I'm looking for a device that allows me to quickly and easily discorporate and recorporate as two or three of myself, all able to work in concert. Of course, this process should be able to be reversed any time.

(I've had my best men on this one for a while, but we're happy to accept assistance).

I didn't get it ....


Alexandre P.

I see a problem and a new movie. When it is time to "reverse" the process which of you is in charge of the reversal and who do we believe, in the event it becomes a legal battle. What if one of your re-generations falls in love with the other? Can you close the book on that chapter of their lives? Will you wake with cold sweats in the night, not completely sure that YOU are not one of the regenerations?

I see Maggie Gyllenhall and Naomi Watts as the genome techs that stumble on the discovery. Edward Norton as the hapless boyfriend that falls in love with his own girlfriends "re-generation"

Maggie: "How can you be more in love with her...she's me for God's sake!"

Edward: "She's more you than you are and she hasn't any doubts. She knows she loves me...you only think you do." Music rises....cut to Naomi Watts back at the lab destroying everything.

Two weeks before the Academy Awards are handed out Jay Leno will crack wise in his monologue: "Did you see where Maggie Gyllenhall is up for best actress in that movie where her character is re-generated?
I personally think her second generation should get the best supporting actress"

There is no satire anymore. Life is just too weird.

The implementation of Freeman Dyson's idea of genetically engineering crops to produce more roots. More roots mean more top-soil, and the addition of a hundreth of an inch of top-soil to all the already cultivated land in the world would remove ALL the excess carbon humans have put into the atmosphere. Nice if it worked, and we may have very few other options for removing carbon.

Book soundtracks. A background music, noice or fx, that fit and react to the environment of the page you're on.

i would really like to see a small device one could plug head phones into and place audio tracks on so as to allow for portable listening of digital music. that would be keen. a screen of some kind would make it even more keen.

OmniNet: Internet everywhere. Even if it is cached and updated once a day, having places where one can go to a terminal and query it about anything would be very handy. I'd like to see such things in coffeehouses, bars, and bookstores, because I tend to get ideas there, and then scribble them down to look them up when I get home.

I know that some cities are getting "WiMax" service, but the telecoms are fighting hard against it. Like the ones in my city. So, just stepping outside with your web-enabled device isn't going to work.

I know that the Internet has greatly enriched my life in many ways, and I cannot imagine life without it now. Making it ubiquitous would be a good thing.

And a remote control cat-feeder would be cool, too.

nanotech tattoos that can be programmed.
i've written/talked alot about this over the years!

I don't have tattoos, I don't want the pain : ) But I LOVE this suggestion! Brilliant.

i also like the idea that i can re-program them - that i'm not stuck with lasering or cover ups when i make a big mistake!

Given the misery most travel experiences now involve (hours of queueing, stale air, back pain) it is high time for a star trek-type transporter, where I and my things can be atomized and reassembled at the point of entry. Given that security wants to know everything about me, it seems breaking me down to my base elements might help them...

Honestly, speech-to-text software that REALLY works. A smart mic/recorder built into my .mp3 player that, when docked, would open my dictation into a spellchecked Word or Wordperfect file.

ice cream that changes color when you lick it
remote-controlled ice cream
prank HD digital cameras (they squirt water from the lens)
shoes that musicate your steps with random, yet agreeable, notes
"Smart Lamps" that illuminate only one color in their range
electric tights
Whisper Amps
bottled water impregnated with naturally vitamin-rich algae
Sustainable Peyote
Traveling Landmarks (eliminating God-related turf battles)
a new kind of tea

I'm easy to please: I just want warp drive.

Hi Momus, I think there will be much more interesting ideas than mine, but I recently found myself walking with a cane due to some discomfort in my right upper leg.

I found I loved the cane, a $15 USD metallic, collapsible contraption that I could tuck into my bag when my leg was feeling robust enough to do without.

But when wielding the cane on busy sidewalks, people would look at me, see a somewhat young person on a cane ("poor thing!"), and GET OUT OF MY WAY. It was like the sidewalk was magically cleared for me to get on with my business! I loved it, and sometimes was guilty of pulling it out even when I didn't need it.

I started to think, wow, this contraption would be super handy if it had an umbrella and sharp knife built into its extensible array!

So that's what I want. A collapsible cane with an umbrella and weapon built right in. See what you can do for me, okay?

best,
harriet

How come twice a day (I take two baths a day) I have to waste two-to-three minutes fussing with the water taps to get the bath temperature to the exactly same temperature I had it the last time ? Why don't we have memory controls on our water taps that allow us to choose exactly the same temperature of water dispensed the last time we used that basin? It bugs me, all this fussing. I have better things to fuss over!

