of course, but they dont count.

-Further automation of everything.

-All TV shows and movies will be avilable over the internet on demand.

 

Yeah, everything will certainly become more wireless.

 

There's already something out there that's more advanced than an LCD...it's called an OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) it uses less power, has a brighter display, and has a better resolution.

Also, on my work's "news flash" tv, they now have an all-in-one LCD controller chip that has a SD, EDTV, and HDTV decoding abilities. So say hello to HDTV on your cell phone soon.

Flying cars aren't feasible...air traffic controller's would freak out trying to keep everything in order. But I think at the electric/hydrogen fuel cell cars are the next big thing. In ten years, I would like to see all new cars come with electric/hydrogen fuel cell configurations instead of regular gasoline engines.

Hey! That's not fair! We need cell phones here too!

 

Organic computers

 

Huge change in copyright laws as they become impossible to enforce - some new way of making money from copyrighted stuff will need to be implemented.

Maybe consoles getting closer to virtual reality?

 

Then obviously you don't live in America

One of (if not the) fattest nation in the world - and still growing.

 

Would a truly effective Spam/pop-up/virus/BS blocker be too much to ask? I mean getting rid of unwanted sales personnel, telemarketers, sucky commercials (only the cool ones are allowed through), corporate sellout crap music...

You get the picture...

 

Oil running out, USA dismanteling, WW3, a "Fallout" type world. New inventions: Power armors and vats with radioactive liquid to dip people in.


Another realistic scenario: What everybody else said. The invention I'm crossing my fingers for is the chip inserted into your brain so that you learn everything you need to know, and don't have to spend a quarter of your life doing something that you don't want to.

 

Then we're going to have to start paying money for TV...

WHAT??? Maybe the people who became rich because their ancestors were, but it's pretty rare to find a member of the nouveau riche who is lazy.

Already exist...

 

Welcome to Britain.

I'd like to see something cool, like earpiece-mp3 players, or perhaps wireless ones.

 

Ewww, making books obsolete? A book is always easier reading than some electronic thingum.