The duct tape of...TOMORRROOOW!!!

[Tech priest support]

OK, kidding aside, what sort of futuristic replacement could you see for common, modern, ubiquitous tools in the world of tomorrow?

 

Let's start with that Hero of a thousand uses, duct tape. What could duct tape be like in, say, the 23rd century? Could we have some sort of nanotech based duct tape that could be programmed with a tool in various ways? Maybe it could be set to adhere only to itself, or to adhere to specific surfaces like metal, glass, wood, etc. Maybe it could be programmed to release and reset to a new state. Could it be rigged with tiny lights to show how much stress it's under, so green lights means fine and red means it's near its limit? Could it be varied from flexible to rigid? The lights are powered by piezo electric flexors in the tape?

 

How about the smartphone of tomorrow? Christ with all they do now trying to extrapolate a couple hundred years is a joke, but just try to imagine a few things that seem reasonable. How about a phone with a built in radiation meter? The way things are going we might need those sooner than later. Maybe a phone that monitors its users biometrics. Start to have a heart attack or show signs of a stroke and it calls 911 with your GPS data. Real time glucose meter that alerts you ahead of a problem? Possibly something that would auto alert you if, say, someone who had been labeled a certain type of criminal and fitted with something like an RFID tag was near? An area alert that let you know certain places you were near were favorable/unfavorable to your tastes? A pollen monitor reminding you to take your asthma inhaler a d allergy pills? How about a phone with emergency medications and even an injector built in?

[mcgahatj]

I kind of think the duct tape of tomorrow will still be duct tape. Its beauty is its simplicity. Oddly enough, the one thing you can't use it for are HVAC ducts -- they use a metallic tape with a different adhesive for those.

 

The fully-evolved, end-state smartphone will absolutely have biometrics as a standard feature. That's far too useful to far too many people for it not to happen. Things like radiation meters might be standard ... that seems farfetched, but hey, I'd have called you a loony if you'd told me ten years ago I'd be carrying a barometer around in my shirt pocket today, yet here we are. The trick is going to be fitting all of the features into a form factor the consumer finds acceptable, while not having it become buggy and unreliable.

[Lord Liaden]

IMO the smartphone of the 23rd Century will be implanted directly into our skulls, activated and controlled by thought impulses, with sensory information input directly into our optic and auditory nerves. Personally I find that prospect creepy, but I'm confident that's where we're headed.

 

Now me, I'm holding out for a Sonic Screwdriver.

[Beast]

Vambrace computer w/HUD
with a 20 pt VPP
kinda like the tech guy had in Resident Evil 1 movie

[tkdguy]

I think I can find a few evil uses for that duct tape!

[Tech priest support]

I think I can find a few evil uses for that duct tape!

If you're going to do that do it right. Fake fur lined leather restraints with silver buckles.

 

BTW your gif in your sig kinda made me think of that...

[Tech priest support]

BTW I can already see an ad from the the wow of tomorrow. After you know who finally manages to start a nuclear war, I can see an ad featuring a blonde goddess in a bikini with the words "You can see she's hot in a good way....."

 

And at the bottom is a hand holding a smartphone with a Geiger counter function on it and a "DANGER! RAD LEVEL ORANGE! AVOID PROLONGED CONTACT!" on the screen and "...but you can't see if she's hot in a bad way. Use RadCheck to be safe!" below it.

 

And yes they'd make a version with a hot gut in bikini briefs too.

[Tom Cowan]

Smart nanotech super glue.

[Cancer]

Some kind of cutter with an energy blade with a dial-up length. Obviously some kind of safety mechanism inherent so you won't lop your leg off if you trip over something while using it. Only a suicidal idiot uses a bare lightsaber.

 

Yes, I have an out-of-control hedge and I don't have to lever the N-pound steel blade trimmer around in order to whack it back.

[mrinku]

Surgery to use your your phone... meh, maybe.

 

I'd tend to think in terms of unobtrusive wear-tech that gives you a private VR HUD which you interact with through words and gestures. If you really want bionics, optic nerve or corneal interface is going to be a lot simpler and safer than sticking tech into your brain directly. Reading thoughts through some kind of EM scan looks fairly possible, but it's still probably easier to point and swipe.

 

Outright organic organ replacements are highly likely... and it's probably a practical thing to build new eyes and incorporate some VR tech into those. Replacement eyes just for vision correction is something I'd expect.

 

Duct tape itself is eternal

[Old Man]

Having just effected temporary repairs on my vehicle with duct tape, I'd say duct tape whose adhesive doesn't stick to itself would be useful. Tape that was prehensile or steerable somehow might also be nice.

 

(Why must the cracked hose always be in the most inaccessible reaches of the engine bay?)

[Mister E]

Robot towels tasked with coming up w/ new uses for themselves.

[LoneWolf]

The smart phone will become what it was inspired by the tricorder, but with a built in communicator. 

[Marcus Impudite]

On 8/14/2017 at 8:36 PM, Lord Liaden said:

IMO the smartphone of the 23rd Century will be implanted directly into our skulls, activated and controlled by thought impulses, with sensory information input directly into our optic and auditory nerves. Personally I find that prospect creepy, but I'm confident that's where we're headed.

 

Now me, I'm holding out for a Sonic Screwdriver.

Considering what company/companies are likely to be making those implants, I think I'll pass on letting them put something in my brain, doubly so considering how many of them brown-nose with the New Stasi Agency.