A future not built, but grown.

A libation with a built in hangover cure, I have been working on this for two years but haven't got beyond the Solpadeine dissolved in Single Malt prototype.I don't think I need to contact the patents office just yet....
Thomas Scott.

1. A Nag-O-Matic. This device is a combination of a PDA-type scheduler and GPS locator, locked onto the wrist, that will keep a prioritized list of each step of all of the things I need to do. It will deliver incrementally uncomfortable reminders (from vibrating to mildly painful shock) when I'm falling behind schedule (or surfing too long), but it will also deliver something pleasurable (soothing frequency waves?) when I'm working at what I'm supposed to be doing.

2. A Cell-Out. A pocket-size device that automatically knocks out the cell phone service of anyone talking on one within my earshot, or within 100 feet of me while driving.

X-Ray Specs

Although it's been touched on before, I'd really like to see computer implants in the brain that allow us to store memory, music, movies, photos, even our day planners into our minds and give us the ability to access them at all times. We get this data via a USB cable. One part goes in the small hole in our heads where the implant is and the other in our computer. Meetings would be a lot easier, as anything can be pulled right out and shared. Listening to music would be a lot more selfish since we'd only be hearing it in our head. And the movies can be played simply by closing the eyes or choosing to view it by one or both eyes while open.

I would prefer ready access to new images. Easily, casually, not a weapon, or even a tool, not the stuff of old. Not total recall machine, seeing information as not simply binary data.

I would also prefer to avoid my role as agent, shackled to the browser as linking tool. Link Link stop. Old stuff, networking linearly, I want to see a visual-spatial-wiki.

Relation of forms and color, moods, even. I suppose this would just be an AI program, a funky set of algorithms, but with some allowances for errors, a human touch. A brain, maybe. Give us a brain Momus. A process, a toy that one can tumble about, to play in the dirt with, to day dream with more than what is around us. Instantly relate and respond to its visual context, a diddling tool that responds to all previous reference points, but is not limited by what is in that head of yours, or mine.

Something I can take outside.

Supertoys for someone in the future.

Moi, je rêve de vêtements qui récupéreraient la chaleur au niveau des parties corporelles qui dégagent le plus de calories pour aller l'envoyer au niveau de la tête, des mains et des pieds (pratique quans les extrémités sont gelées et que le chauffage ne suffit pas à tempérer l'atmosphère).
Et puis j'aimerais que mes vêtements changent de couleur en même temps que mon humeur i.e. détection des connexions qui se font sous ma boîte cranienne créant des motifs changeants et renouvelés. Ma foi, pas une idée sympa pour les créateurs de mode :-p
Surtout il faut trouver un moyen de récupérer l'énergie partout où elle se trouve : capteur solaire à insérer dans les manteaux et vestes puis aussi dynamo qui transforme les frottements en énergie pour alimenter baladeur, portables, bref : tous les objets mobiles gourmands en piles/batteries polluantes...
Bon je ne suis pas physicienne alors au boulot les autres ! :-)
Hope you don't need a translation device...

Caroline

En voilà une idée qui me semble intéressante en ces jours hivernaux, chère Caroline !
Alors par contre je me demande : celui qui chauffe particulièrement dans certains points très centraux risquera t-il (elle) une surchauffe ? Pas mal dans ce cas, sélection naturelle fort plaisante ;-))
Tiens ajoutons un régulateur du cortex qui saurait expertiser d'où vient la-dite calor et renvoyer proportionnellment un gel températeur de comportements, pas mal non ?
Ciao mates ! xxx

O dearest,

I should have thought about the anti-babel device !
Well, well, well let's not forget the reading mind bidule too.

Beam me up ;-)

Calorine

I was at a conference with some illustrious scientists. One of them told me about a recent survey, where ordinary non-scientists were asked what it was they most wanted scientists to invent. The most wished for invention: cheap water desalination.

