We thought of [cheap, ubiquitous] video phones 50 years ago, and finally had the tech to pull them off [Skype] five years ago. What computer-related advances are we thinking of right now that we'll only have the tech for in another 45 years? I can't think of anything off-hand, and I haven't read any futurists thinking of them either. Apparently, technology is harder to predict than it used to be.
autonomous (even flying) cars need HW and SW advances. People have been banging on about brain-computer interfaces and augumented reality for years, both of which needs some serious hardware and design advances to be really usable (and would people be happy with wearing an OCZ Neural Impulse Actuator? lol). Futurist Michio Kaku reckons we might be close to force fields and telepathy.
> autonomous (even flying) cars need HW and SW advances
Actually, it appears that the only thing autonomous cars would need is the removal of traditional, unpredictable cars from the roads. (Good luck with that...)
