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Ask HN: What projects are 20 years ahead of their time?

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51–60 of 121 posts

Re: Ask HN: What projects are 20 years ahead of their time?

#51

Look back 20 years to 1997. Before Windows 2000 brought together the home and server codebases. Before the internet was available on mobile phones. Heck, back then the internet was used by less than 2% of the global population. What was 20 years ahead of its time then? What would you have looked at and thought "That'll be massive in 20 years"? About the only thing I can think of is VR. Which Sega tried to launch in t…

20 years ago I read about software as a service. The idea was that everyone would use thin clients and run graphical applications remotely. The idea was not new, as it is similar to the mainframes of the past.

The infrastructure and technology was not quite there 20 years ago, but we are getting close with today's cloud and webapps

Re: Ask HN: What projects are 20 years ahead of their time?

#52

Look back 20 years to 1997. Before Windows 2000 brought together the home and server codebases. Before the internet was available on mobile phones. Heck, back then the internet was used by less than 2% of the global population. What was 20 years ahead of its time then? What would you have looked at and thought "That'll be massive in 20 years"? About the only thing I can think of is VR. Which Sega tried to launch in t…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: What projects are 20 years ahead of their time?

#53
FPV Drone Racing - While automated flight is making great progress, there are some amazing pilots out there. Something about a person standing in a field with goggles and a controller feels so future to me.

3D Printing - This is going to be the main way to manufacture things in the future. The lab that is 3D printing houses with concrete. That makes me terrified for home values going forward. It will likely shift all the value into the land. The house will just become something you tear down and reprint every 10 years.

CRISPR - s/shitty gene sequence/perfect gene sequence/g That's insane. It's like an anti-virus product for the body (irony intended). We're going to live a very long time and be practically disease free pretty soon. I'm planning on living until 150 (27 now). It's placing a big bet on medical science, but I feel like we're on the edge of some huge things.

Re: Ask HN: What projects are 20 years ahead of their time?

#54

Back in 2002, I started working on "automated digital doubles of real people" with an eye on automated actor replacement. I'd been working in VFX, with a history in 3D development going back to the early 80's. Long story short: started with a stellar team and I wrote and was awarded a global patent on automated actor replacement in filmed media. The company, patent and seed funding all come together just as the finan…

If you have a patent then sue Disney for Rogue One.

sold, 2012.

Re: Ask HN: What projects are 20 years ahead of their time?

#55
post #40

Look back 20 years to 1997. Before Windows 2000 brought together the home and server codebases. Before the internet was available on mobile phones. Heck, back then the internet was used by less than 2% of the global population. What was 20 years ahead of its time then? What would you have looked at and thought "That'll be massive in 20 years"? About the only thing I can think of is VR. Which Sega tried to launch in t…

Many of the web startups in the late 1990s had good ideas but were about 20 years too early. A lot of things that have succeeded today were tried then and failed either because the technology couldn't scale, or the bandwidth wasn't there, or because people just weren't ready for it.

I worked for two startups in the 1980s that were doing online hypertext and searching multiple online databases.

Failure reasons were the ones you list plus lack of TCP/IP provision.

Re: Ask HN: What projects are 20 years ahead of their time?

#56
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I very much doubt that. Tech people love it as a nice invention with a libertarian twist. But what is the incentive for my grand-mother to use it over regular cash?

Being able to send any amount money anywhere all over the world with no fees or restrictions and with great privacy isn't interesting?

Transactions won't be free. Somebody has to do some mining. Some googling indicates that a typical bitcoin transaction costs about two dollars today. In my experience, paying money via Paypal or credit card costs about the same.

Re: Ask HN: What projects are 20 years ahead of their time?

#57
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I very much doubt that. Tech people love it as a nice invention with a libertarian twist. But what is the incentive for my grand-mother to use it over regular cash?

Being able to send any amount money anywhere all over the world with no fees or restrictions and with great privacy isn't interesting?

>Great privacy != public ledger of every transaction >No fees? have you even looked at the state of btc currently?

Re: Ask HN: What projects are 20 years ahead of their time?

#58
post #16

Nuclear fusion? I can see this thing in 20 years http://news.mit.edu/2015/small-modular-efficient-fusion-plan...

Fusion is not ahead of it's time... The future of energy has to be simple scalable and safe, fusion at terrestrial scales is extremely complex and very limited in fuel source, even if sustainable fusion is cracked that will always be true just like fission, it just has different complexities and different fuels.

Re: Ask HN: What projects are 20 years ahead of their time?

#60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lilium and Magic Leap are fake, idk about the others.

Lilium test flight: https://www.theverge.com/2017/4/20/15369850/lilium-jet-flyin...

it is fake. two observations:

1. they sent a pre-recorded video to the media instead of inviting the media to witness the test flight. those who are capable of building such flying cars don't make stupid mistakes in such scale.

2. it has 36 engines, good luck for the vibrational modes.

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