Researchers, get your collective fingers out

[Týr]

There's a whole stack of technologies which haven't yet had their breakthrough discovery.

Newcomen's atmospheric engine developed into the power and transportation industries. He built his first in 1712 which was maybe forty years after researchers first developed the subject of thermodynamics and showed him how to. Similarly Faraday's 1830s investigations into electromagnetic induction kick-started entire industries.

Antibiotics showed up in the 1940s and radically changed the outcome of infection.

We've had the transistor for sixty years or so, all these smartphones are the direct descendants of that bit of research.

The laser showed up ten years later and a whole stack of communications developed from that.

Here's what we can't yet do because nobody's yet found out how to. A research breakthrough in either of these areas would lead to just as major a set of new applications for everyday use.

1. Gravity inverter. I have a device on my wall which reflects electromagnetic radiation. It's a mirror. H. G. Wells speculated about an equivalent surface for reflecting gravity in 1901 and called it cavorite. Here we are, a hundred and ten years later and nobody's discovered how to create it. That's not good enough, I want cavorite and I want it now.

2. Transporter technology. As far back as the Crimean War people could get from London to Cornwall in a day thanks to the railway system. Any improvements since then have been incremental and relate more to safety than to speed. I want a fundamental change in transportation which removes this durational aspect. I want a doorway that I can use to dial out, step through and arrive at my destination. I don't want to have to increase my energy bill by using it. I'd like one by Christmas please.

By all means add to the thread, I'm sure there's other devices we currently haven't got because these researchers can't be arsed to slave harder in their labs.

[Bruv]

Google has solved many of my needs.

Ebay does some good stuff too, direct from China, I am told they can knock anything up for you there.