Poop knife, it’s the future I tell ya!
Get one in damascus for really deluxe poop cutting experience!
Sous vide
Is a cooking method from the 70s really… futuristic?
Not saying it isn’t worth it, though.
It’s rare (intended) for me to find someone who knows what sous vide is. So I suspect for the majority it would seem futuristic.
Anything with GPS capability
A knife. Futuristic in that it will be handy for hunting and self-defense after the future collapse of civilization that results from our insatiable appetite for consumption - of, among other things, useless gadgets.
It’s interesting the difference in what people think a collapsed civilization will look like.
Some people think we will “return to monke” where wilderness survival skills will be essential and people who have them will be the “main characters.” That would probably be the easier and better future.
The more likely option will be technofeudalism where rich people have small, brutal armies and control localized power grids, farming operations, and politics with tech as mass migrations happen and wildlife becomes all but extinct outside of human cultivation. Survival skills won’t matter when all land and food scarcity is controlled by a rich few with absolute control. The average survivalist will be wiped out with the first natural disaster or by the feudal lords with drones. Return to nature might only come after 50 years when chip supplies and power grids have dried up and fallen apart, but it would just as likely be mad-max as oil could likely still be used.
Who knows. Fascism might take over with how it is going now and solve the climate crisis with mass genocide and forcing green energy for all we know.
I see you’ve read Yanis Varoufakis. In all realism though, a fallen society is most likely to be a result of climate change. First it gets too hot for Africans, so their only option is to move northward and eastward to the Middle East. This results in tightened borders and the death of many due to heatstroke and dehydration - I also don’t doubt a slave trade-like and human exploitation era might come about because of this. Increased demand for AC’s in the west will also be a byproduct of this. Melting ice caps will also increase the danger to many of those living in coastal regions - Florida probably sinks faster than we’d predicted.
All of this I project to happen within the next 50 years where the problems are left for Gen Z and further generations to deal with.
It’s more or less an inevitability at this point, regardless of what we do. Really we’re just trying to get corporations and countries to make changes so it will be Gen A’s (or the following generation’s) problem instead of Z.
Normalcy now has an unavoidable term limit. The question is if we’re going to shorten how long that timespan is by desperately holding onto normalcy now for as long as we can, or if we’re going to start making things harder, more challenging, and less normal sooner to make the transition less painful and give it a longer on-ramp.
Currently we seem to be choosing option A.
For what it’s worth, I’ve seen some friends take things a little more seriously when I’ve explained that currently we’re going to see abrupt and incredibly disruptive changes at the point in our (Gen Z and Millenials) lives when we’re at the age when we’ll be least able to tolerate the changes and most reliant on others. In 40-50 years, Z and M are going to be senior citizens at best. While we may be full of distracted, dopamine-seeking denial now, by the time shit really starts hitting the fan, we’re going to be extra weight on the generations struggling desperately to survive.
Don’t expect a happy retirement.
A bow drill fire starter.
…I suppose it depends on what you assume the future will be like…
Barring that, you can get some small vials of tritium gas for under that price.
There was a TV show. Stephen Fry 100 greatest gadgets.
For 1 he told a story about how some guy was talking to a largely uncontacted tribe and they were really interested in their tech.
So he knew they would have a supply drop and took them out to see the plane for the first time ever. The tribe was remarkable unimpressed with the sight.
The guy asked what was up and they came back with the reply “You can make fire from your fingertips. Of course you can fly”
He named the lighter the number 1 gadget.
I suppose it really depends on your perspective. If you’re that uncontacted tribe, you see birds all the time. The idea of a creature being able to fly is pretty mundane. Humans can’t naturally fly like birds, but neither can they naturally wield knives as long and sharp as tiger claws. But flying is ultimately just duplicating something already found in nature.
But the ability to instantly and effortlessly summon fire? The closest thing in nature is the bombardier beetle, and that shoots boiling acid. Impressive, but it’s not true fire. There are no creatures in nature that can just summon fire on command. From a natural perspective, instantly creating fire is a lot more impressive than a flying machine.
What would one do with small vials of tritium gas?
Not much really. Looks cool though. I suppose it’s more of a decoration than “tech.” About the only practical application of it is a tool to terrify the uneducated. The quantities of tritium the average person can buy are beyond harmless. You could breathe a hundred vials of the stuff and be completely unaffected. If you drank nothing but tritium water for several weeks, you would have some issues. But tiny vials with micrograms of tritium vapor inside? Utterly harmless.
