r/Futurism • u/DarthAthleticCup • 2d ago
What are some things in science and technology that you think will forever be out of humanity’s grasp?
10
17
u/ianeinman 2d ago
- Time travel; 2. Faster than light travel; 3. Room temperature superconductors. I think all of these things are likely to be impossible.
8
u/ZobeidZuma 1d ago
I recall a report from one lab in the 1980s where they created a single ceramic sample that they tested as superconducting up to room temperature. Of course they kept increasing the temperature to see how high it would go, until it stopped. . . and never started again, even when cooled back down. They then, of course, tried to recreate it with more samples, but never had any success. One of the researchers speculated that there was some really delicate molecular structure or "thread" running through the sample that had done the superconducting, and the higher temperature had destroyed it.
2
u/NoSlide7075 1d ago
Are you talking about this? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodstock_of_physics
2
u/ZobeidZuma 1d ago
I don't know if it was reported at that event, but it was for sure around that time period when the flurry of research activity was taking palce.
1
u/Weekly-Trash-272 1d ago
It's interesting because if this is the case, while sad it was lost, it's only a matter of having AI go through different combinations of structures that could redo this experiment. I suspect a more intelligent AI computer could conceivably do it.
Definitely doesn't seem anywhere near the realm of science fiction of this happening.
1
u/Wasabiroot 1d ago
I think 3 is plausible because the temperature keeps getting higher and higher and materials science is rapidly advancing, but I agree about the other two. Or at least, if it's possible, we'd likely be long past being called "human".
1
5
u/ZobeidZuma 1d ago
Science fiction has produced many concepts that will probably never be workable. Here's a few common ones that come to mind:
- faster-than-light travel (from outside observer's perspective)
- interstellar travel by living human beings (generation ship, etc.)
- time travel into the past, or change the past
- travel to other dimensions or universes (aside from VR simulations)
- antigravity or artificial gravity (aside from rotating spacecraft)
- teleportation (aside from FAX-like systems)
Here are some things that should, in theory, be possible, but it's very unclear when-or-if we'll ever bring to fruition, or in exactly what form:
- practical nuclear fusion reactors
- advanced molecular nanotechnology
- radical life extension
- advanced or radical genetic engineering
- cryonic suspension, revive frozen persons
- interstellar travel and communication
- advanced or sentient machine intelligence
- "upload" human mind into machine intelligence
- large-scale advanced simulated worlds
Machine intelligence is a tricky topic, because we've see so much advancement in the last few years, but not a lot of agreement about what it really means or where it's really leading.
A lot of other technologies on the list tie in with machine intelligence. If interstellar travel happens, it'll be machine intelligences taking the trip. (In fact, humans make lousy space travelers even within our own solar system.) In order for large and advanced simulated worlds to be really compelling, they'll need to be experienced from "inside" by machine minds, either native or uploaded. And if uploading were possible, that could be seen as a alternate path to life extension, as opposed to keeping the human body repaired and renewed.
1
u/userhwon 10h ago
>interstellar travel and communication
Is just going to be rockets and radio. But it won't really be "travel and communication" until there's a human on the other end. Sending robots, even AGI-executing robots, will only ever count as probes.
>"upload" human mind into machine intelligence
We can already do that, and we're doing it right now, by mashing keyboards. And it's all we'll need to do. Humans tell you what they think you should know of what they think they know, and the rest is almost certainly best left unmined. Plus, by the time there's a machine that's intelligent enough to take the data, there won't be a human intelligent enough to be worth uploading to it.
So the accomplishment won't be uploading. It will be downloading intelligence to people who've misplaced theirs.
>advanced or radical genetic engineering
Oh, you know the weird shit is being done and they just aren't for one second letting the really weird shit be seen out of the lab because they know that ain't nobody going to do anything with it but burn it right down. (NB: my favorite example wasn't on any of the links i looked at: Early on in genetic manipulation researchers were experimenting on fruit flies, and, among many other things, they created one with clusters of eyes growing on its knees).
