Nuclear Fusion.

I have a nephew who just left an MIT PHD program to work with a company developing "real world, practical, efficient/cost effective nuclear fusion technologies...and they're actually making some good headway on this.

This is all I can say at this point (otherwise my nephew would have to kill me)...so please - don't ask!

I would've put the exploratory spacecraft and landers on my "breathtaking" list.
The deep field shots from Hubble are hard to describe

My grandparents talked about how wonderful it was to get their first radio.

They moved from a "house" that was not much more than my current storage shed. It was one room, with only a hand pump for water, and an outhouse in the back yard, in the city! The new house had really cool new modern things, like running hot and cold water, indoor bathrooms and a place to put a radio. To them, to hear actors present a story and get to follow along and be entertained was just the most modern thing.

Then to fly on an airplane all the way to Hawaii in 1960 and visit us was just unbelievable.

The moon landing was just hard to fathom. And they saw it all happen as they lived their life.

I so remember getting my first floppy drive to store my computer files. The salesman tried to talk me into buying a box of 10 5.25 inch single sided floppys and I told him I only need two of them, one for the data, and one for the backup. My 300 baud modem was the portal to the world. I could watch the text download and read it as fast as it would display. Black background, green text, no graphics at all.

Now I have a gigabit download speed, and watch HD movies with surround sound with a few clicks of the mouse.

I suspect the next step in virtual reality will be some sort of neural interface. Like in the Matrix, where we are just in the other reality, and it is just real, taste, touch and smells.

I can't wait to see what sex robots are like 30 years from now.

^^^Simpler than women are now, I suspect. Hopefully not too sentient

are you admitting in public that you wish women were not sentient?

yikes.

i mean big yikes.

nothing shows that men ****ing hate women like talking to straight dudes. BIG yikes.

Once we understand the Quantum realm fully things unimaginable now will be created.

Not even close IMHO, I think we are just getting started.

Breathtaking would be power generation without creating waste, without damaging our environment or emitting heat. Breathtaking would mobility without consuming limited natural resources.

Others have touched upon some of the cool things that we still haven’t done. The list could go on and on.

And for the record I’m not what you would consider an environmentalist but I do think we are not making good decisions with how we utilize our resources.

A lot in your post was possible without the AI feedback loop I mentioned.
The shut in generation existed with TV and phone in the 90's.

What has been going on for several years is programming to watch input/output on humans to optimize control.
Pop into a PPOT thread from pre 2008 and it is a different behavior from today.
Pop into a PPOT thread from 2002 and there wasn't much different in behavior from 2008.
Somewhere ~2010 a monster got out into our world and it is multiplying.
We've become dependent on the monster, and don't fully control the monster.

I have had a Valve Index VR headset for a year and a half now.
Lost use of my left arm in December and also updated my gaming computer in February.
(Nerve damage has thankfully not been permanent, I'm still unable to pick my arm up under it's own power outside of the water, but I'm slowly getting it back!)

I don't fire up VR a lot.
When I first got it it was amazing, and I still enjoy it.
However, augmented reality is where it is at, the ability to alter the appearance and vision with real world environment while still interacting with it.
Current gen VR has a narrow field of view.

Exponential change... unprecedented in human history.

Fast, vast, interconnected technologies and opportunities.

Look at where the money has been invested.

$1.8 billion?

https://cfs.energy/news-and-media/commonwealth-fusion-systems-closes-1-8-billion-series-b-round

Where there is one there are more.

Many trains are on the tracks.

Back in '19, I met a recent Ivy League engineering program graduate (I know he got a good education) working for a Stanford fertility doc on some type of opportunity.

He was collecting information and perspectives on birth rate trends and projections regarding impacts of AR/VR on same due to rapid commercialization in pron (inentionally misspelled).

Yes it is likely a "thing."

most AV innovation has come from pron.

the biggest reason DVDs took out cassette tapes? pron by mail.

I always appreciate hearing from the ladies on here

Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha........

"Everything that can be invented has been invented."

Charles H. Duell, Comissioner of the US Patent Office, 1899.
(Probably incorrectly attributed to him)

As a technical guy, I see many, many advances on the horizon. Heck, I just got "notice of allowance" from the USPTO for my 33rd patent, all of which are on medical equipment and therapies.

Not widely known to the general public, medical therapies dealing directly with the sub-molecular level is where a significant amount of action is, and where MAJOR breakthroughs in the treatment of cancers, Alzheimer's, and even prevention of hemorrhagic strokes, will be happening in the near future. We've already seen some of that (on the molecular level) with antigen-encoding mRNA.

Diagnostic technologies, particularly in the field of visualization technologies also continue to advance by leaps & bounds.

Robotic surgery, especially in the area of "dexterity enhanced" microsurgery is another one. Further out there is AI-assisted surgical techniques.

What about "on demand" medication delivery - along the lines of the artificial pancreas for diabetics, only applied to other medical conditions.

The list goes on & on.

take it to PARF. That was clearly tongue in cheek despite not being in green.

Just not on earth ;)

How can I be wrong when asking a question?
I'm aware of the well-worn quote; I have a different take on it.
People may have differing views on what are breathtaking achievements.

I want a microwave freezer. Do they have that ? Put a beer in for 30 seconds and, bam, its ice cold.

Outstanding!!!

^^^ JD
That might qualify you for a Nobel prize.