11 Inventions That Can Change The World

Here's a link to a slide show (yeah sorry, it's a slide show, I hate slide shows too) of 11 innovations that may have unbelievable impact someday: 11 inventions that could change the world

My favorites are the autonomous vehicle and the 3-D printer. The autonomous vehicle, a car that drives itself with you as merely a passenger never having to touch the controls, will someday bring the best of both worlds combining the freeing up of your time and attention that mass transit offers but with your own route, your own schedule, your own privacy of your own car. Google tests and others of these vehicles is already proving it to be safer than cars operated by humans yet many are still wary of them. Personally I can't wait. It would change everything. Eventually when they become mandatory, a hundred years from now say, red lights would be virtually a thing of the past. How crazy would that be?

My other favorite is the 3-D printer. Digital fabrication as it is called is very new, but eventually it's going to be enormous. You'd be able to 'print' a copy of what you need, in a limited way, like small objects, utensils, keys, toys, etc. It's not quite the 'beam me up Scotty' stuff of Star Trek where the same physical thing is transported through space to reappear elsewhere, but it sure feels a little like it.