December: What technological innovation I'm looking forward to

[jack]

I could have found an answer that fitted this question and yesterdays question both, but I decided they were interesting in different ways.

Technological innovations I think we're groping towards, which I'm impatient to have already:

A programming language with a syntax as straightforward as python, but works like C++14 is trying to, of letting it all compile to blazing fast code, even for embedded systems, by default, but letting you easily use dynamic typing where you actually want it. And of letting you use static type checking MOST of the time, but lets you be as dynamic as you need when you actually need it.

Widespread 3D printing of replacement parts, etc. We're nearly there, but we're waiting for a slightly wider variety of materials, and a wider database of possible things. Where you can say "I want this £10 widget holder from the supermarket, but can I get one 30% longer if I pay extra? OK? Thank you!"

Private cars replaced by mega-fleets of robot taxis and universal good public transport throughout/between all population dense areas.

Everyone uses git, or another dvcs, and the interface is actually consistent and friendly for everybody.

Decent, standardised, change-tracking and formatting for non-plain-text documents that allows sensible merging. (OK, this seems to be two steps forward and three steps back, so maybe there's no point waiting for it, but I'd still like it! :))

Comments

[andrewducker]

The problem is that Python doesn't provide enough information to produce blazing fast code. It's a bit too high level.

Have you looked at C#, which _is_ really fast, and allows dynamic objects when necessary (but most of the time doesn't need them)?

[andrewducker]

Oh, and Git is perfectly friendly, so long as you use an interface other than the command-line.

And I use Word all the time to do change-tracking and formatting, with merging. Seems to work ok.

[azurelunatic]

One of the things which is going to have to come along with the robot taxis and public transit is some way to haul a cubic meter or two of Stuff such that it can shuffle between modes of transportation pretty seamlessly. I can say from experience that it is unpleasant to haul groceries from a warehouse store grocery run on public transit. Perhaps you could make it a point-to-point robot taxi trip when you have that much Stuff, rather than trying to haul it between modes, but there would have to be pricing to make that work out.

One of the things which the transit is going to need to work out is capacity -- it's hard for me to travel on Caltrain when it's geared for peak capacity, because between pain, size, and flexibility, I need to sit in the accessible car. Off-peak, there are several. On-peak, there is one. It is anyone's guess which car that will be, so you can't accurately position yourself to board it, and the crowding is such that I can't actually walk between cars. In theory, people who do not need the moderately-accessible seats in the peak-capacity cars are supposed to give those up. In practice, groups of chatting teenagers have taken them and I am not actually up to the verbal communication necessary for telling them that I need a goddamn seat when I am already exhausted and in pain.

[ciphergoth]

Have you looked at Rust? http://www.rust-lang.org/