Game Changing Technologies

[Daehawk]

One of our super walmarts removed all their self checkouts. makes me think Walmart shoppers are not the brightest bunch. But then again I go there....wait.

[Jeff V]

As someone without a smartphone and who hates the self checkout lanes when I have a full cart because something goes wrong for everyone in the self checkout lane with a full cart and who already sees that Meijer have too few cashiers, I say SUNUVA!

Self-checkout lanes at King Soopers here are 15 or fewer items. They don't want someone with a full cart parked there for half an hour.

I never use a credit card if the total is under $5, and I'll try not to use a card if it's between $5-$10. I hate having small charges on my bill.

I get points for charging things on my Amex card, so it gets used for everything it could possibly be used for. No charge is too small. I wish the gumball machines (that don't actually have gumballs anymore) in the front of the grocery store too cards because every time I walk out with my son points, says
"daddy look!" but of course I have to cash to feed it.

Jewel (subsidiary of Albertsons) uses mildly mentally handicapped people as bag boys. They don't always do a proper job of it, and their attempts to engage me in conversation is sometimes comical. Jewel also removed their self-checkout lanes and replaced them with short-order lanes on mini counters too short to accommodate asshats that try to take a cart full of crap through them. They had to do something to stand out though -- their prices are somewhat higher than Meijer, and their meat/fish/produce/bakery offerings don't measure up to more upscale supermarkets and is more like same shit, higher price than the likes of Walmart or Target. I always figured they'd be a casualty of the grocery store evolution -- but they are hanging in there and right now the two closest supermarkets to where I live are both Jewel (I used to have two Meijers closer than the nearest Jewel where I used to live).

[Rumpy]

Baggers have all migrated to Costco, and they're very aggressive too. Sometimes you just want to pack your own bags, but it's almost like they insist on it to keep things moving and will do it when you don't even notice them. Had one bagger lady who got all defensive and haughty when told we preferred to pack ourselves.

[Moliere]

Nanotech!

[Kraken]

I'll take self-driving cars more seriously after practical, economical self-driving lawnmowers take over that job. Where are our robot mowers, captains of industry?

[Isgrimnur]

I'll take self-driving cars more seriously after practical, economical self-driving lawnmowers take over that job. Where are our robot mowers, captains of industry?

Digital Trends: The best robotic lawn mowers of 2018

[Kraken]

I'll take self-driving cars more seriously after practical, economical self-driving lawnmowers take over that job. Where are our robot mowers, captains of industry?

Digital Trends: The best robotic lawn mowers of 2018

Promising, but not there yet. Just like self-driving cars.

[wonderpug]

I'll take self-driving cars more seriously after practical, economical self-driving lawnmowers take over that job. Where are our robot mowers, captains of industry?

Digital Trends: The best robotic lawn mowers of 2018

Next up on Captcha:
“Select which images contain only grass and no human feet. Quickly.”

[Daehawk]

"Honey did you let the cat out?"

[Moliere]

The next step towards body enhancements?



This projector smartwatch turns your arm into a terrible touchscreen

Twenty years from now our phones will be either in our hands or heads with a link to the eye balls.

[Z-Corn]

Twenty years from now our phones will be either in our hands or heads with a link to the eye balls.

Mortoned that for you. Let us not forget that porn often drives technology.

[Moliere]

Tyson Foods backs Israeli startup to grow meat in the lab

Tyson Foods (TSN.N), the largest U.S. meat processor, has invested in an Israeli biotech company developing a way to grow affordable meat in a laboratory that takes live animals out of the equation.
...
The firm’s founder and chief scientist, Yaakov Nahmias, said cultured meat typically had a production price of about $10,000 per kg but so far his company had reduced that to $800/kg and had “a clear roadmap to $5-$10/kg by 2020.”

Tyson’s venture capital arm has supported the Jerusalem-based startup by co-leading $2.2 million in seed investment.

