Hey future, hurry up. We've been daydreaming about invisibility suits
and hover-boards for decades. Here are some more inventions that we
really hope materialize.
The ocean presented early humans with a vast mystery. What worlds and fabulous creatures exist in the deep? Today, our understanding has expanded, but the world's waters still offer us an abundance of mystery and awe. We dream less about mermaid cities and sunken Atlantis and instead imagine underwater metropolises and seafloor colonies.
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The Jet-pack |
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The Driver-less car |
The ocean presented early humans with a vast mystery. What worlds and fabulous creatures exist in the deep? Today, our understanding has expanded, but the world's waters still offer us an abundance of mystery and awe. We dream less about mermaid cities and sunken Atlantis and instead imagine underwater metropolises and seafloor colonies.
This
zeal was especially strong in the late 1950s and early 1960s, when
Jacques Cousteau's Conshelf project and the United States Navy's Sealab
saw the dream of undersea living realized. Both programs proved that
humans can live and work for an extended time underwater. The test
subjects tended underwater gardens, tackled underwater construction
projects and lived the life of an aquanaut.
Half
a century later, the underwater cities still aren't here. Sure, we have
unrealized designs such as Giancarlo Zema's semisubmerged Trilobis 65
dwelling and the proposed underwater Dubai skyscraper Hydropolis, but
very few underwater habitats. The bottom line is that while humans can
live underwater, it's not an easy or cheap life. It's also not
necessary.
Circumstances
haven't forced humans to consider underwater living seriously, and when
it comes to oceanic exploration, unmanned submersibles and automated
seafloor stations offer a better value proposition. The National Science
Foundation's Ocean Observatories Initiative, for example, calls for a
worldwide network of automated observation stations and autonomous
underwater vehicles.