Ask HN: Idea for a blog: whydontwehaveityet

wallflower · on Oct 16, 2009

Check out Technology Review (TR) published by MIT. I was a long-time subscriber.

http://www.technologyreview.com/

IgorCarron · on Oct 16, 2009

Yes this is good thing, but I think the issue is trying to understand how the technologies are maturing. TR doesn't follow through on most of the technologies it features.

wallflower · on Oct 16, 2009

Yes, I agree. I wanted to point out that their initial reporting on technology is superb.

IgorCarron · on Oct 17, 2009

agreed.

percept · on Oct 16, 2009

Sounds like a job for "crowdsourcing." If you can't reach original sources, perhaps you can get responses from people who know people, work in the same field, etc.

Like a Science HN. I guess there's a Science Reddit now ("I'm a stem cell researcher--ask me anything").

Edit: Maybe that's what we really need--Reddit with only "I'm a" posts from qualified, authoritative sources. Of course that's what rating systems are supposed to be for.

tocomment · on Oct 16, 2009

that's a good point. Maybe if I used crowd sourcing I wouldn't have to call anyone.

flooha · on Oct 16, 2009

Funny, I was thinking about almost exactly the same topic just yesterday. Much of the problem absolutely has to be patents. I have several awesome ideas which I will never put one second of effort into because I know I would get patent trolled to death and none of them are software related.

If we TRULY wanted to evolve mankind at the fastest rate possible, we would instantly share new discoveries and methods and allow anyone to use, profit or build upon them with no restrictions. The conundrum is that, while this greatly benefits mankind, the inventor gets the proverbial shaft. Sadly, I don't see this problem being solved any time soon.

wicknicks · on Oct 16, 2009

That's an interesting idea. Maybe we could use some interesting automatic means to "cluster" information from these new technology areas. Suppose a system allowed someone to create a new technology area by defining all the entities involved in it (Names of people, research center, location of research center etc). A web crawler could use these as filters to pick out the latest info from it and supply it to the interested folks.

tocomment · on Oct 16, 2009

That's a cool idea.

IgorCarron · on Oct 16, 2009

It's a very nice idea actually. I'd contribute to it. What happens in most cases is that that one of the party (researchers, PR, ....) has oversold the potential product in the first place. Another part of the story is that in the process of maturing, or increasing their technology readiness levels (TRL) some technologies just don't make it because they do not find a niche market to evolve in and grow.

qeorge · on Oct 16, 2009

Not as high-tech, but that Power Mat [1] device seems like a good example. I remember reading about it a few years ago, and just saw the first commercials for it this week.

Its a good premise for a blog, and would have plenty of topics. Like all blogs, it would depend on whether you stuck with it long enough to get in the groove.

[1] http://www.powermat.com/

stcredzero · on Oct 16, 2009

That super capacitor mentioned a few years ago (estor?)

Someone periodically comes up with a new longer lived/more potent battery or a very compact capacitor. The problem is not making such devices. The problem is making them safe and cheap to manufacture.

smokinn · on Oct 16, 2009

Here's another suggestion: wireless electricity. There's the new Sony wireless tv but it's an idea that should've picked up way more than it has, especially for stuff like cell phones.

rman666 · on Oct 16, 2009

Flying cars; medical tricorders; food replicators; space vacations; gravity boots; anti-gravity boots; Rosie the robot; basically, anything from Star Trek or the Jetsons.

stcredzero · on Oct 16, 2009

Flying cars -- this deserves it's own blog. Or perhaps blog/ghetto would be a better way to put it. Or maybe just a single Snopes-like blog entry that people could permalink to whenever this comes up.