Or, I suppose for the criminally minded, you could find some evil uses for it. You could probably rob a bank with it. “Give me all the money or I break this vial of radioactive vapor!” That would probably get you a wikipedia page, if you’re just dying for your 5 minutes of fame. You could go down in history as, “that mad scientist that robbed a bank using radioactive gas.” Of course it would be a bluff.
Though if you’re just going to bluff your way through bank robbery, you can just stick your hand in a hoodie pocket for the same effect.
I suppose you could use it for other similar criminal acts of varied nobility. You could probably use the same bluff to create a hostage situation to bring awareness to whatever political/religious cause is your cup of tea. Ultimately most people are very ignorant of nuclear science, and simply the words “radioactive tritium” would cause people to shit themselves. And that fear could be harnessed for all sorts of malevolent purposes. (Even better as you can actually show people the faint glow from it, and prove that you do have something radioactive.)
Hmm… what else could you use tritium for? I suppose you could use it for religious purposes. Absolute quantities really don’t matter much for that.
What else? You could tie it to a keychain and be able to find your keys in a dark room.
But really, it’s mostly a novelty. I think small amounts of it can be used for gun sights. But in any quantity the average person could afford or legally be allowed to purchase, it’s a harmless novelty. Larger quantities can be used in fusion reactor experiments and nuclear weapons. But if you try to acquire that much, you better have a budget in the millions, and the NRC is going to be on your ass. The average person can get a small vial of it that faintly glows blue in a dark room. It looks cool embedded in jewelry, but it really doesn’t have much practical purposes beyond perhaps terrifying the ignorant. But I really don’t consider malevolent uses to be truly practical applications.
(In case it isn’t obvious, I do not endorse using radioactive tritium in the commission of any crime or act of violence or threat of violence.)
I have a little tritium vial on my keys because I am a clumsy oaf with ADHD and the little greeny glow has been useful a couple of times. It’s great when I’m out at night and my keys yeet themselves out of my pocket and land in the darkest possible area.
I mostly got it because it’s cool though. Radioluminescence is fukken rad!
I’ve wanted one of these for decades but I thought they weren’t legal to purchase in my country anymore. I’m living vicariously through you.
Based off of your comment history, it seeeeems like you live in the US, although I could deffo be wrong. That’s where I live, so I may have good news. It’s illegal to sell tritium products in the US, but it’s not illegal to buy it as an individual. There’s a Taiwanese company that sells all kinds of cool little tritium widgets: https://www.mixglo.com/
that’s where I got my vial from. It wasn’t cheap for what it is, but I think it’s cool.
edit: looks like they also ship to Canada if you live there. I’ve no idea what the laws are up there, but I’m assuming it’s legal if they’re willing to ship.
Lmao I love that this became a thought exercise on the nefarious uses of tritium. Thanks for the info! I’ll keep all of these in mind when trying to determine what to do with my newly acquired tritium. >=)
^^^ Umm, FBI, if you’re reading, it was all their idea! ^^^^
°_°
How many vials of tritium do I need until my bluff in the bank lobby is no longer an empty threat?
Umm, contact (202) 324-3000 and ask them. They’ll know for sure.
lighters. fire on demand! for all of preindustrial human history these things would be worth more than gold
Bunch of cute contrarians in here today.
I got a 4k TV from Paycor stadium for $10 per k.
I feel like that really depends on how you view futuristic.
I think things with colored e-ink displays, USB C chargeable AA batteries, handheld emulators, 2230 NVMe drives, and USB C power portable displays are really cool but I feel like their availability these days has made them lose a bit of their futuristic luster. They would have blown my mind when I was a kid.
More niche products like Meshtastic and ESP32 Marauder devices are things I view as futuristic (and can be found for under $100).
I think this is really the best answer. The future is decentralisation, to me. Stuff like meshtastic could take the best parts of the internet and make it local and community owned.
In fact, I think there are a bunch of things you can get for free which to me represent the future. Linux, Lemmy, FOSS in general. Physical technology is only a small part of the puzzle nowadays.
Yeah I feel like having control over the things you use is definitely a big part. Something that really hampers my enthusiasm for AI is that so much of it is out of my control and generally disconnected from me.
Having AI that I can modify and run locally on my devices seems a lot more sci-fi than something that can relies so heavily on the Internet and rigid responses.
Absolutely! Running local LLMs is way more exciting than something I need to figure out an API and billing for. Tedious corporate bullshit? No thank you. A robot that I have trained to enthusiastically denounce capitalism? That’s more like it!
Hell yeah. I tried to train one to feed me misinformation and encourage bad habits like drinking and driving and it was a lot more fun and lively than anything else I’ve seen
The thing about meshtastic is the walking distance range and limitation to text messages.
