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Ask HN: What's the next big thing that few people are talking about?

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Re: Ask HN: What's the next big thing that few people are talking about?

#131

Post by nokya »

thom wrote: post #63

Drone tech is going to get tiny. It’ll have microphones and cameras and it’ll probably be untraceable. It’ll spy on you arbitrarily and the equivalent of 4chan will have access to it in abundance. You will never again have any form of privacy unless you buy expensive countermeasures for your home and office. Fortunately deepfakes will be so good you can blame it all on that.

I was recently caught up in a very good friend's divorce, who suspected either her apartment or her car had been placed under surveillance (her husband constantly had knowledge of her whereabouts). For some reason I cannot expand here, she assumed I could help her "check" her apartment.

This brought me into looking for solutions on how to detect electronic surveillance. I discovered the term "bugsweep", and rapidly came to the conclusion that I could either: 1) Recommend her to hire government contractors at a price she would never be able to afford. 2) Buy cheap stuff on Amazon without any knowledge whatsoever on what works or not.

It felt like there was no middle ground.

I also happen to stay in hotels for both work and while on holidays, and although I don't particularly aim to hide myself from government surveillance, I don't like the idea that any moron or stalker could buy some recording equipment online and put me under surveillance. I would appreciate being able to check my surroundings for obvious / cheap recording equipment when I feel the need.

If anyone has some good pointers/recommendations on this topic, I think it could interest more than just me.

Re: Ask HN: What's the next big thing that few people are talking about?

#132

Post by OJFord »

shafyy wrote: post #27
jazzyjackson wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

wish I remembered what podcast I was listening to... it was someone running a company developing synthetic milk and eggs explaining why meat will never scale up, the problem is the growth medium for muscle is also the perfect environment for bacteria, and we basically need to reinvent immune systems before you're going to get a cubed inch of healthy chicken to grow without contamination

This is probably not the one you're referring to, but Pat Brown, co-founder of Impossible, also has quite a strong opinion on cultured meat. If somebody figures out how to grow animal parts artifically and reliably, there are much more interesting applications than to eat it. Such as medicinal applications. I think the main point here is not that we will never figure it out, but that it will take a long time. Time, t…

He'd also have 'quite a strong' interest in not having it succceed - Impossible, Beyond, et al. don't want to have to fight 'ours isn't pretend meat' advertising campaigns, or be relegated to being Quorn et al. competitors (which of course they are really, but currently seem to be succeeding as being seen as meat competitors).

Re: Ask HN: What's the next big thing that few people are talking about?

#133

Post by jacknews »

jazzyjackson wrote: post #121
jacknews wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, I watched some drone light-show/fireworks displays recently, and thought, 'wait till the drones are the size of flies, these shows will be happening in restaurants, bars, in your living room'. Imagine walking into a room full of fireflies that move around you as you walk, etc.

Bottleneck has been and continues to be energy density. But eventually there will be a breakthrough in battery tech and we will reach new heights of utopia/dystopia.

That is true, but also remember the air gets relatively thicker as you get smaller, so flight gets easier.

Re: Ask HN: What's the next big thing that few people are talking about?

#134

Post by snidane »

nokya wrote: post #129
unpopularopp wrote: post #20

Climate migration. What happens Europe now/since 2015 is nothing that will come in the next couple of years. And the individual countries and so as the EU is pretty much unprepared. I'd even say that will be one of the cause of downfall of the union.

I am under the impression that instead of preparing for climate immigration, EU citizens are actually slowly but surely mutually brainwashing themselves into increasing hate towards immigrants as a whole. From what I read and understood about climate change, a tsunami of immigrants from southern hemisphere countries towards northern hemisphere countries is to be expected. I would rather have my elected ones work on a…

Europeans would rather go Japan - ie. keep their national identity and downsize, than America - healthy demographics, but constant cultural clashes and crime waves.

Re: Ask HN: What's the next big thing that few people are talking about?

#136

Post by philwelch »

656565656565 wrote: post #135

Population control? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_population_planning We will have no choice eventually.

If we have to introduce population control it will be to increase the population. All developed countries are below replacement.

Re: Ask HN: What's the next big thing that few people are talking about?

#137

Post by onionisafruit »

YossarianFrPrez wrote: post #83
moralestapia wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>apartment buildings with permacultured gardens growing their own food This has been tried (and proved wrong) countless times. The issue is that it needs a huge footprint, and space is something you don't have at large in apartment buildings.

Good point. I would guess that if electric bikes and other mobility options come online, maybe there will be less need for parking lots to be as large as they are now? Even if apartment buildings are too dense, I still think we will see an increase in eco-village type arrangements.

Subsistence farms are making a comeback?

Re: Ask HN: What's the next big thing that few people are talking about?

#138

Post by billfruit »

YossarianFrPrez wrote: post #58
handelaar wrote: post #37

DC home electricity. If your future home has solar and local storage, and your domestic usage is mostly in appliances which convert back down to DC immediately behind the plug socket (most of us have this) then at some point we're going to start wanting to power our homes like houseboats or camper vans. Yes, this won't help for (eg) appliances with heating elements, I'm probably talking about a second discrete wiring…

Ooh, fascinating. AC is better for long distance transmission, which solar + local storage obviates. Do you happen to know of the efficiency we might stand to gain from switching appliances to DC?

I thought even long distance transmission now use HVDC(High Voltage DC) lines, for various advantages, for example not having lines for 3 phases.

Re: Ask HN: What's the next big thing that few people are talking about?

#139

Post by danielheath »

abetusk wrote: post #78
voisin wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surely this doesn’t include installation or something? I have been quoted $1.50-$1.80/w installed.

I did qualify that this was not including labor and the other hardware and electronics needed for such a system. The (relatively) high cost is most likely because of labor and (in my opinion) inflated hardware costs of battery and solar panels. Labor is a massive expense and can't be discounted but one could imagine a solar panel "kit" that just includes the hardware that you can install yourself. One could also imag…

> Labor is a massive expense and can't be discounted but one could imagine a solar panel "kit" that just includes the hardware that you can install yourself.

Installing high-wattage DC lines without any training at all is a great way to get house fires.

Also, I haven't got whole lot of un-shaded roof space.

I don't understand why commercial solar isn't even bigger than it is - are they waiting for prices to come down, or what?

Re: Ask HN: What's the next big thing that few people are talking about?

#140

Post by pibechorro »

e_joules wrote: post #60
abetusk wrote: post #28

Energy? I feel like it's been talked about a lot but maybe not? Solar panels are dropping in cost at an exponential rate [0]. As of this writing, consumer "new" panels are $0.75/W and used are at around $0.30/W right now (I won't give a link as a Google search will do). Battery technology is also dropping at an exponential rate. I believe, with a little effort, one can purchase batteries at about $0.08/Wh. Taken toge…

Something about this cannot be right, surely? You are saying one can invest in a solar setup and have 7+ years of free electricity, and all that starting after 3.5 years?

I have been living fully off solar (and some wind here and there) for 10 years. Its amazing. Never do I stress powerlines going down, brownouts, etc.

You can run a fridge, lights and a laptop 24.7 on about $300 of solar. You can add panels as your needs and budget increases. The biggest cost is the battery.

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