IMO, advanced biotech and nanotechnology in general, it's coming eventually.
I personally think that we are at a point that we can make some significant advances in miniature engineered things that interact with the human body (and everything really).
Miniature robots in our bodies (or just blood, I don't know that much about the subject) that we can program or have upgrades for, or just monitor. They could clean cholesterol, monitor numerous levels/vitals, prevent clots, and anything really. They could be especially useful for preventing overdose or sudden onset diseases. I can imagine a text in the future to people, "Warning, your Blood Pressure is abnormally high, here are some tips to help you lower it." or "Blood Alcohol Content is currently at .10, you are not legally allowed to drive."
Yes, it's dangerous. Yes it will probably be possible to easily engineer something that will kill all of humanity, but those are problems we will have to make safeguards for.
I didn't see this, so maybe it's hopeless. BBC Horizon - "Tomorrow's World" - (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01rwgt6). Not on iPlayer, but probably available via other means.
The clip is stomach churning. Don't watch it if you're eating.
I can imagine having wireless internet everywhere. No need to worry about dead zones. Imagine being lost in the middle of nowhere but having some wireless internet to call for help or guide you out. It would be pretty neat.
That's been the goal of many research groups for 50+ years. I can see Google releasing a service (API) for it within the next few years.
What would be the applications for real-time NLP and translation? I can't think of anything beyond being able to have the words appear on the screen faster or actions being preformed half of a second faster.
I think talking to someone on the phone in English to someone who doesn't speak English, but gets the message in his native tongue in real time would be super awesome (English speaker speaking to someone who hears Japanese and the Japanese speaker speaking back in Japanese but the English speaker hears English).
I personally think that we are at a point that we can make some significant advances in miniature engineered things that interact with the human body (and everything really).
Miniature robots in our bodies (or just blood, I don't know that much about the subject) that we can program or have upgrades for, or just monitor. They could clean cholesterol, monitor numerous levels/vitals, prevent clots, and anything really. They could be especially useful for preventing overdose or sudden onset diseases. I can imagine a text in the future to people, "Warning, your Blood Pressure is abnormally high, here are some tips to help you lower it." or "Blood Alcohol Content is currently at .10, you are not legally allowed to drive."
Yes, it's dangerous. Yes it will probably be possible to easily engineer something that will kill all of humanity, but those are problems we will have to make safeguards for.