Though I don’t know if it is possible to integrate a LoRAWAN concentrator with a nice collinear J-pole antenna to mount on the top of your house to move to a double digit range where it could be useful as a neighborhood mesh with multiple channels. (With the added benefit of using lorawan devices like pet trackers and things).
Still Lora smart (but local) home agriculture, water collection, etc… Is a really cool technology for large properties.
I find it’s a lot of those ideal use cases I find futuristic. The RISC V architecture and Briar are kind of similar. They’re really neat and I could see some cyberpunk style uses for them but the drive for their adoption and the level of it just doesn’t seem to be there yet.
Otamatone.
It’s a synthesizer shaped like a note with a mouth and eyes.
Probably a cheap 3D printer
I’m actually blown away by how good of a 3D Printer you can get for ~$200 now. Huge improvement from just a few years ago.
I got an ender 3 pro for about $100 a couple years ago
I started off on an Ender 3 V2 a few years back. The AnkerMake M5C and Bambu A1 Mini are both down to $199 and can’t believe how much faster / more reliable they are for the price.
this entirely. It’s awesome and frustrating haha. My Neptune 3 from 2022, that I’ve poured hundreds of dollars and hours into, is completely outclassed by an out-of-the-box printer of the same or lower price today.
I’m really happy that it’s getting so approachable now, I hope that I can get my grandfather his own printer during his time. I love that you don’t need to be an engineer anymore to get the things to work.
I wish my grandad had made it long enough to have had a 3D printer, he would have absolutely loved it (he died in his 90’s, so he did alright).
Hey, he got to see the invention of plastic. Obviously we’re dealing with the repercussions of it now, but imagine what that must’ve done to the hobby industry.
True (E: actually not quite, he was born a little after plastic was invented), and he loved laminating shit lol though he was more in to metal work. But later in life he really got in to computers, which is why I think 3D printing would have been right up his ally, because he could use the computer to make things he might no longer have been able to with his hands, and then get to play around with all of his creations (and gift us grandkids an endless supply of things lol)…
3 sea shells.
At the sea shore
A 1-terabyte MicroSD card
For under 100$ ?
Yep https://www.amazon.com/SAMSUNG-microSD-MicroSDXC-MB-MD1T0SA-AM/dp/B0CWPNS8JY $99.99 it shows for me - not sure how taxes work on this (I’m not American) but that probably counts.
Yeah, as low as $61 on Amazon for 1TB. Pretty amazing if you’re old like me and remember diskettes.
$61?!?!?
Bro. $12 at Microcenter.
Amazon is doing you dirty.
$12 for a 1TB MicroSD card? Are you living in the future? :P
I am now!
Those can’t be real
Most of the ones on Amazon aren’t trustworthy. Especially at high capacities. But apparently you can get up to 2TB now, at least in theory. I imagine the support for them is pretty limited though still.
Official “support” just means the biggest size they tested. The current SDXC standard has supported up to 2TB since the standard was released. Any device supporting SDXC should work just fine with a 2TB card even if they don’t specify it as officially supported (assuming they didn’t deliberately nerf their driver for some unfathomable reason).
They’re sold as 1TB for that price. But if you actually write that much, you’ll find that only part of your data is there. The rest is garbled or zero.
There’s tools to restore this (on windows/linux), and it’ll show up as a smaller size when you run them. You can also use such tools to set any fake size you like
I bought a large capacity unknown brand cheap SD card somewhat recently, it seemed real at first but after installing an OS on it and running a few minutes became bricked somehow. At least I got a refund.
I bought a 512 GB SanDisk one for $65 USD a few years ago. I don’t like Samsung software bloatware on their phones, but having 512 GB of storage for $65 feels pretty futuristic to me. I can’t believe more phone manufacturers don’t offer external SD card support… you’d think more consumers would demand it, given that the alternative is to pay a lot more, every time you get a new phone.
I’m basically able to keep like every photo I’ve taken for the last 10 years or so (though not at original resolution).
In the uk I can get 1TB for 95gbp from sandisk website.
So probably less than 100 usd in usa from a reputable seller.
Devices less sophisticated than smart phones were once pretty common in sci-fi novels, but they still achieved the same sort of thing, all the world’s knowledge in the palm of your hand.
You can get smartphones for absurdly cheap these days, and while crappy by modern standards they’re still technological marvels.
you can get several smart outlets around your home for that, have fans and lamps and humidifers etc all remote controlled even with your voice.
5 months of an OpenAI subscription
Lemmy don’t like LLM’s
