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10 Most Important Innovations of the Last 10 Years

Page history last edited by davidegolfgrider 15 years ago

Notes from the brainstorming session held on Saturday, February 28, 2009. 

MN Futurists meeting, moderated by David and Lyn Egolf Grider.  Innovation criteria from:

 

http://www.pbs.org/nbr/site/features/special/top-30-innovations_home/

 

"What criteria did the judging panel use to select the Top 30 Innovations of the Last 30 Years?

Distinguished panelists from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania used carefully determined criteria to select The Top 30 Innovations of the Last 30 Years. The major questions that make up this criteria are listed below.

The judges asked the following about the innovations being considered:

1. Did it improve quality of life, having a direct and/or material effect on quality of life?

2. Did it address a compelling need? solve a compelling problem?

3. Was it a fresh breakthrough with a "wow" factor?

4. Did it change the way business is conducted?

5. Did it increase the efficiency of how resources are used?

6. Did it spark an ongoing stream of new innovations on top of the original innovation? "

 

Using the same criteria, and looking bakward from 2020, the group attempted to imagine innovations which would make such a list as of that date.  The items suggested follow the names of the people who suggested them (in alphabetical order for editing purposes):  Please review for accuracy and clarity.

 

Ulrich Bonne

 

PB-09-SIG-2020 UB.ppt

 

David Grider

Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (with liquid fuel IC engines to charge battery) will be 25% of the fleet.

Solar photovoltaic distributed power and wind power becomes 25% of US electric power supply.

Concentrating solar power plants become 10% of US electric generation.

Unified heat pump technology is used with solar energy collection and continuous fresh air and exhaust

    (using 95% efficient heat exchange) for building heating, food refrigeration, hot water, and Indoor Air

    Quality in 10% of US buildings.

Production of food and fish from sea farming in the open ocean produces 15% of world food supply.

 

Lyn Egolf Grider

US embraces true democracy when energy conservation and communications advances are widely used to

    encourage/enhance return to geopolitical communitites.

Botany research applied to complex system design allows wide-scale return to distributed multiculture

    (sustainable, organic agriculture without GMOs) includes return to using heirloom seed stock.

Complex system management used to manage hormone imbalances not just menopause, but more important for

    diseases like diabetes, Addison’s, thyroid problems, etc.

Brain research optimizes thinking of everyone so we can each “be all we can be” diversity of thinking styles

    becomes perceived as valuable.

Personal health monitoring devices connected to a central screening service.

Technology easily and painlessly removes toxins from living bodies.

Research/ technology, prevention campaigns reduce cancer occurrences to pre-1950 levels.

Recovering resources previously dumped or run-off there into ocean cleans up the water again;

Solar desalination/purification of water – affordable, small, distributed systems (see item above) for villages/ farm

    communities; municipal systems run at night/cloudy days on energy from next item;

Shoreline protection from rising sea and energy recapture from wave motion (devices ring low-lying shorelines

    removing energy from waves headed for beaches, harbors).

Advanced tech sailing merchant vessels; (modified technology applied to “sailing” trains?)

Plug-in hybrid transportation major to all transportation sectors; vehicle batteries used to even out “intermittence”

    of electric supply from renewable sources.

Nuclear power plants are dismantled; radioactives are safely recycled or stored, not so we can make more, but

    because the political will gets behind not strewing it around.

Large-area topology settles significantly or collapses from over-mining and over-drilling of oil and water;

    technological “fixes” cause unforeseen problems down the line.

 

Hank Lederer

Accident Avoidance Systems

Exoskeleton Suits – used for disabled

Cell Phones Replace Laptops – these will have large screens and virtual keyboards & always connected to Internet

LED replaces lightbulbs – 90% of light sources replaced by LEDs.

Fossil Fuel Reduction – Less then 50% of transportation use fossil fuels, replaced by Pluggable hybrids, biofuels, etc.

Stem Cell Therapy – Stem cell therapies effectively used for 5 to 10 medical conditions

Nanotech Assembler – a nanotech assembler will produce artifacts

3D Printer – A printer in the home to print small artifacts; plates, spoons, cups, etc.; and eventually small appliances and furniture

 

Ron Monroe

Biofuels (genetic)

Supervacine for flu

Personal drugs

Grow new body tissue

Pay toilets on airplanes

Tourist flights to edge of space

Mars Science Laboratories (MSL)

Disabilitech

Deep sea mapping

US population explodes to 400 M by 2030

US explodes by 2025 (balkanizes into separate countires)

Superscale engineering

 

Bill Peter

Biometric identification of everyone on earth  eg photo fingerprint, iris scan, vein patterns in top of hand

        (later – 2035 – DNA and human genome)

Language translation among all languages/written languages

Voice recognition among all voices and languages

Enhancement of human relationship skills from birth to 100 (potentially using role-playing videos and

    practice sessions)

Enhancement of human learning skills from birth to 100

Development of government systems beyond democaracy as we know it, which will unleash the full

    potential of all humans

Friends/exteneded family communication systems for developing stronger family connections/support

Modified educational degrees to include the measurement of imagination skills – and replacing

    BS, MS, PhD degrees

A well-accepted worldwide currency system

Tapping the creativity of human dreams 100 times what psychologists and psychiatrists are doing today

 

Dick Sanders            

Economic growth potential is small

By 2010:

Commercial space travel

Biofuels – using microbes, switchgrass

Harnessing wave power

On-line software services

Nuclear power (Candu, Thorium cycle)

Plug-in Hybrids

By 2020:

Moon colony

“Smart grid”

Hypersonic commercial travel (lower space) 3 hrs NYC-Tokyo

Batwing jetliners for subsonic commercial travel

High-speed rail or magler trains in US

By 2030:

Manned Mars expedition

Other ideas:

New nuclear power reactors Class IV

Solution to nuclear waste storage

National borders will be redrawn by economic clusters

US becomes also-ran among world powers

Deep sea floor research for food, minerals, life forms for medicine

Better earthquake detection institutes

Communications: WiMax

Quantum computing

New biotech drugs

Using microbes to treat diabetes

More sophisticated oil drilling instruments

Genetic engineering

Stem cells

3-D monitors for home use

 

Brian Toren

Black Hole Energy – physicists at the LHC will be on road to harness black hole energy.

Image Based Search – Browser will accept images then will search and identify the image. Can search on a photo of a diseased plant and find out what is wrong.

Superconductivity at Room Temperature – reduces waste when transmitting electricity

Increased Mini-micro/Robot Surveillance – The little guys will be all over the country watching and reporting News, weather, crime, accidents, etc.

Implanted Eye – a prosthetic that sees connected to the brain through the optic nervre.

Implanted Hearing Aid - with external connections for adjusting.

Immune System Genetics -  genetic replacement will repair defective immune systems

First Female President

Nuclear Waste Recycling – The cost of recycling nuclear waste for a poinf of uranium will be cheaper than mining processing yellowcake and shipping.

 

Tom Trites

Ubiquitous Network – No place on planet is isolated

U.S. becomes a democracy – ends constitution

Non-unanimous verdicts - Proof that innocent couldn’t have done it expected in U.S./Non-unanimous verdicts accepted for jury trials

U. S. borders sealed

Mind/Nerve controlled prosthetics

Brain Training – rebuild and exercise

Mine landfills

Drug printing – on a home “printer” 

 

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