Sci-Fi Tech We Could Have Right Now (For a Price)

PlainBlack writes "Possibility isn't limited by technology. And it's certainly not limited by human imagination. What makes something impossible is the lack of cold, hard, cash. Wired blog takes a look at 10 science fiction technologies we could build, if they weren't so expensive. 'New York-L.A. Maglev Express - Cost: $70bn (Based on established construction costs). At $70bn, it's tantalizingly affordable by the standards of this roundup: a train that could beat airliners from one side of the country to the other. Many agree that Maglev has enormous potential. Bite-sized examples are in operation all over the world. Birmingham, England, had the first in the 1980s, though the promise of airliner-like speeds on land is still unrealized. The British system sped along at a pathetic 26MPH and was designed to get air travelers to the planes, not to outrun them.'"

Comments

I would pay good money

[Anonymous Coward]

for a sci-fi device which installed in Richard Stallman a sense of shame.

OMG my eyes, teh goggles do NOTHING!!

More to it that speed

[taustin]

a train that could beat airliners from one side of the country to the other

You'd still have to arrive at the train station three hours early and take your shoes off for the TSA goons.

Where's the Death Star?

[angryfirelord]

Only $1.2 billion for a space hotel? Heck, Microsoft should take that $44.6 billion and invest it into a Death Star! I'm sure Ballmer would like his new Vader costume. :)

Re:Where's the Death Star?

[Sponge Bath]

... Ballmer would like his new Vader costume

Now witness the firepower of this fully ARMED and OPERATIONAL orbital chair launcher!

Re:Clarke's data cube!

[kevintron]

No mention of Arthur C. Clarke's data cube, as posited in 3001! Imagine the entirety of a person's biological makeup, memories, and experiences over a lifetime, all captured in a portable storage device.

Perhaps with little pink hearts printed on each face of the cube?