if you could engineer anything in the world...

[spacefem]

we were bored on a car trip and this topic came up. i almost made a poll, but i figured i'd keep it open-ended and see what you all said.

if you were really the most brilliant engineer on the planet and could make anything, what would you love to have under your name? the girls i was with said a time travel machine. i said i wanted something that would broadcast communication across the entire universe all at once, so we could get in touch with aliens.

[rowan]

Teleportation. You have no idea how many times I've wished for that technology.

[Tookie]

Teleportation. You have no idea how many times I've wished for that technology.

Oh man, yes. Anyone who's ever been in a long distance relationship for any period of time has wished for that.

[Redallia]

Keeping within the realm of something that'll be possible in the near future, I've always thought that having a space elevator would be awesome. Slightly more out there would be an orbital ring space station, with a number of space elevators circling the globe.

[Flying Betty]

Personal flying machine- aka mechanical wings. Goggles optional but recommended for steampunky goodness.

[Neko]

A car the runs on garbage or something. And, you know, fights crime at night, does my taxes, and so on.

[Aum]

I have to agree with teleportation... travel time, for anything, is annoying. Screw this "it's about the journey, not the destination" crap! When I'm on vacation, I want to get to where I'm going!

[DruidX]

I have to agree with teleportation... Screw this "it's about the journey, not the destination" crap! When I'm on vacation, I want to get to where I'm going!

Yeah, people who write that stuff probably weren't intending it to apply to taking a ten hour flight that's been delayed for four hours.

Taking engineering in it's most liberal sense, I'd like to be the one who designs a cure for the common cold. That or a machine for taking shit out the air [globally or on a per city basis] and using it for something constructive. Maybe powering Neko's car thing.

[Redallia]

A car the runs on garbage or something.

Mr. Fusion from Back to the Future?

[helium]

I would design badass tunnels with some sort of super-fast transportation inside of them already. They'd go freaking everywhere, and they'd be clear/not full of cement so you could see the inside of the mountains or ocean you're in or under.

[Bork]

I'd want to create something that would fix the hole in the ozone layer. I've actually been wishing someone would come up with that for ten years or so, along with some vacuum cleaner-type thing to clean up air.

[darkliquid]

A device to read and write human knowledge directly to and from the brain. It would be awesome if you could just learn something by buying a skills package from the store and uploading it to your brain. Equally, it would be awesome to be able to record your brain as well, especially if we had cloning as well - copy your body and your brain! Immortality!

[cwbyrvr]

A device to read and write human knowledge directly to and from the brain. It would be awesome if you could just learn something by buying a skills package from the store and uploading it to your brain. Equally, it would be awesome to be able to record your brain as well, especially if we had cloning as well - copy your body and your brain! Immortality!

It would be awesome... until people started hacking our minds and selling us viruses and psychoses.

[lizpoona]

Teleportation. You have no idea how many times I've wished for that technology.

Dangit, that was totally going to be my answer.


I think I'd like to creat Warp Drive, so that after we communicate with those aliens, we can go and see them. :-)

[moop.]

I would want a blanket that keeps my arms warm even when I reach outside the blanket to grab a remote or read a book or something. I also want a towel that absorbs 800% of its own weight.

[rowan]

^ You mean a snuggie?

[rowan]

I hadn't seen the Sham Wow one before. I was wondering what this punditkitchen was referring to. Now I know!

[Enigma]

^ You mean a snuggie?

You'll never look at those the same again if you watch this video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_E9iUwWOkE

I'd engineer so sort of unstoppable power creating technology just to prove to my boyfriend's brother that the oil companies won't kidnap me.

[Tookie]

^ I'm with you're boyfriend's brother. They so would.

[resmc]

Aside from, as I've thought of way too often to be sane, star trek staples like teleportation, holodecks, replicators and even those funky communicators, this sorta fantasy-esque device is something that I've pondered since many years back.

It's close to a replicator, but is able to produce stuff directly from intentional thought, even 'stuff' that's not entirely (or at all) physical. Also, it can swallow up anything like horrid toxins that should never've been created in the first place. Able to hold stuff for easier transport, too. It would be portable, able to be compacted in size or extended. Would hardwire into it a ton of anti-abuse clauses, like it being unable to do anything that makes the distribution of power less equal. Using it, of course, would be a form of power so I'd have to do a lot of research into the nature of such, in order to make it unable to corrupt its users. Also, it should have a cloaking device; not just to physically hide it, but make everyone - except those the user trusts enough to tell about its existence unable to sense it. Some anti-envying field should be made, so it's not the subject of power-struggles (even minor ones), both for what a great political tool it could be as well as how useful it would be to anyone.

Maybe an anti-waste feature, so that after a certain amount of new stuff is made (we're talking a ton of stuff), either unused stuff will have to go back or toxic stuff has to go in to be disposed of.

Or even a required balance of using it for other's benefit just as much as the user; or even, balanced between helping self, helping loved ones, helping local community, and benefiting the larger world.

In case of severe misuse or glitch, it also 'saves' the universe like some games save your progress at various points, and you're able to jump back if you mess up. This will require being able not just to sense, but to maniuplate/travel both time and along the various universes in the hypothesized multiverse. If there's a major failure, or if its use alters a person too much for them to be recognizable (compared to themself and their likely path in life before they obtained the device), or at least altered in a bad was (as defined by their loved ones, or whoever has their best interests at heart; of course, this means that subjectivity must be fully understandable to this gadget, not an easy feat), their consciousness will automatically revert to their 'natural' state/lifecourse, meaning before they got the device. However, there's a good chance that, with the nature of the multiverse, their alternate self who's been seriously altered will continue on whatever course they'd otherwise take, though that awareness may split off into 2 (with 2 accompanying universes), and one will wake up back where it began, perhaps with a crazy dream of all that happened when it found & used this device.

A device to read and write human knowledge directly to and from the brain. It would be awesome if you could just learn something by buying a skills package from the store and uploading it to your brain. Equally, it would be awesome to be able to record your brain as well, especially if we had cloning as well - copy your body and your brain! Immortality!

ZOMG, yes! This reminds me of another invention I've wanted ....

.... it would allow thoughts to be transmitted directly from mind to mind, but only when each party participating either intentionally consents to sharing each specific thought with each other mind (ideally, minds could be linked up in a way which would be similar to, yet even awesomer than teh interwebz), or, if two people very close to and trusting of each other agreed to allow the other to explore their mind (this permission is able to be revoked or even made contingent on stuff like privacy or discussion of the thoughts shared). However, having any intentions [conscious or unconscious] to misuse the access to other's thoughts would make it impossible to use the device.

[lillerina]

Something to block out unwanted music for when you're ill and trying to sleep.

[Bork]

^ You mean a snuggie?

You'll never look at those the same again if you watch this video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_E9iUwWOkE

Awwww that video isn't available in my country...

[cwbyrvr]

^ You mean a snuggie?

You'll never look at those the same again if you watch this video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_E9iUwWOkE

Awwww that video isn't available in my country...

Same. T_T

[imogene the fish]

Nanobots that serve as an immune system. They'd just be for people who are immunocompromised for some reason (so no one dies of AIDS related causes anymore, etc.) not everyone, so the entire race wouldn't so be dependent on such advanced technology to survive.

[Enigma]

Awwww that video isn't available in my country...

Same. T_T

OK I find that really funny since in the last couple of days there's been this big debate going on about how to get more Canadian content onto the internet. Allowing non-canadians to see our comedy might help. urg. I guess the problems is it was posted by the show.
http://www.cbc.ca/22minutes/videoplayer2.html If this site works for you it was on jan 13 2009 under season 16.