I wanna get a thingy that helps me remember where I put my stuff, like my keys, my cellphone, my best pen, the cord that connects up my camera and my computer, my pot, my watch, my coat, my little notebook that looks the same as the one that is blank. I want it to have a secret memory too 'cause I don't want my mom to find out what I'm hiding that I forgot I hid. So I don't know, but it's going to need a map of everything pretty much with details like the back of my bed, under laundry, behind pretty much anything, and a special section on "you are wearing it" and a "give up it's really lost." I think this will save me time in two ways; one - I won't have to look for anything anymore, and two I won't have to clean up as much 'cause I only clean up if I want to find something and that's tricky. The second thing I would like is a device to remind me not to do certain things, like, do you really want to check your email again? Do you really think you need to watch all the videos about puppies tonight? Do you really think that you are going to prove something by finishing that bag of cheetos? That who bottle of Jack? That entire season? There will still be pictures of lesbians available to download tomorrow. Do you really think calling her back again is going to solve that issue? Isn't the bathroom floor shiny already? Do you really need the entire discography? Do you really want to roll another one? Isn't katamari big enough? Will more tweaking really save the beat? Haven't you passed the point where it's more than just pressing buttons? The third present I would like is a virtual girlfriend surrogate, one based on the real one, with the same looks, smarts, and annoyingnesses. It would have to be somehow based on the real girlfriend. I mean, the sexual side might be interesting, though not really, but it would be best for having really emotional careless awful arguements with. Ones where I can really get it all on the table. The advantages are many. One; you can get it all out, catharsis-style, so that I don't actually have to fuck everything up argueing about how many times you've forgotten this or that or been late or inconsiderate or drunk or whatever just for a stupid feeling. Two, you can build your skills to win non-virtual fights by playing out various tactics and scenarios. Become an arguement master. Three, you can raise topics to see how they play out without risk; i.e. fantastic sexual scenarios et. al. Four, you can have make-up sex without the arguement. I think that is what I would like to see so get to work, smart kids, and you can't patent these things; I'm donating them to unicef.

I think your first idea already exists: RFID tags.

Yeah, I'd figured, but I don't want it to be so dorky. Acronyms suck. It'd be better if it had an annoying cute name like findy-find or loser patrol or ling-ling. And you'd just be like, where'd I leave my cigarettes and it'd be like, under the magazine ontop of the videos next to the tv and youd be like, here? and it'd be like, no the other side of the tv and you'd be like, oh, where's my lighter and It'd be like, in your pocket dude.

Well, "RFID" is just the term for the technology. If you market a computerized "finder" device, which will scan anything you have tagged and let you know their location, you can call the tags anything you like.

That potion that causes pregnancy in men I keep reading about in Potter fanfiction.

of course being here in berlin i have a bicycle. and of course my bicycle has a headlight ("kein Licht geht nicht!") which is powered by a generator which converts the energy of the turning wheel. as i move forward the headlight projects a beam. in german it is a 'Scheinwerfer' - a 'glow thrower'. what i would like is a pedal powered light which would reverse its direction if i pedalled backward - a 'Scheinsauger' - or 'glow sucker' which would of course appear to be a negative headlight or darkness projector... i could use it on exceedlingly bright afternoons.... William http://www.squirm.com

When my son was very little he had a stuffed toy. A glow worm.
When you squeezed it a certain way it would light up. One night he was having trouble getting it to light. He said "sometimes it's hard to get the dark out of it".

indeed, i know the feeling well...
william

Keychain cell phone signal disruptors that can be aimed like an infrared lecture pointer.

Clear spheres that can be placed over the heads of crying children on planes that will mute incessant crying without cutting off oxygen.

A secular holy book that would displace popular fundamentalisms.

A media campaign to reintroduce the concept of shame into popular American culture.

(Did that sound bitchy?) ;)

Don't know, but I like the cut of your jib. All four ideas I'd gladly sign on to.

A few of inventions I'd love to see next year:

1. Some sort of inexpensive touch-screen surface that you can attach to walls. The amount of pressure you push on it will decide which color comes out. I imagine this on building walls, classroom desks, bus shelters... I think it would help cut down on shitty graffiti, although you'll still have cats who'll paint on these surfaces or etch their names into them, so ideally these surfaces should be scratch-proof and able to be easily cleaned.

2. Inexpensive LED surfaces that synchronize with music. Imagine the whole inside of your car with Winamp effects. With the popularity of "pimping out your ride" these days, I think this is soon on its way. I'm actually waiting for something like this to appear in Second Life, if it already hasn't... entire clubs pulsing in tune with the DJ's input.

3. Some sort of pen that leaves an invisible trace on objects or in the sky, which you'll be able to see with special goggles. Leave special messages for your friends, which they can see if they're tuned to the right frequency like a radio dial.

Clothing which allows you to upload an image onto them, is able to store many images in memory, and allows you to change them on the fly. And is able to display animated GIFs and Flash.

