PIF- Jetson's Edition

[superkreep]

Ok folks you may remember my recent Bond Girl PIF. As I optimize my shaving den, florals seem to be featured less and less in my rotation, hence this new PIF. So, here's what's up for grabs:

1. Vintage Yardley Lavender
2. Klar Kabbinet- milled half bar
3. Mystic Water- Adirondack Jack
4. Mystic Water- Maestrale
5. Honeybee- Sandalwood
6. Honeybee- Lemon
7. St. Charles- Rose
8. Bath soap- Mysore Sandalwood x3
9. Mystery Cologne

Growing up I was a huge fan of The Jetson's and realized that while today's technology has come far, we have a ways to go. Remember, manned flight was only discovered ~100 years ago. So my question to you is:

What futuristic invention, if available today, would greatly benefit society and why?

I look forward to your ideas!

PIF Rules
- CONUS shipping only
- Winner picked by April 8th
- Be creative, don't be lame

 

[JayEddie]

Way cool PIF, that's a nice variety you're offering up!
I'm in and I'm going with the 'Learning Machine' from that lame movie Battlefield Earth. That way we could all learn how to fix our own computers and software issues within a matter of minutes. Rather than having to pay somebody who claims to know what they're doing, only to have them accomplish nothing or make it worse.

 

[ButtermilkJones]

Very neat, I've been thinking about trying some new florals. I'm definitely in.

I'm going to go with tube travel, or "Vactrains," which allow for incredibly high-speed train travel. Supposedly a trip from New York to London on one of these would take less than an hour. It would allow for more people to experience different cultures, due to the decreased cost and increased speed. Additionally, it could be localized and developed into city-wide public transportation that would reduce the number of vehicles on the road, thus decreasing emissions and traffic congestion.

 

[chrisf8657]

I'm in.

I'll go with the Virtual Library Assistant that could answer any question whatsoever from the 200x remake of the movie "The Time Machine".
It has all the compendium of human knowledge available instantly. Plus, it could hold conversations! Now that beats searching the Internet!

 

[Lamboy]

Im in. Quite a variety in that selection for a PIF. Thank you.

I am not sure how many of you have ever seen or follow the SciFi series' of Stargate, but the stargate technology would be amazing for so many uses. If not that also various other power sources like cold fusion or ZPM's.

 

[RobW]

Fantastic PIF, thanks for the opportunity.

I will go with the water-capable Lotus Esprit, from The Spy Who Loved Me movie. If the question is about desirable futuristic inventions, you don't need to look far into James Bond lore to find a good answer. We need more car-submarines! The combination of tourism and shallow water exploration would be a huge boon not only to local economies but also to SCIENCE!

 

[Sir Lurkalot]

I'm in. The "Transporter" tech from Star Trek, of course! Can you imagine beaming everywhere on the planet? No more air travel. You would be taken to your destination instantly whether it's work, travel or everyday, mundane tasks like going grocery shopping. I want to beam to the top of Mt Everest.

 

[jzuzphreek]

I'm in. The world only needs one TARDIS to solve all its problems... at least in Great Britain.

 

[ShaveYourSoul]

I'm in. The "Transporter" tech from Star Trek, of course! Can you imagine beaming everywhere on the planet? No more air travel. You would be taken to your destination instantly whether it's work, travel or everyday, mundane tasks like going grocery shopping. I want to beam to the top of Mt Everest.

Did you not learn from Spaceballs? What if your a** ended up backwards?

 

[Saxman11290]

I'm in!

As someone who is studying medicine, a futuristic technology that I think would be most useful in terms of improving healthcare for absolutely everyone would be industrialized, widespread, cost-effective personalized medicine. Interestingly, this technology is essentially available today, but simply isn't viable yet due to cost and other limiting factors. What I believe would be the pinacle of medicine involves producing individualized drugs for each person dependent on complete genome sequencing. The idea is that if you know a persons DNA sequence, you can predict what all of the different drug receptors in their body will look like (it's a bit more complicated than that, perhaps other information would be required from each individual), and you could then design and produce a drug for any drug-treatable problem that would be 100% effective for that individual and have no side-effects. A big limiting factor of medicine today is that drugs are produced in mass, but everyone's receptors for said drugs may vary slightly from person to person. This is why there are several available versions of the same drug under different names (think Zoloft, Asentra, Prozac, Lexapro, to name a few that do the same thing). How it works now is, a physician prescribes one drug, sees if it works / if it has side effects in that specific patient, and then tries others if it is not successful. This approach is time consuming, a difficult experience for the patient, and ultimately not able to provide the best care for all people. IF there was a cost effective technology to produce individualized medicine, I think it would greatly benefit the health of society.

 

[Hannibal]

I´m in!

 

[memnochlv]

How about information downloads ala the matrix? Want to fly as helicopter? No problem! Want to learn Kung Fu? Easy! -- Similar to, but not the same as the learning machine post I think...

 

[ShaverGN]

How about information downloads ala the matrix? Want to fly as helicopter? No problem! Want to learn Kung Fu? Easy! -- Similar to, but not the same as the learning machine post I think...

It would create a paradox. See Isaac Asimov's Profession.

 

[neilyasno]

I think that we could benefit from the learning systems in the matrix where you can instantaneoulsy be taught to do certain things. This eliminates the fierce competition in schools and work places and could give everyone a more peaceful life. For example, if my boss needs me to write some code for our website, and I have absolutely no idea on how a computer works, I could be able to have that information in my head within seconds. Sounds cool, but highly unrealistic.

 

[tlentz]

I'm in.
Great invention that would help society, specifically B&B members and vendors, the Facial Hair Regenerator, so no matter how soon it was since your last shave one zap and you could have varying degrees of stuble growth, depending upon what stage you set it to. This would give a boost to the economy with the increase in number of shave products required throughout one's lifetime. The shaving industry as a whole would flourish and all would be right with the world, specifically the wet shaving world.

 

[cpacamper]

I am in.

Cold Fusion! No more carbon spewing into the atmosphere.

 

[ShaverGN]

Time travel. I want to know if I like the new shaving soap before ever trying it. Will it or the new razor blade give me a rash? And I want to know the lottery numbers! The society will benefit greatly. No one will have to hear my gripe again.

 

[Soldierdan]

I gotta go with the good old Star Trek technology and say the Tricorder. The number of medical issues that it remedied on the show was mind-blowing.

I'm in.

 

[aja1732]

I'm in.

After growing up with playing tons of video games, one of the more recent that I have seen called Mass Effect they had an item in it called Medi-gel which was able to heal you and your wounds from combat. We haven't got quite there yet but they are already coming up with items that use stem cells to help you quickly recover from major burns. Also they are working on a gel that is designed to stop both internal and external bleeds. I think that would be an amazing tech just to apply and heal within seconds. With war faring countries and even hostile conditions of mining and such making it a cheap option would be great for Red Cross and UN med teams in third world countries.

 

[jesseix]

I always though that the Mr Fusion contraption on Doc Brown's time machine (Back to the Future) was pretty cool. Would allow everyone to run their cars on trash, eliminating all the demand for fossil fuels. It would put a ton of people out of work, but would also probably make the world a safer place without the fighting over oil.
Either that or the lightsaber ;-)