Skytopia >
Projects > Mysteria Onera - Technology of Dreams
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: Teleportation
Description: Instantly teleport a person or object across huge distances
Conditions: Can only transport something at the speed of light. Duplication excluded. Fully portable.
Subsumes: #The Sky Train,
#Flying Skate Board,
#Deluxe Flying Car,
#Missile Train --- all to varying degrees.
Price: §52000
Yes it had to come eventually - a near instant star trek style teleport. Can't be bothered to climb the stairs to go to bed? Want to cross a motorway without taking the bridge? Is your cat stuck up a tree? Need to cheat at crazy golf? Then what you need is an instant way to get from A to B. Lesser advantages would be transporting around the world or to Mars. Or watching the world economy boom and social relationships blossom. With this gizmo, any other stone age vehicles like flying cars, bullet trains and super submarines are for leisurely use only!
State of the art: The whole thing seems about as likely as Gillette selling everlasting razor blades, but amazingly, scientists are now able to transport atoms across distances. If they manage to extend this effect to a molecule, maybe they can also do the same for a virus, and then eventually even a mouse. When we get to humans though, there are big philosophical questions. Since this kind of teleportation by its very nature destroys the original, is the 'soul' (if it exists) carried across to the new person?
Future prediction date: 11000
Worst case scenario: Losing your molecules or even your very soul
[Index]
: Dawn of Cold Fusion
With cold fusion, we wouldn't need oil to produce energy anymore, but oil is still needed for other uses. Can cold fusion help here?
"Oil will be worth nothing. I have asked experts: "Could you synthesize oil from raw materials? If I gave you carbon and water, could you make any hydrocarbon petrochemical you like?" They say yes, but it would take fantastic amounts of energy. It would be the most uneconomical chemical plant on earth. It does not occur to them, at first, that this would not be the case if energy costs nothing."
(Taken from Infinite Energy)
Farming and cold fusion
Food is almost always grown outdoors thanks to nature providing us rain and sunlight for free. But there are massive disadvantages too, such as land consumption (75% of Britain is farmland!), pestilence, and not enough (or too much) sun/rain/cold. Moving food production indoors will enable us to have cheap, organic, all-year-round food, and save us tons of land in the bargain.
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Description: Cheap disposable energy
Conditions: Non portable
Price: §60000
For real this time!! What we have here is the holy grail of physics - a limitless supply of clean, disposable free energy. Free heating, free lighting, free electricity, free everything! No longer would we have to rely on a precarious supply of oil and fossil fuels (or the pollution to go with it); just plain old water will do (just look at the amount of fuel needed in comparison to fossil fuels or even fission!).
Fusion would banish hunger and poverty and give everyone a better quality of life, mainly due to cheap heating/cooling of airspace, transport (which would run off batteries), less chance of war, and the revolution that would take place in the farming industry. Materials such as oil could be produced instead of mined, and manufacturing techniques would be simplified. Cold fusion would lead the way to complete automation of so many products and services and get us into space more easily. Other more exotic uses of unlimited energy include rebuilding many of the rainforests we destroyed, and launching rubbish into space as an efficient means of waste disposal.
State of the art: Well, it all started in 1989, when two doctors - Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons proclaimed to the world that they had discovered cold fusion. Thousands of researchers then scrambled to repeat the success of the experiment, but unfortunately, no one at the time was able to and so cold fusion was largely discredited as being hokum pokum. That hasn't stopped scientists from still trying though. In late 2004, even the DOE (department of energy) released a report about cold fusion - proving that the phenomenon is being taken seriously to an extent. Alas, the report wasn't overly optimistic about the progress of cold fusion, though some say that the report didn't quite match the scientists' findings. If cold fusion never comes to fruition, then we can still hope for bubble fusion, or normal 'hot' fusion - the way the sun does it.
Future prediction date: 2300
Worst case scenario: With the increased consumption of energy, the efficiency of electrical devices may plummet, as there's less need to worry about saving energy.
[Index]
: Grand Theory Of Music
Description: A universal algorithm to create or rate a waveform of music at any specified quality.
Conditions: 20 such devices given to humanity. 5 seconds of music 'grown' every second. Instant music quality analysis. Ability to specify limitations and starting conditions of piece if desired.
Price: §66000
Never again would you worry about running short of good music to play! Seriously though, how good could music get? How enjoyable would such music be? What we have here is an exhaustive, all encompassing mathematical formula not just to quantify melody, harmony, rhythm, and timbre, but also to see how they work together. With such a formula, we can ascertain the quality of a sound or piece of music, and use it to make the stuff from a given 'seed' and/or set of limitations. Music would then be 'organically grown', and automatically molded into the most incredible designs. Don't worry that such music would sound repetitive or artificial; variety is definitely part of the original plan. Of course, humans would still compose, and we would still enjoy listening to such compositions, but nothing could touch the perfect melodies the Grand Theory would produce.
