Next big new technology? Follow the toys..."Toy Theory"

I don't think that is an accurate portrayal of the life of those two examples.

 

Everybody knows that LED and LCD technology was discovered in the '40s from reverse-engineered UFOs.

The next real tech advancements will be built-ins. Yes, in our bodies. Awesome.

 

Well, we're starting to see robotics pop up in things like Legos, and I think Robotics are one of the big coming trends. Robot dogs and cats are popping up from time to time, and there's that robosapien thing.

I think it's more accurate to say that the first iteration of a new technology is kind of rubbish, and that about ten years later, it's fully integrated into society... look at the Apple Newton -> iPhone progression, for instance. I think Google Glass is that "kind of rubbish" version of augmented reality; what it will be in ten years...?

 

The Milton Bradley Operation® game, but with real humans and objectives.

 

Two examples doesn't make a theory.

 

I expect RC to become much larger in the years to come. Not that it isn't already, but there's still ground to cover imo.

 

Big slingshots for launching birds?

 

Everything will be constructed from little blocks of ABS plastic that fit into other little blocks.

 

Biotech and prosthetics. For years comic books, movies, kids toys, etc. have shown enhancing the human body with mechanical or technological upgrades. Mechanical arms that function as well or better than natural ones, upgraded organs, limbs, exosuits, etc. I can see this market exploding and becoming huge, especially given the number of wounded and maimed soldiers coming back from our decade long (and still continuing) war.

 

This.

I am intrigued with this concept, however, and would wager to guess that someone has spent some time on this, and laid down more concrete examples to support the hypothesis.

Does anyone have more examples?

 

Nanobots. Microscopic machines which are modular and could combine to.become, let's say, a car with the right OS.

 

To me the two examples suggest: follow the scientists.

 

Hopefully it won't be a toy that creates more laziness and video game playing, and therefore more laziness and video game playing technology.

I think it would be fun to make a GPS game. Kind of hide and seek in the neighborhood with small handheld crash proof monitor/walkie talkie type devices. Kids would have to draw and program in the "map" of their neighborhood (playzone) with a pc with friends houses, trees, whatever, then download to the device.

I'm way too lazy to see if it exists or make it.

 

BEWARE THE GRAY GOO!

Sadly I don't think we'll see anything as exciting as that in our lifetimes.

Bottom-up technology is really interesting though and Feynman and Drexler certainly provided a lot of the theories and potentials on it during the latter half of the last century.

My masters was in Nanotechnology & Microsystems and I spent a chunk of my PhD working with quantum dots (as nanoscopic temperature probes).

 

Not the same, but there are companies combining fitness and video games.

Goji Play (for instance) has an iPad app and some handheld controllers, you then use the tredmill or exercise bike to control your movement and the controllers for other in-game actions.

 

I see entire cities constructed of Lego......

 

My insight was that the next big thing in Industry and Technology was a material called Grapheme that they were making crazy string batteries and processors out of. I dont think they out that in toys though. I may be wrong on the title but I remember hearing about it on NPR a long time ago.

 

Graphene?

Otherwise known as pencil lead (graphite is stacked graphene).

It certainly has some awesome properties, plus if you roll it up you have your carbon nanotubes (granted, that's not how they produce those ). The issue with this kind of tech is generally being near impossible to mass produce, very linear processes instead of mass parallels.