this post was submitted on 18 May 2025
49 points (100.0% liked)

Asklemmy

49480 readers
548 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy πŸ”

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

  1. Open-ended question
  2. Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
  3. Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
  4. Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
  5. An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 6 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Other than AI ideally. I've long been fascinated by CRISPR.

Wanna hear about niche tech or anything y'all find fascinating

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] HuntressHimbo@lemm.ee 30 points 2 months ago (4 children)

I am excited for the tooth regrowing tech coming up. I've got some awful dental work that would be much better replaced by a real tooth

[–] absGeekNZ@lemmy.nz 12 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (3 children)

I've been loosely following this for years. Great to see it getting close to the deployable state.

spoilerPun intended

Also the eventual stem cell treatment for replacing damaged Inner ear cells

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] SnokenKeekaGuard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Ain't no way. Havent heard of this!

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 29 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Maser drills: https://newatlas.com/energy/geothermal-energy-drilling-deepest-hole-quaise/

In a nutshell, it’s a economically brilliant idea: take hand-me-down microwave(ish) spectrum lasers from fusion research, drill holes deep into the crust (leaning on the fossil fuel industry), then hook up the resulting steam to existing coal plants, so you don’t have to build anything else. The coal plant gets free geothermal fuel, they move onto the next site: everyone wins.

It’s taking a worryingly long time though. I hope it gets enough funding.

[–] SnokenKeekaGuard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Oh now THIS is the kind of answer I was looking for. Great explanation and a great topic. Thanks for that

[–] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Good!

At risk of sounding like a shill, NewAtlas is a great source for exciting upcoming tech. I find myself reading it more these days.

Gonna go take a look

[–] Ziggurat@jlai.lu 19 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Internal alpha-therapy.

Imagine, attaching a radioactive atom to a biological marker that fixes to a tumour, and deliver radiation at the very right place, rather than having to cross healthy tissues with radiation.

Ok I've heard of this somewhere. It seems like theres a lot going on in medicine!

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] Binette@lemmy.ml 17 points 2 months ago (3 children)

I used to be excited for ai, and, let's just say, that excitement has dwindeled due to recent events.

I'm scared that the same happens to CRISPR honest

The issue with tech is the economic model its under. I can imagine a million dystopian changes to society.

The doctor in China for example.

Hey maybe China starts creating soldiers with four arms and the us does too and you have a new arms race.

[–] mononomi@feddit.nl 5 points 2 months ago

I'm studying biology and CRISPR is a crucial tool for a ton of research. So it's already really useful!

[–] anarchoilluminati@hexbear.net 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Which recent events, out of curiosity?

[–] Binette@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 months ago (2 children)

well i guess it's not too recent, but the A.I. boom kinda killed my interests I've had 7 years ago. i wish it would go back to its research phase.

[–] keepcarrot@hexbear.net 4 points 2 months ago

I'm old enough to remember when using computers daily went from a dorky interest to something the cool kids were doing (MySpace etc). Obviously, how the two groups approached computers was quite different. Even how they approached social spaces on the internet.

Idk, haven't thought about it much but I remember being pretty depleted about being interested back then. The things I was learning with basic coding and stuff could now be done in a couple of clicks, the resources were now more scarce, and the space became filled with money-people interested in promoting their brand

[–] anarchoilluminati@hexbear.net 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Ah, for sure. That's how I feel about cell phones. Haha

[–] ferric_carcinization@lemmy.ml 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

That's how I feel about cell phones.

Linux phones might be able to do something about that, assuming they become good enough soonish. Perhaps usable Hurd phones will become available first.

[–] anarchoilluminati@hexbear.net 4 points 2 months ago

It's too late.

I mean, I hate how pervasive cell phones are in the culture. I wish we had 90's tech and used pay phones so people could disconnect.

[–] zloubida@lemmy.world 16 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Manual typewriters. You did not precised the age of the technology in question!

Do you knew that there are an average of 1'800 parts in a typewriter? That it can print in two colors, with different margins, different interlinear space, tabulations and that some even have things like word count? It's a marvelous and yet understandable piece of technology. Someone technically inclined can understand 100% of the working of a typewriter, nobody can understand 100% of a word processor.

No that's good. Typewriter nerds are the nerdiest nerds I've ever met. Love it

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] dessalines@lemmy.ml 15 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Fusion power and small modular reactors.

[–] MSugarhill@discuss.tchncs.de 14 points 2 months ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

Just was in a talk of Jennifer Doudna. That CRISPER will cure many cancers in about ten years is incredible. Too bad it will be too late for my parents, but still.

To answer your question: phones and medical devices are incredible. Due to my moms pancreatic cancer she is a diabetic now. Her fingers can't feel anything anymore due to all the piercing. But now she gets a new sensor on her arm and has continuous glucose readings. And she can apply that by herself. And I get warned if she has low sugar. This bus amazing.

Shoutout to GlucoDataHandler, which does a better job than Abbott's own app.

[–] SnokenKeekaGuard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Jennifer Doudna talks about it sooo well. Check out her episode on the Ezra Klein show (podcast). https://pca.st/episode/12135fc7-b935-4daa-92c9-8b998cafae37

Sorry about your parents.

Oh wow my mom actually got diagnosed as diabetic just a few months ago herself. That sounds like a really useful tool to have.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] chobeat@lemmy.ml 13 points 2 months ago (2 children)

On the long-term, none. In the short-term, FOSS no-code tools are finally allowing grassroot organizations to have self-hosted, customizable internal tooling without having to rely on devs or sysadmins. This has a lot of potential to overcome the failures of the last decades of hackerist unadoptable software.