State of the art: Music theory is still very much in its infancy. Heck, we can't even define the quality of a single chord! Why is the chord: C#, F#, C, Eb, G, Bb much, much worse than C#, F#, B, Eb, F#, Bb ? Why do twelve notes to an octave sound so much better than 8, 14 or 20,000?
Future prediction date: 26000 (nearly solved), 6000 (half solved)
Worst case scenario: Automatic creation of music may remove some of the wonder, though you would probably be in too much bliss to care.
[Index]
: Material Duplication
Description: Duplicate any object or material already in existence.
Conditions: Non portable, 2 tonne device. Excludes duplication of living creatures or more than 3 cubed kilometres at a time. Includes free #Disintegrator Disc to avoid clogging the planet with junk.
Subsumes: #Dawn of Cold Fusion (mostly),
#The Diamond Age,
#Infinite Water Supply,
#Teleportation (of non-living material),
#Pure Air Forever,
#Disintegrator Disc, and many others to a degree.
Price: §88000
Does it suck that someone had the last pretzel? Is life not worth living unless you can have unlimited quantities of blue tack? And are you forever lacking AOL trial CDs? Well here's your answer. In one stroke, you can replicate unlimited quantities of any material; be that food, diamond or slashdot stories. If your world begins to clutter, fear not, for we also include a free Disintegrator into the bargain. Money would be a thing of the past, as would poverty, and not least of all - working. Oh sure, we would still be doing stuff as well as relaxing. We would all become explorers, creators, artists, scientists, musicians, entertainers, and basically better people. What we were destined to be.
Best of all though, you can satisfy your limitless cravings for Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream.
State of the art: Don't expect this technology soon; our progress in nanotech (never mind femtotechnology) is still at the etch-a-sketch stage. The main difficulty is in designing the precision tools needed to create and fit together tiny molecules. Using chemistry, we can manipulate atoms and molecules in a semi-predictable way, but for more complicated systems, bottom-up precision engineering is needed. On that front, we can mass manufacture transistors used in computer chips at about the 30nm scale, but atoms are around 130 picometres in size (there are 1000 picometres in a nanometre), so we'll need to get at least 200 times smaller, and do it all in 3D instead of 2D - no small feat.
For unlimited copies of any material type, it won't even be good enough to rearrange atoms from source material. We'll also need to manipulate at the subatomic scale - neutrons, protons and electrons - so that any type of atom can be made. Only then will be able to recreate any material in existence from any other material.
Future prediction date: 2600 (needing similar atoms/molecules) 3400 (any source material will do!)
Worst case scenario: As you might expect, the duplication of any material could lead to easy ways to destroy the planet.
[Index]
: Infinitely Fast Processor
Description: Infinite processor speed
Conditions: Instant memory transfer speed to prevent bottlenecks
Subsumes: #100,000,000x CPU Speed Up,
#Quantum Computing, #10,000x Processor Speedy Uppy
Price: §90000
Yes, it's a weird one. While there's no end in sight to how much memory we can have, the ability to continually increase the speed of a single processor gets tougher and tougher. How useful could an infinitely fast CPU be though? Well for a start you can goodbye to distributed computing. Also say goodbye to graphics cards, co-processors, and other custom chips - they won't be needed. Say hello to exponential scientific and mathematical progress, enabling cures for hundreds of diseases, and massive artificial and 'evolutionary' intelligence. For example, the simulation of a single protein fold currently takes computer years to do what nature does in microseconds (over 30 trillion times faster). We won't be reaching that kind of power any time soon. If you combine this item with #Infinite_Data_Memory, you can simulate the universe and possibly life itself!
State of the art: 3 GHz in 2005. See #10,000x Processor Speedy Uppy
Future prediction date: ∞
Worst case scenario: ---
[Index]
: Quadruple Lifetime
Description: All parts of the aging process decrease to one quarter speed.
Conditions: ---
Subsumes: #Double Lifetime
Price: §107000
Life becomes even more valuable as people gain great amounts of wisdom and knowledge over periods lasting more than 300 years. Life becomes more relaxing too. Instead of everyone rushing to go to school, university, get a job, get married etc., people can take 'years out' to pursue a particular interest or two. We would all generally have more time for hobbies, learning and of course, each other. And TV.
State of the art: See #Double Lifetime
Future prediction date: 2400
Worst case scenario: Population explosion
[Index]
: Omega Battery
Description: A powerful infinitely lasting battery.
Conditions: Capable of producing 10,000 watts of power per cubic millimetre of battery. Infinitely lasting.