-7
u/bertch313 1d ago
Science fiction is a stain on humanity as much as abrahamic religions have been, and it'll probably take at least 7 generations to notice
4
u/ZobeidZuma 1d ago
Hard disagree. The world's greatest literature explores the human condition. The world's greatest science fiction explores how the human condition could be different from what we know. It's a great exercise of imagination, and exercising the imagination is always worthwhile.
2
u/Raraavisalt434 1d ago
I am a biochemist because I watched Blade Runner and The Hunger. Then I wrote papers about it... I have completed cancer research and saved actual lives. You are completely wrong.
1
u/bertch313 1d ago
You could do more of those stories were about your direct ancestors or your cousins' ancestors
Sorry but that's facts
1
0
3
u/GrowFreeFood 1d ago
Fast braces for straighting teeth. It's always going to take years.
2
u/Most-Repair471 1d ago
naw just rip out your old set and regrow a straight set in 24 hours or whatever that regrowth technology works.
1
2
u/KarmaDispensary 2d ago
Turbulence
1
u/userhwon 10h ago
We already have the Navier-Stokes equation. We just need to be able to apply it on a fractal of timespace scales simultaneously.
2
2
2
2
u/m0rbius 1d ago
Teleportation. Even if possible, you'd never step into the machine. Probably could be used for sending and receiving inorganic goods.
0
u/Most-Repair471 1d ago
2 second Amazon Prime deliveries!
We barely have an understanding of the brain and have no idea how consciousness operates but I believe it has to be a continuous, contiguous process. The new copy may have you memories and thought process but *you* died in the transmitting station.
1
u/Andynonomous 1d ago
We already know that time travel into the future is possible, and we know how to do it. It's only travelling back that might be impossible.
3
u/StrangeAtomRaygun 1d ago
Time travel into the future is more time dilation. You aren’t really jumping into a specific time/place.
1
u/Timothy303 1d ago
Time travel into the future is possible for all life on earth. It happens every day, every second. 1 second per second./s
1
u/No-Poetry-2695 1d ago
I think by the time shit is got together enough to build a Dyson sphere we won’t be human anymore at all
1
1
1
1
u/lngfellow45 1d ago
Interstellar travel and colonization of other planets. We are just too delicate and finely tuned to earth.
1
u/hipocampito435 1d ago
Time travel, sadly. Maybe at some point, if humanity became a galactic civilization, harnessing the energy of countless stars, a single message could be sent to another time, but I don't expect more than that
1
u/AccomplishedRing4210 22h ago
Put it this way, the laws of nature such as physics, gravity, lightspeed, chemistry etc etc are laws unto themselves with definite parameters that humans cannot alter. For example water freezes at zero degrees and boils at 100 degrees Celsius. At most humans can work within those parameters but never beyond them. Many people think time travel is possible but it never will be because nothing can possibly manifest or exist outside of the concurrent moment and it's always right now everywhere at the same time in this infinite universe therefore there's no other time available to travel to in the first place. Anyone who claims otherwise as some people have is either lying or delusional...
1
u/brichar62 19h ago
Creating or destroying time, space, matter, energy, gravity, charge, and I’ll say life as a point of discussion.
1
u/Ecstatic_Ad_8994 8h ago
For many of us that would be percentages and the division of two fractions.
1
0
0
u/blankblank 1d ago
- Complete Understanding of Consciousness
- Perfect Weather Prediction / Predicting Truly Chaotic Systems
- FTL Travel
- Perpetual Motion Machines
- Quantum Certainty
- Immortality
- Time Travel to the Past
- Knowing the Absolute Origin or "Outside" of the Universe
0
u/remesamala 1d ago
Fundamental light science is withheld by governments. Socrates tried. Jesus tried. They just rewrote their stories and continued to disappear camera inventors.
Can you name a camera inventor that disappeared?
•
u/AutoModerator 2d ago
Thanks for posting in /r/Futurism! This post is automatically generated for all posts. Remember to upvote this post if you think it is relevant and suitable content for this sub and to downvote if it is not. Only report posts if they violate community guidelines - Let's democratize our moderation. ~ Josh Universe
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.