The future isn't what it used to be

[jtbell]

Nanobots, ape chauffeurs and flights to Pluto. The predictions for 2020 we got horribly wrong (cnn.com)

And we still don't use flying cars to get to work.

 

[Wrichik Basu]

And we still don't use flying cars to get to work.

I am really upset about that. I hoped that when most people take to flying cars, the traffic on the roads would decrease, and I would finally find space on the roads to practice driving without fifty other cars honking around me. :sad:

 

[Ibix]

And we still don't use flying cars to get to work.

Can you imagine - today's drivers with an extra dimension to contend with?

 

[gleem]

Can you imagine - today's drivers with an extra dimension to contend with?

Leave control of s flying cars to AI it would seem a better application than to ground based autonomous vehicles. GPS provides enough accuracy to define suitable travel corridors and with cares in constant communication with neighbors and no pedestrians to worry about accidents "should be" very rare.

 

[Bystander]

Leave control of s flying cars to AI

https://www.physicsforums.com/threa...-prosecutions-for-criminal-negligence.982288/

 

[StatGuy2000]

Among the reasons why futurists so often get predictions wrong is that those who make such predictions fail to take into account the complexities involved in the outstanding problems which their predictions are said to solve or address. AI predictions are among the best example of this.

This should make us pause among those who are attempting to make predictions for the future 50 years ahead.

 

[gleem]

As far as I know the Boeing MCAS is not an AI application. It does point to the ever present problem of human fallibility and greed and the willingness of corporations to disregard seemingly remote problems (and neglecting the advice of experts) in favor of making a buck. That said however it it also a fact that in the deployment of any new technology there will be problems only realized after its introduction.

 

[Keith_McClary]

And we still don't use flying cars to get to work.

We have jet packs:
https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/jet-pack-lets-you-live-your-iron-man-fantasies-you-ncna893661

 

[BWV]

People extrapolate from recent history, a main reason why predictions made 40-50 years ago of rapidly expanding space travel, moonbases etc came from expecting progress in spaceflight to follow a similar pattern as air travel did during its first 50 years, which went from the Wright bros to jets

now everyone expects new technologies to ramp like IT (‘its all like Moore’s law!’) which creates similarly overoptimistic predictions

 

[russ_watters]

As far as I know the Boeing MCAS is not an AI application.

This is correct. Maybe even more to the point, commercial airplanes have already been [capable of being] essentially fully autonomous robots for decades. There's really nowhere else for them to go in terms of developing the automation. I think we are unlikely to ever remove or reduce the pilots.

 

[phinds]

The future isn't what it used to be!

... and it never has been