Ugh I have to retype this because Livejournal gave me an error. Anyway:

This invention was inspired by my younger self watching too many forensic and criminal programs on the television. I noticed that murderers commonly used knives to kill their prey and I thought up the idea of a mechanized knife. It is somewhat like the stage knives that retract when it hits a hard object, but with a much sharper blade. Basically there would be a camera or a sensor on the handle that detects whether or not there will be skin nearing the blade. When it senses that there is indeed skin approaching the blade, it retracts into its handle until it is safe to cut again.

Now, if only I can think of a way to use this with guns...

Oh, and a way to make those that harm you emotionally disappear. This would include making my sister disappear.

It's pretty easy to speak about what's coming up in 2007, and chances are that if it's doable, it's already patented. Patent to production usually takes a minimum of a couple of years, so it would even make sense to scour patents of the past few years and conjecture what is ready for production.

Of course if it's fantasy that you want:
1. I'll get a better tool that can record my meetings and auto-nag folks when they don't deliver on their action items - umm... well that will sort of put my job as the chief whip cracker at risk, but I can live with that
2. The OLPC project will finally have the plug pulled on it.

flexible, read-write digital paper, with ubiquitous wireless broadband to support it

Disposable. Remember that word. Impersonal, another good word to keep in mind. How can a single woman of 37 go to the market on the corner without getting hit on by young men that want to embarrass or cajole her? I mean without stopping off at the "Y" to take a course in self esteem and to buy a load of pepper spray and a 9mil? This is a thought that occurred to me one night when I was, myself, at the local market and a group of fellows between the age of 19 and 30 were "engaging" people outside the market. Some of them appeared to be jovial and others clearly had that "angry at everything" look.
A woman got out of her car and was walking into the market when several of the fellows began talking to her. She was clearly troubled by the intrusive nature of their comport. It occurred to me that if they were unable to be certain she was a woman or a man, they may withhold certain behaviors. So perhaps something of an "Anonymity Outfit" would be in order.

This early 21st Century artifact would enable the wearer to mingle comfortably in urban areas. The best suits would disguise sex and have a helmet or some device that would help to hold in question which sex or for that manor which race the wearer is.

Yes. You are quite correct. Not unlike putting ones first initial in the telephone book....these ridiculous garments would simply advertise that we are either weak, old, female or all of the above. Soon empty outfits would litter the streets. It will take a few years of litigation, and legislating before the necessary "modifications" are legal, but, given the recklessness that the top 1% of the population has treated the rest of the nation...it should be only five to ten years before they realize that in order for "Maria" or "Consuela" to get to their home to do what it is they do there...they are going to need to survive life back in the hellish abandon that makes up the "non" gated community that is urban America.

This in mind Congress will allow the suits to be outfitted with some fairly damaging offense/defense mechanisms. The makers of this outfit will be good friends with the military as well. "Peacetime war" and "Collateral Menace Neutralization" or some such Madison Ave. terms will spring up. Basically what we will be thrown is a bone for surviving the effects of being pushed to the outside of the heard.

Once upon a time a gal would save to buy a home. Now she'll first save to purchase the latest form of survival gear. If she can afford to stay alive long enough to save enough money to buy her way into a gated community...and the security agency that monitors her codes and locks is free of desperate types yearning to sell her information to the highest bidder....she may get to watch reruns of Three's Company and pet her cats in relative safety.

But not probably.

Doc

I really think this is the wrong way to solve this problem. Fixing society's values would be a better solution than trying to gloss over the problem with technology.

Ever read or watch A SCANNER DARKLY?

How weird you should mention that movie. Less than 24 hours ago I was moving
some clutter in my studio and I ran across a promotional "button" advertising "Through a Scanner Darkly". It had Woody Harrelson's likeness on it.

I believe you are correct. The glossing over of a problem with technology is a "path of least resistance" type of habit. One that we as a society have long confused with remedial dynamics. The homework and sacrifice involved in "fixing societies values" is laden with character building hard work. Before you fix a value it must be examined and agreed upon to be in need of repair. The coalitions and special interest groups will gather before the press and spin. Before our eyes we will see why it is best to fix what ever may be wrong with society...ourselves. Beginning in our homes please.

At a personal level and in an advisory capacity, willingness to embrace change and to support progressive and inclusive ideas about energy, commerce, transportation and housing will allow the shift, the zeitgeist if you will, to "log in" as it were, to the collective over-soul.

Have you ever read Childhood's End by Arthur C.Clarke?

Doc

a tension eliminator.

there must but be a ton of examples of that type of borrowing. howbout a search engine for invention ideas that secretly steals users' ideas.