How about a system to analyse instinctive behaviour of animals as a warning system (earthquakes, tsunamis etc.) ? A thought that appeared on a workshop in Munich this year. That might be good.

less useless technology and more tasty homemade snacks... that's my hope for the future.

Innovation will more and more come from the developing world as our country allows incumbent infrastructure and content owners to create monopoly barriers and exact monopoly rents. China, for example, is intent upon becoming the world leader in every possible category. To do so, their citizens will require economical electric power. The country has neither the time nor the resources to build the kind of nationwide grid that Europe and the US enjoy. Instead, they will have to figure out ways of generating and storing electric energy in more portable ways. They will succeed. Imagine the impact upon the world and upon the US of truly portable, economical electric energy supply devices!

I think that we are on the verge of a flexible revolution. I just saw an article about flexible microchips. Flexible screens are already being demoed here and there. Once they get this stuff rolling I think some interesting things will emerge from the technology. But it will take someone using it in a non-standard way to really set things apart.
Most truly revolutionary developments are evolutions that are used in a way that was not intended. Examples include synthesizers, SMS, the internet, and of course, duct tape. :)

Table-top bubble cavitation fusion batteries perhaps?

Quantum computers are a given as is nanotech, it's just a question of when, but how about self-organising organic neural net processor chips?

i think there won't be any of these "breakthroughs" that you're looking for. instead, we will see new technology seemlessly replace old technology. and i'm brain dead right now, so i can't give you an example.

also, why is a new order album cover the pic for this post?

How about the upcomming hydrogen revolution. we wont be dependant on fossil fuels anymore, and everyone wil be able to power their own homes with fuelcells!

THE INTERNET WISPER! is the next step in evolution;
A small personal device (or build in your GSM phone) controlled by your voice with access to all the information in the world.
At first your question will be routed to a real person with a broadband Internet connection and VoIP. He/She will earn some money with it as a new type of informationworker, connecting the Internet world with the non-Internet world (poor, on the move, in a third world country). A smart and simple feedback mechanism will keep the required quality and speed on the right level. Later on the respons will be done by an intelligent system.

I have the legal rights for this concept and I had tried to share it with a big company in the Netherlands (KPN, TELE2 etc.) but nobody dared... (To new, loss of income for expensive 0900-number)

So if there is somebody out there with a some guts...
Please contact me: Phorchner@wanadoo.nl

What if we had a combination of a knife and spoon (my relative and i are already inventing), like, there's a compartment between the two. and you can push one in and pull the other out. we're trying to work a fork in there somewhere. but if anyone has an idea that would help us POST LIKE CRAZY!!!!!!!!