c. 3000
Things We Have Yet to Engineer
This book has covered a wide range of amazing engineering advancements. Some of them started out as science fiction fantasies and became reality. The cell phone, for example, is a lot like the communicator seen in the Star Trek TV series in 1966. It only took 30 years for engineers to create a cheap, pocket-sized communication device.
Lots of other sci-fi ideas await implementation in the real world. Many are stalled right now because we don’t have the fundamental scientific principles to support them, or the money. Here is a list of some of the things that engineers may figure out in the future:
Flying car—stalled by economics, stability, and weight.concerns
Time machine—stalled by fundamental science (SBS), if even possible
Immortality—SBS
Transporter room—may never happen, but virtual reality is the next best thing
Instant healing—long a staple of sci-fi and video games, SBS
Hoverboard—needs repulsorlifts
Easy underwater breathing—SCUBA and artificial gills get partway there
Starships, warp drive—stalled by engine technology, economics, and science
Suspended animation—SBS
Vertebrane—SBS
Space elevator—stalled by materials science and economics
Really good batteries—SBS
End of poverty—stalled by greed, inaction
Solution for global warming—stalled by inaction, economics
Food machine—SBS, but artificial meat is close
Easy interplanetary travel—stalled by engine technology, power sources, economics, gravity issues, radiation concerns, etc.
There are many innovations engineers have no way to start because the science doesn’t exist. For example, the fictional Star Wars universe uses repulsorlifts on speeder bikes, land speeders, hovering robots, and spacecraft. If repulsorlift technology existed, engineers could exploit it in a thousand different ways. So we wait for scientists to deliver the goods. Then engineers will jump into action.
SEE ALSO Robot (1921), SCUBA (1944), Mobile Phone (1983), Virtual Reality (1985), Lithium Ion Battery (1991).
Conceptual illustration of a futuristic flying car.