What's you dream device?
 

I know everyone has their own idea of what would be an optimal technological device. It can be anything you want, but don't have. But it has to be something that's at least technically creatable according to the laws of physics. Different people have different views about what's possible, and I don't have any mod powers, so I guess it's sort of silly for me to try to make a rule, lol.

My device relates to the paperless office. I've never had an office job, but the idea of a truly paper-less office, and on a wide scale in most offices, sort of tickles me in the places that I want to be tickled.(sorry for the mental image)

The reason I'm so excited at the moment is that I think the necessary components will arrive in the next decade. We already have E-Ink screens with a somewhat limited ability to write on them, but they're stiff, expensive and kind of heavy. But the technologies necessary to tie together all the attributes of regular paper and then add to them, because it has to be better than paper to truly convince people to switch, are coming together.

Recently, I saw a video of a bendable black and white screen that could be written on, but it was also aware of other versions of itself. So you could make copies of a document simply by doing a bit of tapping on other sheets of paper. So no more making extra copies you don't need and wasting paper. It could send an email with an additional tap, and you could bring up a file on one piece of paper and attach it to an email started on another piece of paper. Each piece of paper is semi-autonomous, so you could let someone borrow your paper and give you a different one later to pay you back. You could put it on the refrigerator to track a family's comings and goings, and you could even use it to make a grocery list and remove items as you buy them.

Editing is normally a chore, we have computers, but sometimes you want to write something in the margins and not in the main document. With this paper you could write something in the margins and then later erase and update without having to worry about wearing out the paper. You could insert information in a handwritten document as if the handwriting was regular computer text.

The only problem I could see is if you wanted to lock a document as evidence of something being written at a certain time. I suppose there could be a way created to attach a permanent time-stamp to a document, but I'm not sure about how it could be implemented.

Well, I've jabbered long enough, what's your perfect technology?

[QUOTE=jasong;340668]The only problem I could see is if you wanted to lock a document as evidence of something being written at a certain time. I suppose there could be a way created to attach a permanent time-stamp to a document, but I'm not sure about how it could be implemented.[/QUOTE]

[URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_signature"]Encrypted signatures[/URL] and/or [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trusted_timestamping"]trusted timestamping[/URL] could be used on whatever sort of digital format is used for your electronic paper.

[QUOTE=jasong;340668]Recently, I saw a video of a bendable black and white screen that could be written on, but it was also aware of other versions of itself. So you could make copies of a document simply by doing a bit of tapping on other sheets of paper.[/quote]:-D

That's very close to the electronic paper I described to some folks twenty years ago. ([i]Not[/i] my original idea; I'd read the concept elsewhere and was just passing it on.)

Here's a technology I imagined in high school math class:

Device to create 3-D images in mid-air for math instruction. Glowing lines and such ...

Curves that one could modify by reaching out to "pinch and move", with automatic adjustment of corresponding equations and such at the side.

Show how a parabola and associated equation could have two, one or zero x-intercepts, by stretching it up and down so students see how it's all related. Etc., etc., etc. ...

[QUOTE=cheesehead;340718]Here's a technology I imagined in high school math class:

Device to create 3-D images in mid-air for math instruction. Glowing lines and such ...

Curves that one could modify by reaching out to "pinch and move", with automatic adjustment of corresponding equations and such at the side.[/QUOTE]

Trivial to implement with today's technology. It's done every day in "3D Theaters" and relatively inexpensive home gaming solutions. (Special glasses must be worn, of course.)

For some reason, "gaming" and "entertainment" seems to be more important now-a-days than education....

[QUOTE=chalsall;340720]Trivial to implement with today's technology.[/QUOTE]Less obvious in 1966.

[quote]For some reason, "gaming" and "entertainment" seems to be more important now-a-days than education....[/quote]Don't diss gaming.

