Some nice technology to help show the human race isn't all shit

[Incredible Monkey Doctor]

I present to you TV in your eyes (well, potentially) and growing new teeth when your knackered gnashers fall out.

There, don't you feel better? It's like the future, except i'm in it.

[Jet Set Willy]

growing new teeth when your knackered gnashers fall out.

If they can do that for teeth surely they can do it for all other organs and we need never grow old! What's to say that the fabulously rich and powerful new world order aren't already doing this?! *wink*

Love your location IMD!

[Pinball]

I need a bigger penis. Can these chaps stem cell it for me? Ethically, I might feel bad for depriving a foetus of its prick, but it 's not like its gonna get born or anythang ;-o

[Bogey]

growing new teeth

I can't tell you how thrilled I was to hear about this; One of the last items on London's local news. Go, and if you will, figure.

[Incredible Monkey Doctor]

If they can do that for teeth surely they can do it for all other organs and we need never grow old! What's to say that the fabulously rich and powerful new world order aren't already doing this?! *wink*

You need to talk to Pinball about that sort of thing. ;)

Love your location IMD!

Good to see you haven't forgotten your past...

[weirdbeard]

I can't tell you how thrilled I was to hear about this; One of the last items on London's local news. Go, and if you will, figure.

I saw a report on this on Sky News the other day.  There was this fantastic bit where it showed a full-screen size CGI display of a mouth from the inside, which was showing how it all works.  Then the mouth opened to show the reporter doing the rest of her link.  I hadn't worked out to make frame-grabs at the time though, so I missed out capturing it, which I'm ever so slightly gutted about.

[Rev]

Bloody hell, the 'tooth buds' thing is actually happening.  Exactly ten years ago (alright, not to the day, but it was '94), a friend who knows about such things mentioned that this procedure was in the late stages of development and would soon be 'going public'.  Enough time had passed for me to conclude that he was, uncharacteristically, talking bollocks.  Now this.  It'll cost a bloody fortune though, won't it?

[weirdbeard]

Bloody hell, the 'tooth buds' thing is actually happening.  Exactly ten years ago (alright, not to the day, but it was '94), a friend who knows about such things mentioned that this procedure was in the late stages of development and would soon be 'going public'.  Enough time had passed for me to conclude that he was, uncharacteristically, talking bollocks.  Now this.  It'll cost a bloody fortune though, won't it?

Around £2000 it said on the news.

And how 'soon' is ten years.  I think he must have come out with an half-realistic theory and got lucky.

Speaking of which, I'm going down to Ladbrokes to put a fiver on finger nails to be replaced by computer chips in the next 20 years.

[Rev]

Two grand a tooth, or is that for a whole mouthful?  If it's the latter, then it's a bargain...  and we should expect clinics to be firebombed by individuals with known connections to Colgate.

As for the early report from 'some guy I know', the use of the term 'tooth buds' was what really pricked up my ears...  he referred to them by the same name, y'see.  I suppose development can stall in such a way.  A one-shot cure for cancer may exist, but it might only be in the second year of a five-year test period, etc.

[neuteredcats]

That's right - the grow your new teeth thingummy is going to cost around £2000 per tooth!!!! Basically the same as you would pay for the false titanium plugs that they now put in.

It takes around 3 months from the operation to 'regrow' a fully functioning healthy new tooth and the benefits over a plug or falsies are that the tooth will embed better in the gum and it will also lead to a healthier blood supply to the gum.

I should imagine the cost is taken up by the people who invented it cashing in, the fact it is a surgical procedure will up the price, and rip off dental merchants will charge an arm and a leg too. With the average number of teeth lost per mouth in the 50+ age bracket being around 12, you can see how lucrative this will be.

Hmmm, free treatment on the NHS????

As for the lasers beaming images directly onto the eye....there are those of us who suspect that already happened. That is, if you subscribe to the 'Universe is a Simulation' theory that has been doing the rounds amongst scientists of late.

[neuteredcats]

Some more predictions for the future in this article;

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3691711.stm

If engineers get their way the coming decades will see the completion of tunnels linking continents, offshore airports and the longest bridges the world has ever seen. There is even talk of a space elevator - which will carry people from Earth to the stars without the need for cumbersome spaceships.

Spain and Morocco have agreed a programme of engineering tests for a rail tunnel under the Strait of Gibraltar. A decision on whether to go ahead is expected in four years.


Mike Chrimes, of the Institution of Civil Engineers, says there is also talk of a tunnel linking mainland Britain and Ireland. He says it would be on the sea bed, rather than underground, in a bid to save money.

And then there are bridges. The one mile (1.6km) long Stonecutters Bridge, which is being built in Hong Kong over the next four years, is set to become the longest single-span, cable-stayed bridge

A two mile (3.7km) bridge spanning the Strait of Messina between Sicily and Calabria in southern Italy has also been proposed, but questions still remain over where the £3bn funding is going to come from.

If completed, it would be the longest suspension bridge in the world.

Talks have also been going on to link Sri Lanka and India across the Palk Strait by a bridge, replicating an ancient 19 mile (30km) land crossing which may or may not have been built by humans, but which is still visible from space.

Civil engineers are also keen to see the completion of a 16,000 mile (25,800km) pan-American super highway, linking Alaska to the tip of South America.

Much of the road is already in place but gaps remain in areas in Colombia and through the Andes.
While these projects may be ambitious, they pale into insignificance when compared to the Nasa's plans for a space elevator.

A 25,000 mile (40,000km) cable would be tethered between a base station - probably in the ocean - and an orbiting satellite, which stays at the same point above the earth as it rotates on its axis.

Satellites, payloads and people would be able to move up and down the cable cheaply and quickly.

"It has the potential to provide mass transportation to space in the same way highways, railroads, power lines, and pipelines provide mass transportation across the Earth's surface," says Nasa.

It is spending several millions of dollars researching the idea and while it admits the idea is still far from being a reality, it believes the system could be in place in the second half of the 21st Century.

Unfortunately the fastest lift currently available would take over four months to reach its destination.

Perhaps that's something engineers could set their minds to in the meantime.

[fanny splendid]

Some more predictions for the future in this article;

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3691711.stm

If engineers get their way the coming decades will see ...offshore airports ...

Osaka has one already.

Edit: see?


(click on picture)

[Jet Set Willy]

The airport in San Francisco is pretty scary, the runways being jut out into the sea, like. You are looking out of the window, knowing that you are near the front of the aeroplane, as the sea gradually rises up towards you, until it is seemingly just centimetres from the bottom of the plane. Before you even realise that the sea has turned into concrete you feel the familiar bump and grind of the aeroplane uniting with the ground.

It fucks you up, I can tell you.