[–] krash@lemmy.ml 11 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Any Foss no-code tools you'd recommend?

[–] chobeat@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 months ago

Baserow and n8n are good enough for me to use in a professional production setting. Nocodb could be good, but it has some very basic bugs and shortcomings that make it hard to use.

Appflowy is getting there, but I would give it some more time.

Appsmith is good, but complex. Worth investing some time into, but it cannot be picked up casually to play around.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] tias@discuss.tchncs.de 11 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

It's AI but a specific use case of AI: an android at home to take care of the housework. Cleaning my dishes, doing the laundry, vaccuming and putting stuff away where it belongs are obvious use cases. But also:

  • Go through your fridge and throw away everything that has expired or gone bad.
  • Take care of your cat while you're away on vacation.
  • It's your personal fire fighter.
  • It paints your house or does any kind of house maintenance.
  • Let's say you're in the middle of playing a board game on your dinner table but need to put it away for the night. Ask the android to memorize everything and put it away. The next time your friends come around to play, it can place everything in exactly the same spot.

Possibilities are endless.

[–] Didros@beehaw.org 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Yeah! I've been asking chat gpt to take care of my daughter every day and I've not heard her cry in months!

load more comments (1 replies)

That is anything but specific!

[–] Sunsofold@lemmings.world 11 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Any technology is cool if you look at it in isolation. I just can't get terribly excited because I generally doubt they will be used in a sensible/humane manner.

Med tech is looking cool. It's one of the few unambiguously good uses of AI. AI systems for reading scans, detecting disease, etc. seem like they could be used to make medicine faster, easier, and more affordable, but I have doubts that the tech won't just be used to increase profit margins and somehow mess things up to benefit insurance company executives.

CRISPR/synthBio looks like it could do amazing things, but I have to wonder how long until things hit the sweet spot, intersecting democratization of powerful tools and destructive ideology, and lead some lunatic or group of lunatics to develop a society destroying bioweapon.

It's hard to get excited about the development of a new power when you look at who's likely to hold it.

[–] SnokenKeekaGuard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

One of my favourite modern writers is Ted Chiang. He has argued that the horror in science fiction tends to come not from the technology but the system that it exists in.

You might appreciate this: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/tedchiang/the-real-danger-to-civilization-isnt-ai-its-runaway#.nq4zaYNr6

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Brkdncr@lemmy.world 11 points 2 months ago
[–] AtHeartEngineer@lemmy.world 10 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Zero knowledge proofs. I've worked in the industry for a couple years now, and I've got a lot of hope it will actually help us fix the internet, stop spam bots, and allow for people to interact with better control over their data.

[–] SnokenKeekaGuard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Blockchain cryptogrpaphy thingy?

[–] AtHeartEngineer@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It's very useful in a lot of areas, blockchain being one, privacy being another, provable computation being a big one

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] juliebean@lemm.ee 10 points 2 months ago

trains. i know it isn't particularly new technology, but i am still excited about it.

[–] Didros@beehaw.org 7 points 2 months ago (2 children)

In response to you, have you seen GATICA it's a great movie that shows clearly why that tech scares me.

I think batteries are super interesting, and sodium solid state batteries are a pretty huge innovation, but graphene batteries will be utterly insane if we can get there. Very interesting stuff.

Graphine being a single atom think sheet of carbon, which is dope!

[–] locuester@lemmy.zip 4 points 2 months ago (3 children)

For anyone else searching, the movie is spelled β€œGattaca”.

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] PonyOfWar@pawb.social 7 points 2 months ago (2 children)
[–] tias@discuss.tchncs.de 11 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

This is the key to so much. Worried about NestlΓ© monopolizing freshwater? With nuclear fusion we can just take any old seawater and remove the salt. Worried about the war with Russia? With nuclear fusion we can become independent of all gas from Russia and cut off one of their biggest income sources. Lots of special materials are expensive because electricity is expensive - with nuclear fusion electricity is practically free. Over time we can get rid of any coal plants etc. that produce CO2.

[–] ferric_carcinization@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 months ago

with nuclear fusion electricity is practically free.

Like that'll ever happen under capitalism.

[–] SreudianFlip@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 months ago

Free, except for the amortized R&D and construction costs.

[–] SnokenKeekaGuard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Oh i recently read a bit about it but honestly. Not my field.

I just want energy to be transformed, I like solar but nuclear is where its truly at.

China has a lot of nuclear projects going on

[–] NuraShiny@hexbear.net 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I hear this wheel thing is pretty cool. Supposed to be, like, round. Rollin all day long.

Nothing bad could come from that, right? Right?!

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Aksamit@slrpnk.net 6 points 2 months ago

With home IPL (laser hair removal) being easily accessible now, I'd like to see other useful lasers developed for home use as I have a tattoo I'd like to remove.

I'm not particularly following this technology though, just moderately hopeful, which is as excited as I can get these days, that it'll come along and be affordable before civilisation collapses.

(It's not a tat of anything shameful, I just don't like having to go outside or talk to people if I can possibly avoid it.)

[–] rabber@lemmy.ca 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I'm really nerdy about camping gear. The shit coming out every season is just insane.

[–] SnokenKeekaGuard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 2 months ago (3 children)

I went down a rabbit hole of watching camping gear reviews a few months ago. I hear a good pillow is an issue.

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments
view more: next β€Ί