[URL]http://www.colloquium2012-2.us.mensa.org/[/URL]

[quote][B]Explore the social and societal aspects of gaming[/B]

Explore the evolving world of social gaming and how gender issues are changing how games are developed. Learn about the gamification of society and how organizations are turning to social games for marketing and fund raising. Discover how the five dimensions of game addiction might relate to your experiences. Hear about the history and development of video games from one of the "rock stars" of the industry.

As a Mensa Foundation-sponsored event, Colloquium annually provides Mensans and the public alike the opportunity to gather with industry experts and researchers to dig deeper into socially relevant topics. Past and current topics include the impact of the arts, gifted children, biosafety, consciousness, humor and climate change.

Instead of focusing on the specifics of individual games or the latest releases at the July 2012 event, Colloquium 2012.2 will consider the bigger issues: what our societal obsession with electronic gaming says about us, how we got to this point and what the future could bring. We're confident the program will include topics — and renowned speakers — you've never seen collected into one forum in any other venue. You are cordially invited to be there when we delve into this multi-billion-dollar industry and find out why we play the games we play.
[/quote][URL]http://www.region3.us.mensa.org/connections/events/AnnualEvents/colloquium.htm[/URL]

[quote][B]American Mensa - Region 3[/B]


[CENTER]
[/CENTER]
[CENTER][B]Quick Links[/B][/CENTER]
[CENTER][URL="http://www.region3.us.mensa.org/index.htm"]Home[/URL][/CENTER]
[CENTER][URL="http://www.region3.us.mensa.org/connections/events.htm"]Events[/URL][/CENTER]
[CENTER][URL="http://www.region3.us.mensa.org/sitemap.htm"]Site Map[/URL][/CENTER]
[CENTER][B]Annual Events[/B][/CENTER]
[CENTER][URL="http://www.region3.us.mensa.org/connections/events/AnnualEvents/AG.htm"]AG[/URL][/CENTER]
[CENTER][URL="http://www.region3.us.mensa.org/connections/events/AnnualEvents/RG-Chicago.htm"]Chicago RG[/URL][/CENTER]
[CENTER][URL="http://www.region3.us.mensa.org/connections/events/AnnualEvents/RG-Cincinnati.htm"]Cincinnati RG[/URL][/CENTER]
[CENTER][URL="http://www.region3.us.mensa.org/connections/events/AnnualEvents/RG-Cleveland.htm"]Cleveland RG[/URL][/CENTER]
[CENTER][URL="http://www.region3.us.mensa.org/connections/events/AnnualEvents/colloquium.htm"]Colloquium[/URL][/CENTER]
[CENTER][URL="http://www.region3.us.mensa.org/connections/events/AnnualEvents/RG-Columbus.htm"]Columbus RG[/URL][/CENTER]
[CENTER][URL="http://www.region3.us.mensa.org/connections/events/AnnualEvents/CQ.htm"]Culture Quest[/URL][/CENTER]
[CENTER][URL="http://www.region3.us.mensa.org/connections/events/AnnualEvents/RG-Dayton.htm"]Dayton RG[/URL][/CENTER]
[CENTER][URL="http://www.region3.us.mensa.org/connections/events/AnnualEvents/RG-Indiana.htm"]Indiana RG[/URL][/CENTER]
[CENTER][URL="http://www.region3.us.mensa.org/connections/events/AnnualEvents/MG.htm"]Mind Games[/URL][/CENTER]
[CENTER][URL="http://www.region3.us.mensa.org/connections/events/AnnualEvents/OG-Indiana.htm"]The OG[/URL][/CENTER]
[CENTER][URL="http://www.region3.us.mensa.org/connections/events/AnnualEvents/QCroquet.htm"]Queen's Croquet[/URL][/CENTER]
[CENTER][URL="http://www.region3.us.mensa.org/connections/events/AnnualEvents/RG-SEMM.htm"]SEMM RG[/URL][/CENTER]
[CENTER][URL="http://www.region3.us.mensa.org/connections/events/AnnualEvents/RG-WPAM.htm"]WPAM RG[/URL][/CENTER]



[B]American Mensa Foundation's
Colloquium 2011[/B]

[B][I]Electronic Gaming[/I]
[I]And Its Impact on Society[/I][/B]

February 18, 2011 - February 20, 2011
Austin, Texas
Learn about the history and future of gaming
and related societal issues, including the positive
and negative perceptions and the impact of the
medium on our society.
Hotel:
[URL="http://www.omnihotels.com/FindAHotel/AustinSouthpark.aspx"]Omni Austin Hotel at Southpark[/URL]
4140 Governor’s Row
Austin, Texas 78744
512/448-2222
Room rate is $119 for singles and doubles.
Rates are guaranteed through January 27, 2011.