“We continue to invest significantly in our traditional meat business but also believe in exploring additional opportunities for growth that give consumers more choices,” said Justin Whitmore, Tyson’s executive vice president for corporate strategy.

As long as they don't try to kill the new technology in favor of continuing to kill cows.

[Moliere]

You’ll Soon Be Able to Manufacture Anything You Want and Governments Will Be Powerless to Stop It

Additive manufacturing is poised to revolutionize whole industries—destroying some jobs while creating new opportunities. That's according to a recent report from the prestigious RAND Corporation, and there's plenty of evidence to support the dynamic and "disruptive" view of the future that the report promises.

It's all pretty cool, if you look forward to a future that just won't fit under rulers' thumbs.

"The simplicity and low cost of [3D printing] machines, combined with the scope of their potential creations, could profoundly alter global and local economies and affect international security," write RAND's Trevor Johnston, Troy D. Smith, and J. Luke Irwin in "Additive Manufacturing in 2040."

To their credit, the authors see additive manufacturing not only as a "disruptive threat," but also as a "powerful enabler." They quote one industry expert who raves about the potential to "print electronics, insulators, conductors, plastic substrates all together without degradation." Likewise, a health expert tells them, "The medical field will be transformed dramatically … We will be able to print livers, or we can print pieces of arteries for heart surgery."

[Jeff V]

Will a printed liver taste the same when fried with onions?

[Paingod]

“We continue to invest significantly in our traditional meat business but also believe in exploring additional opportunities for growth that give consumers more choices,” said Justin Whitmore, Tyson’s executive vice president for corporate strategy.

As long as they don't try to kill the new technology in favor of continuing to kill cows.

As climate change drives markets, those who are prepared for it will prosper. The beef industry is something that needs massive alteration to become sustainable into the distant future.

Will a printed liver taste the same when fried with onions?

Depends. Would you like your onion-flavored liver printed from cloned beef, bison, llama, moose, or your own cells?

[Moliere]

Plus the onions will be printed so 50 years from now people won't know what onions are supposed to taste like.

[Jeff V]

Will a printed liver taste the same when fried with onions?

Depends. Would you like your onion-flavored liver printed from cloned beef, bison, llama, moose, or your own cells?

I'm no liver connoisseur...there's a difference?

[em2nought]

You’ll Soon Be Able to Manufacture Anything You Want and Governments Will Be Powerless to Stop It

It would be great if I could manufacture retro products made to last twenty or thirty years. Like the clock radio I just tossed out that I remember having had since at least 1977. lol

[Isgrimnur]

Will a printed liver taste the same when fried with onions?

Depends. Would you like your onion-flavored liver printed from cloned beef, bison, llama, moose, or your own cells?

I'm no liver connoisseur...there's a difference?

Try polar bear.

[Jeff V]

Will a printed liver taste the same when fried with onions?

Depends. Would you like your onion-flavored liver printed from cloned beef, bison, llama, moose, or your own cells?

I'm no liver connoisseur...there's a difference?

Try polar bear.

You'll be able to print livers of extinct animals? (by some accounts, polar bears are on the brink right now)

[Pyperkub]

To the original question - in addition to the addition of fusion, I'll add two very related items- carbon nanotubes and graphene.

nanotubes:

The discovery of carbon nanotubes (CNT) in 1991 opened up a new era in materials science. These incredible structures have an array of fascinating electronic, magnetic and mechanical properties. CNT are at least 100 times stronger than steel, but only one-sixth as heavy, so nanotube fibers could strengthen almost any material. Nanotubes can conduct heat and electricity far better than copper. CNT are already being used in polymers to control or enhance conductivity and are added to anti-static packaging.

graphene:

Graphene is amazing. Or at least, it could be. Made from a layer of carbon one-atom thick, it's the strongest material in the world, it's completely flexible, and it's more conductive than copper. Discovered just under a decade ago, the supermaterial potentially has some unbelievable applications for us in the not so distant future.

And just imagine when they are setup for home 3d printing.