Subsumes: #Dawn of Cold Fusion
Price: §115000
Cold fusion, but portable. Need I say more? The number of possible applications is simply mind blowing. Unlike the instant gratification of Material Duplication, we would still need to work, at least for a while. But the rewards are potentially much greater in the end.
Obviously, consumer devices such as iPods, MP3 players, digital cameras, camcorders and laptops would never run down. Nor would larger objects such as cars, buses, wind turbines, and particle accelerators. Household appliances, not needing to run off the power grid would instead contain an Omega Battery on purchase.
But it gets better. Because of the infinite energy, we can make flying cars, dig to the center of the Earth, travel in space, build ever more elaborate theme park rides, and light up the night with millions of useless but pretty lights!
State of the art: Unfortunately, the progress we've seen in battery technology is nothing like the exponential trends enjoyed by computer processor and memory. In fact, there's only been a threefold increase in rechargeable battery lifetime since 1990. A new technology - the fuel cell - has been heralded as a new power source for portable devices such as laptops, cell phones and even car engines. At the moment they're a bit clunky, need to refilled with (cheap) methanol fuel, and can't dynamically handle the variable power requirements that laptops handle. However, they pack a punch at around 400 watt hours per kilogram - around twice that of the best lithium ion batteries, and this could be extended to 3000 wH/kg in the future.
Future prediction date: ∞, 2400 (10000 wH/Kg)
Worst case scenario: Potential of massive scale destruction in the wrong hands
[Index]
"The principles of physics, as far as I can see, do not speak against the possibility of manoeuvring things atom by atom. It is not an attempt to violate any laws; it is something, in principle, that can be done; but in practice, it has not been done because we are too big." --- Richard Feynman, Nobel Prize winner in physics
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: Atomic Synthesizer
Description: Create objects and materials from a simple and programmable 3 dimensional array of atomic building blocks.
Conditions: 100% Portable. Material creation at up to 10 teragrams per second via arbitrary manipulation of electrons, protons and neutrons. Includes inbuilt infinite memory. Includes free upgraded Disintegrator Disc.
Subsumes: #Omega Battery (partially),
#Material Duplication,
#Dawn of Cold Fusion, #The Diamond Age, #Flying Car, #100,000,000x CPU Speed Up, #Disintegrator Disc, and half of the rest................
Price: §126000
Woah, this is #Material Duplication, but taken to the next level. Imagine you're in the year 3400, when the science and engineering of femtotechnology is in its final stages. You have a picture of a donut on the screen. Then you press "Print". Instead of a piece of paper coming out, you see a perfectly edible chocolate donut materializing.
Never has the phrase "The only limit is your imagination" been more applicable. Similar to the Holodeck on Star Trek, you can design and program new worlds and cities inside a program, and watch them appear out of thin air. From there you can visit your new world on your newly created rocket with its own newly created fuel. Neat stuff, but it doesn't end there. Other life-changers include much faster computers, improved medicine, super-strong, self-cleaning, light, exotic materials, longer-lasting batteries, nanobots for cleaning, repairing or medical purposes, a constant stream of free energy, and the instant production of foods we've never tasted before. Need a new arm, leg, heart or a blood transfusion? As weird as it sounds just grow the body part! (Well okay, we might be able to do that sooner than we think without advanced nanotechnology).
Safety features include resistance to creating black holes, antimatter, or building 'over' existing materials to prevent catastrophic explosions, but these are only forcibly applied if they pose a threat to life. To aid waste disposal, we also chuck into the deal an upgraded version of the #Disintegrator Disc - allowing you to 'select' one or more objects and delete them.
State of the art: We're very far away from the mature stages of femtotechnology needed for this device. See: #Material Duplication
Future prediction date: 3400
Worst case scenario: Gray goo!
[Index]
: The U-Atom
Description: An atom with completely programmable laws of physics. Can be structured into various forms and forces.
Conditions: Spherical and planar (1-way/2-way) force fields only. Any force and colour possible. Maximum strength of 10^500 Gs for each atom. Includes free upgraded Disintegrator Disc and special console as the interface for U-Atom technology.
Subsumes: #Atomic Synthesizer (mostly),
#Omega Battery (mostly),
#Material Duplication,
#Dawn of Cold Fusion, #The Diamond Age, #Programmable Repelling Superatom, #Flying Skate Board, #Deluxe Flying Car, #Gravity Blocker (mostly), #100,000,000x CPU Speed Up, #Disintegrator Disc, and most of the rest................
Price: §145000
A universe within a universe and your chance to redesign the laws of physics! Similar to the Programmable Repelling Superatom, but much more versatile as it can now attract as well as repel! For a taste of the kind of stuff the U-Atom is capable of, you may want to visit the Super Magnet page. In summary, you'd be able to create your own universe but with completely customisable forces for each 'pseudo atom'. These pseudo atoms would optionally mix in with the real-world atoms, according to the particular rules you give to them. Like before, the atoms can work on a microscopic or macroscopic level, so anything from super-strong materials to anti-gravity is possible. Fancy living in an underwater dome-shaped city? Just program one atom to repel millions of other atoms to form a hemisphere, and these in turn attract each other and repel all the surrounding water molecules outside.