[B]Registration:[/B]
$169 if postmarked by July 31, 2010
$199 if postmarked by December 31, 2010
$249 thereafter

print the [URL="http://www.region3.us.mensa.org/connections/events/RGFlyers/2011/colloquium2011.pdf"]flyer[/URL] or register [URL="http://colloq11.us.mensa.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Register_Online6&Template=/customsource/cfauthnet_sim/forms/colloq11/colloq_1.cfm"]online[/URL]
Your registration includes:
Friday dinner and Saturday lunch and dinner
[/quote]

My dream device is made from the following:

1. An HD with MM127 bytes, yet it could fit into a human hand (maybe quantum-based).
2. A bug-free 65536-bit operating system (OS) based on Puppy Linux
3. A 1 Yottahertz 512-core CPU (preferably Intel)
4. An infinitely powerful RAM, capable of holding all the digits of Graham's Number.
5. An indestructable frame to house all the above, as well as the motherboard.

I could hook up any compatible monitor to that.

A smartphone-like device that can be resized/morphed at will. E.g. it could be stretched to the size of a large TV, a tablet, or a phone, and could be morphed to have multiple screens or a keyboard (with physical keys; no tactile-less surfaces, please) and mouse. It's also very lightweight, and has a battery that lasts for weeks between charges (and it charges automatically any time I'm near a power source, including the sun). To give it the feel of weight where helpful (e.g. prevent it from blowing away when it's a TV, or feeling too light as a mouse), it uses something to stay put when you want it to (suction? artificial gravity?).

And it has the computing power of Stargate38's device, or the most power that the laws of physics support in a device like this.

While I don't expect such technology any time soon, I don't think it violates any laws of physics. And it would be so awesome! :smile:

[QUOTE=Mini-Geek;340823]with physical keys; no tactile-less surfaces, please.[/QUOTE]
I don't know the official term for the technology, but I call them blister keys, because they blister up from a flat surface. The technology is being worked on at the moment. No idea if it'll make it to retail. I believe the keys have to be installed at the factory, so you can't alter their location once they're placed, even though you can make them appear and disappear whenever you want.

My personal dream device (IT related), well perhaps slighly off topic, but:
[url]http://www.mersenneforum.org/showpost.php?p=332900&postcount=158[/url]
A working 3dfx Voodoo 5 6000 :smile:

Oliver

[QUOTE=jasong;340668]I know everyone has their own idea of what would be an optimal technological device. It can be anything you want, but don't have. But it has to be something that's at least technically creatable according to the laws of physics.[/QUOTE]
I would like to have an alchemist's engine.

To be more precise, something which could rearrange the distributions of nucleons of substances placed within it. To abide within the laws of physics, energy might have to be added or removed from the device but, with careful design, two or more reactions could be chosen such that the exothermic reactions of one or more processes (3H -> [sup]3[/sup]He for instance) exactly balance the energy requirements of (an) other(s), such as [sup]56[/sup]Fe -> [sup]197[/sup]Au.

Producing gold from iron is rather futile from an industrial point of view, but being able to generate energy by fission/fusion to iron would be rather useful, as would be the production of copious quantities of free neutrons, positrons (by inverse beta decay of appropriately chosen nuclei) and isotopes which would otherwise be rather expensive to make in large quantities.

