Interested in the weird and wonderful things going on in our lifetimes, Reddit user Emeister26 asked:
“What is something that sounds futuristic but is happening now?“
Science has taken us so far in the last few decades. Here are some of the best of the best examples of modern medicine.
This is revolutionary science.
“CAR T cell therapy"
"They take the t cells out of a cancer patient. They train the cells to kill the specific type of cancer that the patient has and then they put them back in. This therapy doesn't work 100 % of the time, but when it does, it does miracles."
"(it's also expensive as sh*t for now)"
That’s one way to pick up women.
Come In Boston Dynamics GIF by NowThisGiphy“Robotic prosthetic limbs. I know a guy who lost his arm from a construction accident. He now has an arm that has a fully articulated hand, and is good enough that he can even write with it, though not very well."
"He said its worth about half a million dollars, and also it has done wonders for his ability to hook up with women. I guess a lot of people are curious and that starts off the conversation."
A fun way to check your blood sugar.
“I've been a type 1 diabetic since 1982. Back when I was first diagnosed I had to pee on a stick and match the color up to colors on the vial to see approximately what my blood sugar was a couple hours ago."
"Now I have an anamatronic fish that tells me what my sugar levels are and I don't even have to prick my finger! We truly are truly living in the future."
Technology is also working wonders in the modern world. Flying cars will be here soon enough.
A little spooky, but also neat.
“A program that is able to generate almost any (!!!) photo using short text input. A San Francisco street? Done. Avocado chair? Yes, why not. A photo of buildings of Poland? YES, it can do that.
It can generate almost any stock photo you can imagine, like any any, you can add parameters, lighting, ask to specific picture in the room... It uses 12 billion of pictures and descriptions to do this. There are two downsides of course: the first one is lots of lots of computational power. The second is that the program is losing the track after few parameters. Also it can do only 100x100 pixels at the time but it will change fast.
It's called DALL-E and was premiered this year. It's an AI made by OpenAI. Terrific and amazing at the same time.”
Watch out for Carrie.
Brian De Palma Horror GIF by filmeditorGiphy“Being able to control objects with your brain. I know it's still in its infancy but the fact that we can even attempt do stuff like that is crazy."
The family business.
“I'm fourth generation of an excavating company and some of our surveying techniques now are unbelievable. When we started in the 60's you used a contraption called a theodolite and prism (a fancy level used to measure the distance and elevation change of the prism).
One of the fondest memories I'll ever hold happened two months ago shortly before my Grandpa (the founder) passed away. I showed him how to survey a 30 acre site with a drone in about 45 minutes (all automated), something that would have taken a crew well over a week in his time. I then took the data, had it processed, and showed him the prints of the site right on site with my laptop. He cried."
Truly incredible.
“There's a drone flying autonomously on Mars.”
“Funny how we always hear about the drone, but I was more impressed with the rover splitting carbon dioxide, creating about 10 minutes' worth of breathable oxygen...on Mars.”
Some of the new inventions are just plain freaky. Don’t let this intelligence become smarter than us. Please.
Beware of the twerking robot dogs.
San Francisco Food GIF by KiwibotGiphy“Robots delivering food and packages.”
“It's quite phenomenal how much certain industries have developed their robotics. You just don't see it in your everyday life, but places like Amazon and pretty much all mechanical-related businesses are developing robotics at an insane rate.
Nanotechnology is the weirdest.
“I was born in the early 80s, so practically everything. I literally own most of the sci-fi gizmos I saw on tv as a kid, or even cooler versions of it.
Virtually all medical news is mind-blowing. CRISPR/Cas9. Research into telomeres and anti-aging, nanotechnology is actually real...
Self driving cars are kinda already around but are getting better all the time.
Edit: swapped alleles for telomeres. One of those genetic words, I tell ya.”
It’s a great time to be a spy.
“The army's new night vision technology looks like a video game; https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/army-s-new-night-vision-technology-makes-fighting-in-darkness-look-like-video-game-b1841506.html
Spy technology; spies can listen to conversations from a very long distance using various technologies, such as bouncing a laser off an outside window to pick up on tiny vibrations, or installing a special light bulb that flashes at certain frequencies that only a special receiver can pick up and translate into a conversation.
Credit card sized recording device that can last a whole day, these are used in espionage usually in the form of ID badges given to VIP targets, swapped out for a normal ID badge, they look and function exactly the same as a normal ID badge would work including NFC room access.”
I think the craziest technological advance I've seen in my lifetime has been the smartphone. Seriously--as a kid, I always wondered if we'd ever get an MP3 player and a phone in one. Turns out, we got that, and so much more.
Technology and medicine are being revolutionized. It makes you grateful to be living in this time--even if it's still foreign and new.