The cool thing about the U-Atom is all the amount of stuff it subsumes. Infinite data storage? Yup. Unlimited amounts of energy? Fairly trivial; just program an atom to act as a forever rotating motor. Fancied that Flying Skate Board from earlier? No problemo. In fact, anything that involves movement can be constructed into reality. Simply program the atoms via the supplied console, and bingo.
So what can't it do? There are some fundamental features missing when put up against the #Atomic Synthesizer. For example, it doesn't deal with radiation or any quantum specifics. Nor can you define the appearance of the U-Atom (by default, each U-Atom emits a faint glow). If you really wanted to change the appearance, you could always program normal matter to 'stick' to U-matter.
State of the art: See: #Programmable Repelling Superatom
Future prediction date: ∞
Worst case scenario: The power of this thing is too immense to comprehend - for good or for bad.
[Index]
: Indefinite Life Span
Description: End to aging and 'natural' death. Persons would choose age appearance.
Conditions: Does not protect against accidental death or 'non-old age' inducing illnesses.
Subsumes: #Quadruple Lifetime,
#Double Lifetime
Price: §260000
This is it. The crunche deou munche. The ace of aces, and the holy grail of biology. Benefits would be similar to the Quadruple Lifetime item, but taken to its logical conclusion. Unfortunately, because it's not terribly hard to die in ways other than 'old age', the average person would only live to be around 500 - 1000 years old. However, this will improve as safety immediately becomes of more concern.
State of the art:
We don't precisely know what makes us 'grow old', but part of the process is definitely caused by the way cell information deteriorates every time it splits and multiplies.
How old could we theoretically get to live? If you don't want to die, then there's some potentially good news. At the moment, we're adding half a year every year to human longevity. Compare that to the 18th and 19th centuries where only days or weeks were added every year to the human lifespan. The advances in the bio-information sciences may well help us to pass the threshold of sustaining human life indefinitely.
Future prediction date: 2800
Worst case scenario: (population explosion, and losing a close relative or friend due to accident would be very painful)
[Index]
Anchor shortcuts:
: §200 - Photon Camcorder
: §240 - Sound Wallpaper
: §300 - Century's Information Online
: §350 - Solid-State Disks
: §380 - Free Bandwidth Anywhere
: §400 - Flu and Common Cold Cure
: §400 - Pseudo 3D Screen
: §450 - Death Of Spam
: §500 - Noise Blocker
: §600 - Forever Lightbulb
: §700 - 20,000Mb_Bandwidth
: §720 - Featherweight Laptops
: §850 - Missile Train
: §1,000 - Flat Screen
: §1,150 - Flying Car
: §1,250 - Zelphon Light Panels
: §1,450 - Space Travel For Free
: §1,600 - Light Saber
: §1,900 - Sight and Sound Restorer
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: §2,000 - Infinite Data Memory
: §2,200 - 10,000x Processor Speedy Uppy
: §2,600 - Internet Omega
: §2,800 - Entire History's Information Online
: §3,200 - Quantum_Computing
: §3,500 - Disintegrator Disc
: §4,000 - The Sky Train
: §4,300 - Earth Viewer
: §4,600 - Age of the Deltascreen
: §5,200 - Terraformation Of Mars
: §5,700 - Universal Temperature Controller
: §6,900 - Pure Air Forever
: §7,500 - 100,000,000x CPU Speed Up
: §8,100 - Anti-sleep Pill
: §8,300 - Infinitely Powerful Telescope
: §8,700 - Gravity Blocker
: §9,100 - Xeton Microscope
: §9,900 - Omega 3D Holocube
: §12,500 - Deluxe Flying Car
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: §13,500 - Flying Skate Board
: §15,000 - Grand Theory of Physics
: §18,000 - Music Analyzer
: §22,000 - Universe Viewer
: §25,000 - Infinite Water Supply
: §28,000 - Grand Theory of Visual Art
: §34,000 - Programmable Repelling Superatom
: §39,000 - The Diamond Age
: §45,000 - Double Lifetime
: §52,000 - Teleportation
: §60,000 - Dawn of Cold Fusion
: §66,000 - Grand Theory Of Music
: §81,000 - Material Duplication
: §90,000 - Infinitely Fast Processor
: §107,000 - Quadruple Lifetime
: §115,000 - Omega Battery
: §126,000 - Atomic Synthesizer
: §145,000 - The U-Atom
: §260,000 - Indefinite Life Span
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