[QUOTE=xilman;341141]I would like to have an alchemist's engine.[/QUOTE]

Such a device might be used as a power source that is practically free, and even practical for space travel, if it can convert ordinary matter into antimatter, or energy directly. (e.g. collect spare garbage from the earth or hydrogen from space, turn half of it into antimatter and let it annihilate to power your spaceship) And unlike perpetual motion machines, it doesn't have to violate any laws of physics, because it is using up mass-energy, it just does so far more efficiently and cheaply than conventional methods.

[QUOTE=Mini-Geek;341143]Such a device might be used as a power source that is practically free, and even practical for space travel, if it can convert ordinary matter into antimatter, or energy directly. (e.g. collect spare garbage from the earth or hydrogen from space, turn half of it into antimatter and let it annihilate to power your spaceship) And unlike perpetual motion machines, it doesn't have to violate any laws of physics, because it is using up mass-energy, it just does so far more efficiently and cheaply than conventional methods.[/QUOTE]Turning matter into antimatter would require invalidation of known physics --- conservation of baryon and lepton numbers if nothing else. That's why I restricted myself to a relatively modest rearrangement of nucleons and/or conversion between neutrons and protons.

The device could still be used to generate power through converting anything fed into it to [sup]26[/sup]Fe.

[QUOTE=xilman;341211]Turning matter into antimatter would require invalidation of known physics.[/QUOTE]
Known physics has gaps, so who knows what could be discovered.

But, per the rule people seem to have accepted, good point.

[QUOTE=Stargate38;340819]My dream device is made from the following:

1. An HD with MM127 bytes, yet it could fit into a human hand (maybe quantum-based).
2. A bug-free 65536-bit operating system (OS) based on Puppy Linux
3. A 1 Yottahertz 512-core CPU (preferably Intel)
4. An infinitely powerful RAM, capable of holding all the digits of Graham's Number.
5. An indestructable frame to house all the above, as well as the motherboard.

I could hook up any compatible monitor to that.[/QUOTE]

It just occurred to me to wonder--at what point does #4 render #1 unnecessary? Convergence in DRAM and Flash RAM technology seems to be moving in that direction.

[QUOTE=jasong;340668]... what's your perfect technology?[/QUOTE]A simple device with one button: "Do what I want, now".

Erm, well actually, no. The above is too complex to use. Instead - A simple device with no buttons that just does what I want when I want it to.

[QUOTE=retina;341349] Instead - A simple device with no buttons that just does what I want when I want it to.[/QUOTE]Good concept. If, in addition, it doesn't do what you want when what you want isn't really what you will later realize that you wanted, it'd be just about perfect.

A picture of the front of the TARDIS on the bathroom door with appropriate sounds when someone flushes

and

an iPad screen that grows and shrinks as I claw-pinch.

My dream device... hm, this is not hard at all... (I did not see the topic till now).

It is called a "Chinese Stick". Well, it can be also Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, or any other exotic or oriental name, but it must be a stick, about 80cm to 1m long and about 1.5cm to 2.5cm (1 inch) in diameter, more or less. It is unbreakable in its "active" state. It can be hanged on a wall in any room, or left against the wall in a corner of the room. When hanged or in the corner, the stick is carefully watching the room. It automatically turns itself off (becoming a normal, breakable, say like a bamboo strength, inert stick) if any person takes it in her hands from the wall. It does not care about people entering and exiting the room, or moving objects around (i.e., it is not an "anti-thief system", it will do nothing if a thief empties the whole room, including stealing the stick) and its effects do not extend behind of the room walls. If in the open, it is just a normal stick. (Caution! every specification is very carefully selected, and it has a very good and deep reason, you just have to think about!)

What does it do? Very simple: when a person in the room does not behave properly**, the stick jumps off from the hanger (or from the corner of the room) and beats the guy severely... :smile: (edit: causing a lot of pain, but as less as possible irreversible damages, the idea is to spank the person well, not to break his bones).

