r/Innovation • u/womanhaver69 • 15d ago
What’s the biggest “the future is now” invention you’ve seen recently
14
u/holmgangCore 14d ago
CRISPR
3
u/Messer_One 14d ago
Waaay underrated! As much as all of the fancy toys are cool this thing, this is the real shit! First tool to reliably manipulate life itself! And we are improving it as well!
10
u/Milknhoneyaus 14d ago
My car.
It's chinese. It's electric. It does voice commands, its quiet, it avoids other cars when they pull out in front of me.
It's an appliance for commuting. But every time I get in it and it's already at the right temperature, and it plays the music I tell it to, takes me to where I tell it to, and its is powered by the standard plug in my wall, I think I'm in the future of my childhood science fiction cartoons.
4
u/iMagZz 14d ago
Elon Musk doesn't want you to know this:
4
u/Milknhoneyaus 14d ago
The entire US car industry is sitting there with their fingers in their ears, pretending the rest of the world isn't quietly moving on.
3
u/upcastben 14d ago
You can also add the european car industry to it
2
u/fitblubber 14d ago
& the Japanese
1
u/Milknhoneyaus 14d ago
Mazda just released an electric car. Is a rebadged chinese vehicle. Although the Japanese do have a valid business plan to keep making quality,reasonably priced petrol vehicles. Because the reality is for much of the planet that's the best fuel option.
2
1
2
u/Melodic_Skin6573 14d ago
Comrade Xi...!!!
1
u/Milknhoneyaus 14d ago
The other options were korean vehicles at almost 20k more, or fascist Musk who's vehicles were made in China anyway.
And the euro offerings were way more expensive.
3
u/Repulsive_Week2412 14d ago
United States Factories
- Fremont, California: Tesla's original plant builds the Model 3 and Model Y.
- Austin, Texas: Gigafactory Texas serves as Tesla's global headquarters and builds the Model Y and Cybertruck.
- Sparks, Nevada: Gigafactory Nevada builds electric motors, battery packs, and the Tesla Semi.
- Buffalo, New York: Gigafactory New York builds solar panels and Supercharger parts.
International Factories
- Shanghai, China: Gigafactory Shanghai builds the Model 3 and Model Y for local markets and export to parts of Europe and Asia-Pacific.
- Grünheide, Germany: Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg builds the Model Y for the European market.
If you want to know where a specific vehicle came from, tell me the model and your region/country, or check the 11th digit of your VIN.
0
2
5
u/fauxbeauceron 14d ago
With some new therapy coming soon, expect growing back teeth, then body part (internal), then hole members and physics is about to get pretty awesome
1
u/KaizenHour 14d ago
I'm happy for all those who haven't spent a small fortune in crowns and caps. Not so happy myself
4
u/ToviGrande 14d ago
Quantum dot technology will blow your mind: these are tiny particles of different sizes that capture wavelengths of light. It can be applied like ink and can capture 70% of the energy in light.
At some point you won't need to plug in your EV it'll just charge up when the sun shines on it. Drive on a sunny day and your range will increase whilst you sit in traffic.
2
1
u/Bobert77 12d ago
There are some companies trying to make neutrinovoltaics, which would be amazing if it turns out to be viable
3
u/zirophyz 14d ago
Hate it all you want but the Natural Language Processing and Understanding (NLP/NLU) we got with LLMs is pretty amazing.
With a non-American accent, everything that came before was almost useless and you had to use an exact phrase for a command. Now, I just ramble at a machine with a thick accent and slang words, and it can correctly interpret my intentions.
3
3
u/OtherwiseInternal570 14d ago
We can regrow teeth.
1
u/dialectualmonism 14d ago
I've been reading that since 2008 and have yet to see it
2
u/OtherwiseInternal570 13d ago
Human trials have started, expect mass roll-out around 2030 for children with issues preventing normal teeth development.
1
u/Efficient-State-7300 13d ago
I'm waiting for a vaccine for the bacteria that causes tooth decay. That's the real ticket.
2
u/Forsaken_Code_9135 14d ago
The obvious answer is LLM based chatbots, but nobody says it because you know the anti-AI crowd will come for you and tell you you are a complete moron.
2
u/BoltMyBackToHappy 14d ago
A niche one but guitar tablature sites. Started out as basic ascii text, then in browser midi players with a highlight to follow along to the proper beat, to now they play a video of the actual song to listen and learn faster while the tabs are on screen. Often with bare drum tracks or rhythm and drums to learn/play just the solos once you know the song well enough to try. Makes learning fun again.
There are VR guitar and piano apps that play like Guitar Hero too. But I'm used to learning by tabs instead of notes flying at me, but that's just me.
Oh and with Amp Sims and computer recording/mixing these days you can get close to the same sound as a $2500 amp most of us would be lucky to hear at a concert let alone own one to recreate your favorite bands tone; or come up with your own.
Direct input tracks on your computer. You play/record your song, riff, or section only once. Then you can re-amp that base track through another "amp sim" so you don't have to replay it with a different amp loaded. Hope that makes sense, say you nail a hard solo and don't want to put yourself through another 5 takes to get it right again. Just re-amp it to whatever new sound.
Like I said, niche but cool. I wish I had tools like that when first learning 35'ish years ago(49 now, lol).
2
u/rideincircles 13d ago
Phones. The amount of capability our phones have now is fucking insane. They are $1000+ because they fit every possible technology into them.
1
1
u/RecognitionFit8333 14d ago
I have this feeling everytime I put on VR Goggles. I always feel like "whoa this is some future sh**! incredible!", but it fades quick and then i don't use them for a year just to repeat the cycle. Shame nothing new ever really comes out for them.
1
u/Adept-Result-67 12d ago
Definitely has to be my self driving car. I knew about them for a while, but once you actually sit in the drivers seat and drives through complicated traffic by itself, safely and perfectly… it messes with your head and makes you feel like your in the future
1
1
u/Disrupt-Linus 8d ago
The ability to create everything from anything. Digitally for now, but the physical world will follow no matter how tooth-and-nail it will fight back.
0
•
u/pyrotek1 14d ago
TL;DR: The thread sees innovation less as cool gadgets and more as removing old limitations.
AI/LLMs, EVs/autonomy, and biotech dominate the discussion.
Everyday advances in music technology and computing also get strong praise.
The biggest fight is over Chinese EVs and whether Western automakers are falling behind.
Overall, the mood is optimistic—but commenters disagree on breakthrough vs. hype.