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  #1  
Old 22nd March 2008, 19:10
Moksha Moksha is offline
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Default Next 50 years

I've just bought a fascinating book called 'The Next 50 Years'. The author has interviewed many leading scientists to ask them for their predictions. These include:

1 "life on other planets will be detected via the by products they put in their atmosphere. The information theory behind SETI searches will become more refined also, increasing the chances of a real message from another civilisation (****ing hell!)"

2 Quantum computing ( ...sounds interesting though...can anyone explain?)

3 DNA sequencing power ( ) will increase leading to the possibility of a real Jurassic Park


4 Old age will be prolonged for longer and longer (125 will become normal) and the world's population levels will have to be controlled.

5 Thousand of new species of plants will be created

6 Virtual reality systems will replace schools- knowledge will be ever easier to obtain

7 Information will be in the form of an 'information beam' ( ), a kind of cyberspace which will replace the Internet (I thought cyberspace was the Internet?): schools will just be a random collection of kids tapping
into this beam.

8 Brain scanning techniques will become so advanced that we shall be able identify potential serial killers and rapists.

9 It will be discovered that Neanderthals were furry and that humans viewed them as meat (as they did us)

10 Anyone visiting a psychiatrist will bring his or her personal DNA file. There will be hundreds of medications to choose from matched to one's genome.

11 Most cancers, plus alzheimers and schizophrenia will be known to be caused by infections ( )

12 As our traditional sources of solace wither away we shall grow more unhappy

13 Detectives finding a bloodstain at a crime scene will be able to issue a computer generated image of the suspect.

14 We will know how life began on earth.

15 We will have robots, but they will not be able to cope with the unexpected


Fascinating or what?! Can anyone think of anything else?
  #2  
Old 22nd March 2008, 19:51
SpaceMonkey SpaceMonkey is offline
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Default Re: Next 50 years

The Chinese space program will produce another space race. This time to see who can colonise space first. i.e a permenant moon base / first man on Mars.
  #3  
Old 22nd March 2008, 20:03
mi©o mi©o is offline
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Default Re: Next 50 years

You know where there's any interesting articles on this stuff, David?
  #4  
Old 22nd March 2008, 20:19
Moksha Moksha is offline
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Default Re: Next 50 years

Quote:
Originally Posted by winterdavid
Right so a computer chip is basically millions and millions of switches.

now they are getting smaller and smaller every year, so we can fit more and more tiny microscopic switches onto the chip

BUT, quantumn computing is the theory that we can utilize atoms and molecules as switches, because of the understanding we have or the way they behave ( called quantum mechanics )

so imagine a computer chip that cant even be seen by the naked eye, made up of atomic switches.

they reckon it could be millions of times more powerful than todays computers.

( i wont even get into things like the heisenberg uncertainty principle, quantum tunneling, EPR paradoxes, observer participation style schrodinger-esque quantum problems :P )

thats the amazing thing about quantum mechanics, we dont quite know why or how it all works yet, but it kinda does.
Well, thankyou for trying to explain it to me but I'm afraid you may as well have been writing in Japanese. It isn't you Winterdavid, you put it as clearly and lucidly as I could have hoped, but I'm afraid my brain just rebels at anything even vaguely mathematical/scientific. It is incredibly frustrating. If there is one thing I'd really love to learn about it is quantum mechanics- that and Einstein's ideas.

The idea that nothing is really solid, substantial and real, that everything is ultimately energy...unimagineable billions of electrons whirling around etc is thrilling.
  #5  
Old 22nd March 2008, 20:26
Moksha Moksha is offline
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Default Re: Next 50 years

Quote:
Originally Posted by SpaceMonkey
The Chinese space program will produce another space race. This time to see who can colonise space first. i.e a permenant moon base / first man on Mars.
I really wish we could be stopped from colonising space. It is bad enough that our revolting little species swarms all over this beautiful planet without spreading to others.
  #6  
Old 22nd March 2008, 20:35
mi©o mi©o is offline
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Default Re: Next 50 years

It's pretty simple Moksha. A computer speaks in 0s and 1s. Binary code.

A switch is either on or off. In terms of computing it's either a 0, or a 1. It's a little more complicated than that, but that's fundamentally how a computer works. Quantum computing just attempts to replicate that process (which is currently done through basic switches, like those you turn the lights on with) by using real molecules.

I don't know if that clarifies it at all?

If you're interested in quantum mechanics though, here's an interesting and very simple look at it. The double slit experiment.



Thanks for the links, Winter. Although I'm already familiar with stuff like Schroedinger's cat.
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