I would happily buy such a toy, if available on the market, paying all my life-savings for it.
[SIZE=1]
** it was deliberately vague specified, let at the stick's attitude, just following some superficial guidelines, which I can detail, but they are not important now[/SIZE]

[QUOTE=LaurV;342546]It is called a "Chinese Stick".[...]It does not care about people entering and exiting the room, or moving objects around (i.e., it is not an "anti-thief system", it will do nothing if a thief empties the whole room, including stealing the stick)[...]
What does it do? Very simple: when a person in the room does not behave properly**, the stick jumps off from the hanger (or from the corner of the room) and beats the guy severely... :smile:[SIZE=1][...]
** it was deliberately vague specified, let at the stick's attitude, just following some superficial guidelines, which I can detail, but they are not important now[/SIZE][/QUOTE]
I'd be seriously interested in the guidelines on what the stick thinks is improper behaviour. From your description, theft and burglary are okay. Perhaps it has nothing to do with ethics and morals? I'm really interested in the details even though you say they're unimportant.:smile:

[QUOTE=cheesehead;341359]Good concept. If, in addition, it doesn't do what you want when what you want isn't really what you will later realize that you wanted, it'd be just about perfect.[/QUOTE]

That kind of device already exists and is called a wife.
It'll do what it wants and afterwards (and during) say it's what you wanted all along...
(sorry ladies)

[QUOTE=Brian-E;342548]I'd be seriously interested in the guidelines on what the stick thinks is improper behaviour. From your description, theft and burglary are okay. Perhaps it has nothing to do with ethics and morals? I'm really interested in the details even though you say they're unimportant.:smile:[/QUOTE]

It seems clear to me that said stick has to be in telepathic bond with its owner. If said owner is LaurV, I don't want to be withing range of said stick, as it might also respond to his ideas of humor. At 2.5 cm, it would be more than twice the thickness of a Singapore judicial cane, or similar to a heavy-duty broom stick. Being beaten with such a device goes beyond even an expansive definition of spanking.

Ha ha, ok, ok...

The "ethics" and "morals" is dependent of time and place, and it tends to vary over different time, people, religion, etc. What was ok years ago (slavery? etc) it is not ok today, and viceversa (same-sex marriage? etc). Having my precious stick bonded to such stuff would be idiocy.

In the same way, every room has its rules, and I am sure that in klander's (or Brian's) house there are other rules comparing with the rules in my house. Of course, using physical violence "may" be forbidden in both, and the perpetrator would leave with a purple bottom (don't do to the other people what you don't like to be done to yourself!). But taking advantages of the stupidity of other people (like tricking them into something stupid or talking them into parting them from their money, or even pickpocketing, will not be forbidden in my room! Why do you think that pickpocketing is bad? :razz: I would consider pickpocketing an old lady deserving a beating, but pickpocketing some guys on this forum? No way that would be wrong... hehe). As said, the device is not a burglar alarm, I intend to use it at a much higher level/noble goal ...

OTOH, 2.5cm in diameter is perfect, if it only hits soft parts of the body, with a high frequency and low amplitude :razz:

And no, the stick is not telepathically connected to a person. Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. I would be afraid to be connected to the stick, if it is a "honest" stick it will end up spanking me every day, so I would avoid going into the room, but "the powers of the stick do not extend to outside of the room's walls", so I only could communicate with it if I would be in the room (i.e. getting spanked... no thanks!) hehe...

[QUOTE=LaurV;342569]OTOH, 2.5cm in diameter is perfect, if it only hits soft parts of the body, with a high frequency and low amplitude[/QUOTE]Oh. Now I know what it is. Although 80cm seems rather long for such a device. More like 15cm to 20cm is normal (so I've been told). You can also get them in various colours at the local adult store (so I've been told).

But isn't designating an entire room for such activities suggestive of a slightly bizarre lifestyle! :razz:

[QUOTE=retina;342570]Oh. Now I know what it is. Although 80cm seems rather long for such a device. More like 15cm to 20cm is normal (so I've been told). You can also get them in various colours at the local adult store (so I've been told).

But isn't designating an entire room for such activities suggestive of a slightly bizarre lifestyle! :razz:[/QUOTE]

:razz: :devil:

Get B**** slapped!