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[Frumple]

Mm... even with a company cleaning up after other drivers, the concept of someone else using the (single person) vehicle that I do with regularity, or using some random stranger's, is a little discomforting. I could see it for in-city transportation or something along those lines, perhaps, but for more rural areas, or for folks that depend on their vehicle partly for storage... there's a lot of downsides to that sort of communal car thing. You'd definitely be very limited in what you could transport, because you couldn't leave anything in the car. And then there's the issue of vandalism or simple uncleanliness

Now, a sort of automated taxi service, though, definitely -- especially if it were less expensive for strict transportation use. I can't see it as a full vehicle replacement option in most of the US (at the very least), though. It would notably limit the versatility of a personal use vehicle.

That said, auto-drive cars in general is a highly attractive concept to me, personally. It'd definitely be a lot safer, and involve considerably less of a drain getting places.

[lemon10]

And perhaps most importantly, it would allow those unable to drive cars (eg. elderly, blind) to be able to get places without having to rely on friend/family or hiring a taxi.

[Ancre]

But we can't have computer-controlled cars! How will people do drive-bys, rob banks, or park illegally?

They hack the computer !

I want to see that kind of future if only for the new kind of criminality it would create ! Fun !

[alway]

Something I find really interesting: The Living Earth Simulator.

Essentially a massive system of interwoven models in order to predict major world events through analysis of the huge quantities of statistical and informational data from a massive number of sources. It should actually work well with predicting large scale trends, like economics, as the law of large numbers should cancel out most of the unpredictability one would expect such a system to run into. And the EU seems to think so too, as they have provided a one billion euro grant to create the system.

[Criptfeind]

Cool. Hopefully it will be fairly accurate. Maybe we can even use to make decisions about certain things even?

[alway]

Cool. Hopefully it will be fairly accurate. Maybe we can even use to make decisions about certain things even?

The smaller and more exact the scale, the less likely it will be of use; similar to the way a climate model can tell you a certain region may expect to have warmer temperatures and an increased chance for severe flooding over the course of the next decade, but can't really tell you with any accuracy a weather forecast for any given day. Informing the policies of large groups would really be the purpose of this system. One of the main reasons the EU has decided to give the project 1 billion Euros is because of the potential to use it to inform how they set economic policies.

What I can see as being one of the most important results will be the models it discovers based on patterns in the data. It will be using machine learning algorithms in addition to the pre-programmed models, and those may come up with new ways of looking at events which we hadn't previously had the perspective to see.

[Gamerlord]

I have one question.

When can I get sunglasses that have a HUD like in the Predator movies?

[MetalSlimeHunt]

A couple of years ago, if you wanted to pay several hundred dollars for them.

[Gamerlord]

A couple of years ago, if you wanted to pay several hundred dollars for them.

Holy shit! WHERE?

[MetalSlimeHunt]

There are a couple designs out there, but here's the first one I found.

[alway]

Here's a more versatile, but nonetheless terrible set: http://www.vuzix.com/consumer/products_wrap920ar.html#specifications
Those ones are full opaque, but capture video through the 2 cameras you see on the front. This allows you to process that video in whatever way you want; mostly for AR purposes though. They're really heavy and have a bad design for supporting them; after a few minutes your nose hurts and the heat given off by the monitors inside tends to roast your face. From the group who worked with them last year, they supposedly can burn out from the heat after a few hours of continuous use if you don't let them cool off for awhile first, as well as drawing enough current from the USB port to occasionally burn those out...

Typical first gen issues.

The Google Glasses are something to keep an eye on though.

[Flying Dice]

Cool. Hopefully it will be fairly accurate. Maybe we can even use to make decisions about certain things even?

The smaller and more exact the scale, the less likely it will be of use; similar to the way a climate model can tell you a certain region may expect to have warmer temperatures and an increased chance for severe flooding over the course of the next decade, but can't really tell you with any accuracy a weather forecast for any given day. Informing the policies of large groups would really be the purpose of this system. One of the main reasons the EU has decided to give the project 1 billion Euros is because of the potential to use it to inform how they set economic policies.

What I can see as being one of the most important results will be the models it discovers based on patterns in the data. It will be using machine learning algorithms in addition to the pre-programmed models, and those may come up with new ways of looking at events which we hadn't previously had the perspective to see.

The first thing I thought was 'Psychohistory'. Asimov was right?

[Criptfeind]

Hah. That is what I was thinking about as well.

[Guardian G.I.]

There is one big problem with expecting marvelous technological achievements in the upcoming years: everyone is absolutely confident about the world economic and political system of today remaining relatively the same in the upcoming 50/100/200/500 years.
It reminds me of how the Soviet people in the 1960s dreamed of colonizing the Moon in the far-away year of 2000. Where's the Soviet moon colonies?
With all these talks about the world economic crisis going on, who can absolutely guarantee that the United States of America or the European Union as we know them now will exist in the far future? You guys are talking like no serious catastrophe is going to happen at all in the USA or the EU in the future, and we will have Apple manufacturing IPhone 20G, Google manufacturing those electronic glasses, etc. Well, the Soviets didn't believe that the USSR will ever collapse too.
The reason why I am ranting about politics here is that all that impacts the technological progress. I don't think that Apple will continue to spill out the umpteen generation of IPads should the USA suddenly and unexpectedly collapse.

[mainiac]

The Google Glasses are something to keep an eye on though.

I love how the conversation has become so rambling that people have forgotten about the OP.