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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?

#811

Post by 7373737373 »

zamalek wrote: post #494
Geee wrote: post #284

General purpose humanoid robots. They're kind of mainstream idea, but very few people talk about them or take them seriously. Humanoid robots will have an absolutely massive impact in very near future. Most people don't realize that with general purpose humanoid robots, labor becomes software. Labor becomes repeateable, testable, simulatable, modular, extensible, verifiable, etc. All things that apply to software wil…

We already have robots that are adept at single tasks. Washing machines, microwave ovens, coffee makers, chip fryers, the list goes on. Robots made in the shape of the task that they are accomplishing. There is very little to gain from having a general purpose robot that is mediocre at everything. Even if general purpose robots were to become commonplace, it is extremely unlikely that they would be humanoid. Apart fr…

Disagreed, nearly all tools and spaces in the world have been built for humans, humanoid robots will have the potential to learn and use all of them.

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

#812

Post by bambax »

O__________O wrote: post #627
entropicgravity wrote: post #566

Personal vehicles will be getting both bigger and smaller. What's different from the past is that electric motors scale much better than IC engines. Both the world's smallest vehicles (kid's toys) and the largest vehicles (huge mining trucks) are both electric. First the small. Cities will soon start to ban all but electric vehicles in their downtown cores (already happening in some Chinese cities). The primary reaso…

“Halving” vehicles has been possible for long time, also seen it mentioned numerous times over the years. Unless large & small vehicles never use the same roads, ever, it will never happen; imagine being in a small car and being hit by a large car, odd of person in small car dying are much higher. Basically, something like this will only have a chance in an authoritarian society. As for the RV, you still need parking…

> Unless large & small vehicles never use the same roads, ever, it will never happen

It has already happened. I drive an ebike in Paris almost every day. It's even smaller than a "half vehicle" and has absolutely zero protection, save for the helmet. I wouldn't trade an ebike for a "thin car" though, because an ebike can go anywhere. It's an incredible level of freedom.

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

#813

Post by Heffaklump »

Wireless energy, as our air fills with radio waves those could be used to power super small devices. There are already pocs which produce a very small current from 5G radio and I think this technology is about to bloom. It’s going to be very interesting which side the law makers stands on in this matter.

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

#814

Post by kulikalov »

Vox_Leone wrote: post #271

Real holographic display : To create an aerial hologram [or a 3d image in space if you will], you need something that will emit light at precise locations throughout a given volume. I'm investigating the use of Moller electron scattering[0] to create voxels in a 3d coordinate system. Two electron beams crossing and colliding will emit photons [voxels]. If you can orchestrate collisions in a very fast fashion at vario…

I wonder what’s the use case would be for this technology?

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

#815

Post by iostream25 »

kulikalov wrote: post #786
esel2k wrote: post #779

Agricultural revolution. I believe things like food, health and safety will become things not taken for granted anymore. Prices of all of these things will go up and take a major part of the household budgets. I believe one of the first is food, as every nation (rich or poor or sick) will need it and changes in climatic conditions have an impact already today. Next is health industry than defense (this one is scary)…

What do you think about food replacements like US Soylent or EU JimmyJoy? It looks to me like a big deal, but I don’t see much enthusiasm from other people and these products have been around for a while.

It would seem that animals evolved to eat plants and other animals are probably not going to switch to dead packaged food from a singular company en-masse. There are also cultural factors. Meals are one of the few social excuses for hanging out and wasting work time together.

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

#816

Post by kulikalov »

wcoenen wrote: post #586

Using power from solar panels to synthesize food (or at least, food components like starch). It turns out this can be done much more efficiently than photosynthesis. https://phys.org/news/2021-09-chinese-scientists-starch-synt... I bet this will lead to a agricultural revolution similar in magnitude to the Haber-Bosch process. It will also soften some of the impacts from climate change, both by improving food securit…

Are you working in this/ related to this industry?

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

#817

Post by april_22 »

klohto wrote: post #798
lynguist wrote: post #796

Photovoltaics. I searched for it and couldn’t find it. Here’s a former top page post by Terraform: https://caseyhandmer.wordpress.com/2022/07/22/were-going-to-...

Solar is talked about plenty imho. But every year it’s supposed to be “the year of solar”

True, though solar prices keep dropping

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

#818

Post by 7373737373 »

jensneuse wrote: post #23

Managing APIs like dependencies, with a package manager-like developer experience. (npm for APIs). The number of APIs is continuously growing. It's going to be impossible to manually manage API dependencies in the future. I wrote about our approach to solve the problem here: https://docs.wundergraph.com/docs/architecture/manage-api-de... I'm curious what others think of this problem space.

Creating an API documentation and (decentralized micro)payment standard might be worthwhile. The hug library made a great impression on me: https://www.hug.rest/

https://github.com/void4/notes/issues/1

https://github.com/void4/notes/issues/2

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

#819

Post by sweetheart »

Heffaklump wrote: post #807
sweetheart wrote: post #797

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We should eat what requires the fewest resources (water, land), and is completely nutritious for all stages of life: plants, and plants only. It’s mind boggling how tight the Venn diagram is between People Who Are Fearful of Climate Crisis and People Who Refuse to Stop Eating Animals.

This is true in a lot of places and I agree meat consumption should go down but this is not true everywhere. Animals can convert calories we cannot eat to calories we can eat. Take dry grasslands for example where you could either herd goats and sheep on what nature provides or grow crops which uses a lot more water and fertilizer than the environment there produces.

This supplies a vast, vast minority of the calories in developed countries. CAFOs, or factory farms, tend to supply animal products to developed countries, and those animals aren’t being sustained on the grasslands. So your point doesn’t really justify the ubiquity of animal consumption.

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

#820

Post by kulikalov »

madrox wrote: post #529

From a customer perspective, people are wanting to retreat away from a lot of existing, global players. How many people would use something that's basically Amazon/Google/Facebook/Twitter as long as it isn't Amazon/Google/Facebook/Twitter? The last decade was defined by being the one unicorn that could disrupt an entire industry, but those days are gone and we take it for granted that one company dominating a space i…

How do you know that a lot of people want that? I personally see a few people in a few communities with a confirmation bias. I’m not saying that you are wrong, just genuinely asking
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