TECHNOLOGIES YOU DREAM ABOUT
(Updated to reflect the 100 most recent valid responses.)

Which of the following technologies do you follow with the keenest interest?
Computing/automation | 23%
Automotive | 19%
Genetic Engineering | 14%
Clean Energy | 24%
Space Travel | 20%

Which of the following developments is most likely actually to impact your life?
Hypersonic Airliners | 23%
Gene Therapy for Eternal Youth | 28%
Affordable Flying Cars | 15%
Routine Interplanetary Travel | 5%
Cheap Clean Energy Generators | 28%
to Show me Da $$$

You may be in luck. Silicon Valley's gotten so bad that you may just get your wish and not have to work at the job you hate so much anymore. Plenty of people have gotten laid off. Now's a pretty good time to re-evaluate what you would want to retrain to do.

How about you staying home with the kids so that they can have a 3-D role model while your wife tries her hand at making a living for the family? And public school's not out of the question. I survived it and I'm doing just fine. Ballet lessons don't do much for your ballance either. It's just one more of those things that cost money and makes you a prisoner of your job.

In the end, it's a toss-up between your professional happiness or your family's comfort zone. I vote for your personal happiness. Your kids won't miss the ballet lessons, and they will enjoy time with their dad, who will be much happier not doing something he hates to do. Who knows, your wife may enjoy going back into the workforce. It gets old and boring staying at home for years with kids when you've been professionally trained to do other things. I don't think I could last more than two or three years at home before I begin to really miss my career.
MLK    Wednesday, August 22, 2001 at 21:35:00 (PDT)
All carpetbaggers who came to Nor. Cal to get rich quick –you got screwed big time by Wall Street and are too late now, well maybe not. At some point within the next 4 years the economy is going to turn around. If you buy in Silicon Valley when prices are beaten down you will be looking good in a few years. If you do not work in technology in Silicon Valley, don't bother moving out this way. You will always be a second-class citizen and live in a tiny cubicle like house for the rest of your life. It is not worth living here unless you make big bucks in technology, just think about it. I agree with the guy who said you might as well move to Southern California. Safest and most similar place to S.V. there for Asians is the San Gabriel Valley. Very similar lifestyle to Silicon Valley, but no technology jobs, and very competitive for any jobs you can scrounge up. Like working at Macey’s?
Silicon Valley    Saturday, July 07, 2001 at 13:22:48 (PDT)
Nope, this is the time to form new companies with realistic business plans. Periods of chaos are actually times of great opportunity.

Any business that can figure out how to be profitable on the web NOW will be worth it's weight in gold in a couple years.
navigator navigator@vastrightwing.com    Wednesday, July 04, 2001 at 10:00:52 (PDT)

     Artificial intelligence is not dead. In the future, artificial intelligence technologies will be vital to many precision-intense technologies. These may include transportation, warfare, medicine, engineering, super computing and more.
     In addition, I envision the integration of the human brain with computers. Here is how I think it will begin:
     1. Input. When one thinks of a particular character or action in a certain preset manner, it will be detected. This is similar to current research on monkeys' brains (when a monkey moves, a robot monkey moves the same way). It might require some training on the part of the subject.
     2. Output. Perhaps it will begin with pixellized input to our eyes. This is currently being researched. I'm not too sure about the whole output thing, really. It could take many forms.
     3. Communication. People will be able to communicate with each other by just thinking. However, with only the last two advances in place, this communication will be very basic.
     Eventually, after intensely increasing research, the human brain will become completely intertwined with man-made hardware (some of the man-made hardware may be biological). Communication and inventiveness will flourish. One could be in a toilet stall making love with his/her spouse, while having virtual sex with someone on another planet (yeah, that's kind of stretching it). Casinos could have "NO CYBORGS ALLOWED" signs up.
     Oh, and in order to have inter-galactic space travel, we need a either a better grasp of fusion or a lot of anti-matter at our disposal (can anyone correct me on this?). Anyway, thanks for listening.
supramanx@hotmail.com

     I don't want radioactive waste in my backyard. We should put our radioactive waste in a Concord and ship them to a nearest space station. Once it's there, the space station can put the waste in rockets with remote controlled gas repellers, and then send them off into deep spaces.
GoodLife

     I want a robot maid to do my dishes, cook my food, vacuum my floor, make my bed, and then plug itself into the wall socket which is being fed by a solar electric generator. As for gene therapy for eternal youth...it would be nice if I could look young all the time, but I think eternal youth would get boring after awhile. When am I ever going to get the chance to grow old with someone, and how am I ever going to get the chance to try my hand at reincarnation? That sounds kinda fun!
MLK

     I am baffled that we don't just have mini-fuel cell powerplants supplying power to individual homes. Imagine all the loss through sending power over thousands of miles of lines. It would also get rid of all those ugly power poles.

     xray vision goggles would be nice...
peeping tim

     while living in a large city or cycling, it would be nice to not smell the smoke from passing vehicles.
sean pondmq

     You should add robotics to the list. That's the technology that will really change life the most for us. It will free us from drudgery and give us artificial limbs and the only real prospect for eternal life in our lifetimes.
The Android

     We should work on inventing cleaner energy generators, more biodegradeable plastic products and genetic modified fast growing trees. These changes will improve our lives and the economy in the future.
Asian Canuck

     I wish for technology to also benefit the cosmetic sector. Its not as important as those already listed and those to cure diseases but it certainly would make life more pleasant . I long for procedures to: 
-straighten out bow legs
-permanently get rid of underarm perspiration
-permanently get rid of unwanted hair in one shot
-permanently get hair to stay its natural color 
   instead of greying
-prevent baldness
-correct vision in a totally risk free way
-permanently and painlessly get rid of oily skin, 
   acne and pimples in a totally risk free way with 
   no unpleasant side affects

     I would be happy with gene therapy to get rid of about 10 pounds of fat from my waist and hips and move them to my breasts!
Lady Leticia

     You won't see flying cars for some time. The big problem is safety and insurance. The government isn't going to approve them until there are reliable automated navigation systems to make sure there aren't going to be any crashes. And people can't buy those expensive flying cars unless insurance companies are willing to insure them, which they won't do without failsafe navigation systems.
Earthling for Intelligent Transport

     I can hardly wait for hypersonic transports to come online. I'm sick of spending half my life on airplanes and jetlag from flying to Hong Kong.

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