Coolest Inventions in Our Lifetime

There are so many amazing inventions that have already been invented or are set to be invented in the next decade or so.

One thing that has been huge is the self driving cars that have become increasingly popular in the last few years. 50 years ago we would have never dreamed of sitting in a driverless car and going to work. The amount of things AI could do is amazing.

What are the coolest inventions you have seen or are looking forward to in the future?

36 Comments
 

I would also add that the whole biotechnology/biopharma space has been really killing it in the past 5-10 years. We've seen dozens of new developments (i.e. CAR-T cell therapies) come into play, and I have really found myself rooting for some of these companies almost as if they were the Patriots or Red Sox. Look at GRAIL for instance, they are making serious progress on being able to detect pre-symptomatic cancers with just a blood test. Freenome is doing something similar. And they are doing it with support from real investors, unlike Theranos. I can't even fathom how different things would be if something like this came to market. Talk about disruption right?

Dayman?
 

Though this is likely much older than most of us, I think it’s worth saying that the internet is likely the most impactful “invention” since nuclear weapons (though not as impactful). I don’t think we’ve seen the next most important thing yet.

in it 2 win it
 
"Kassad" Though this is likely much older than most of us, I think it’s worth saying that the internet is likely the most impactful “invention” since nuclear weapons (though not as impactful). I don’t think we’ve seen the next most important thing yet.

For sure. Way more impactful than nuclear as it changed lives of almost all people globally. It made a lot of people smarter, and a lot of people more retarded.

 
"DonalDayUmTray"

What are the coolest inventions you have seen

1 click delivery/ordering

for food/Amazon/everything

best shit ever

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

OP, you already said it for me--self-driving cars. I honestly believe they will absolutely revolutionize human civilization. I've already said enough about it on WSO, but the benefits are many, including (but not even close to limited to): 1) elimination of phantom traffic jams; 2) huge reduction in vehicular deaths and injuries; 3) new interstate travel options (sleeper cars, business cars, autonomous RVs, etc.); 4) new entertainment options (movie vehicles, free rides to restaurants paid for by the restaurant, etc.); 5) huge amounts of real estate opened up from reduced parking needs. And the list goes on and on and on.

I think self-driving cars are going to arrive slower than I had hoped, but they will snowball--they'll painfully, slowly launch, begin as a novelty, and eventually, over a long period of time, hit critical mass. But it's taking longer than I expected in 2009 when I started preaching the Gospel of autonomous cars.

Array
 

Cars will be able to park 1) in decentralized locations and 2) in really really small parking spaces as they won’t require space for entry or exit. Un-converted parking lots will probably be maxed out, maximizing utilization, unlike many parking lots that are often half empty or more.

Array
 
"real_Skankhunt42"5) huge amounts of real estate opened up from reduced parking needs.

I can only get so erect.

There are some parking decks that are already being built so that in 10-20 years they can be converted into office or living space.

Commercial Real Estate Developer
 

I agree. I almost died last week at an intersection and the accident could have been avoided by an autonomous car for sure. I hate the people that are resisting change or lobbying against it, seriously what is wrong with these people? 5 years ago I thought by 2020 probably it would be available to the masses for cheap but we're still so far from it... pretty sad.

 

The ability to skip adverts on TV

In the past 25 years I think smartphones, self-driving cars, drones, VR and AI have been the most impactful inventions (with a lot of potential going forward as well). I'm sure there are many other great inventions in medicine, industrial, IT related, etc. that I don't know about, such as MRI scans which I reckon must have developed tremendously since the 90s.

 
"DonalDayUmTray" There are so many amazing inventions that have already been invented or are set to be invented in the next decade or so.

One thing that has been huge is the self driving cars that have become increasingly popular in the last few years. 50 years ago we would have never dreamed of sitting in a driverless car and going to work. The amount of things AI could do is amazing.

What are the coolest inventions you have seen or are looking forward to in the future?

Man 30-35 years ago in B2F they thought we'd have hover cars. We really haven't evolved as fast as we thought.

Nothing takes the Cake like the internet. Driverless cars have a lot of extrinsic benefits to what we'll call the economy, but I think we're overlooking the plausibility. It doesn't eliminate parking spaces, it doesn't eliminate traffic jams. It will lessen them (maybe). It'll be great overall, I just don't believe it's as simple as we think. And as beneficial, too.

Finding cures for diseases, cancer, etc. Now that would be game changing.

 

Wrong. Upon 100% (or close to) adoption of driverless cars they will essentially end all traffic jams.

This is what will happen when there are 100% autonomous cars:

No traffic jams. No traffic completely changes the world in a fundamental way.

Array
 

One thing that has been huge is the self driving cars that have become increasingly popular in the last few years. 50 years ago we would have never dreamed of sitting in a driverless car and going to work. The amount of things AI could do is amazing.

Dude did you never see the Jetsons? They imagined this like 50 years ago....

 

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