Things you'd like inventing that haven't been invented yet

[oldwheels]

You can drink an infinite amount of alcohol, and only need two pints.

I used to have whisky bottles which refilled themselves. Some pubs have them but I worked in a distillery so plenty refills.

 

[Domus]

Climate control clothing, keeps your body temperature just right.

 

[Oldhippy]

Now that invention is probably not too far away Domus.

 

[postman]

Something that cleans the house without moaning.

 

[T4tomo]

You can drink an infinite amount of alcohol, and only need two pints.

No, that's a infinite number of drinks, but a finite amount of alcohol - two pints, hence the punchline.

 

[Notafettler]

A bag like they have in Harry Potter that never gets full and is small enough to carry around. I could stuff all of Mr WD's rubbish into it.

A tardis?

 

[Notafettler]

Something that cleans the house without moaning.

I think you have to pay for non moaning house cleaner

 

[Notafettler]

Warp drive.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reaction_Engines_Limited
https://www.reactionengines.co.uk/

 

[Notafettler]

An end to death?
I want my black forest gateau/gateaux and eat it too.

 

[Bazzer]

Something akin to headphones, whereby instead of dictating or typing, reports, letters etc., could be quickly converted to text from simply constructing the sentences in my brain and if necessary move them around, without the need to speak them.

 

[Once a Wheeler]

An accelerator-driven sub-critical nuclear power plant for ship propulsion and national grid top-up power when renewables are inactive.

• The efficacy of sub-critical nuclear power has already been demonstrated.
• Sub-critical power units can use the existing stockpile of nuclear waste as fuel, rendering it far less toxic in the process.
• Accelerator-driven sub-critical power can be turned on and switched off at will making Chernobyl- and Fukushima-type incidents inconceivable.
• There is no practical route to nuclear weapons from sub-critical power production.
• Merchant shipping is a major source of CO₂ and particulate pollution, both of which are eradicated by this power source.
• The failure of governments to complete the development and invention of this power source implies an underlying desire to retain nuclear weapons capacity at the expense of safer nuclear power.

More detail here: https://www.world-nuclear.org/infor...ration/accelerator-driven-nuclear-energy.aspx

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

An accelerator-driven sub-critical nuclear power plant for ship propulsion and national grid top-up power when renewables are inactive.

• The efficacy of sub-critical nuclear power has already been demonstrated.
• Sub-critical power units can use the existing stockpile of nuclear waste as fuel, rendering it far less toxic in the process.
• Accelerator-driven sub-critical power can be turned on and switched off at will making Chernobyl- and Fukushima-type incidents inconceivable.
• There is no practical route to nuclear weapons from sub-critical power production.
• Merchant shipping is a major source of CO₂ and particulate pollution, both of which are eradicated by this power source.
• The failure of governments to complete the development and invention of this power source implies an underlying desire to retain nuclear weapons capacity at the expense of safer nuclear power.

More detail here: https://www.world-nuclear.org/infor...ration/accelerator-driven-nuclear-energy.aspx

Haven't read the linky but what of dirty bombs made up from the nuclear waste. A terrorist's or blackmailer's dream?

 

[LCpl Boiled Egg]

Something akin to headphones, whereby instead of dictating or typing, reports, letters etc., could be quickly converted to text from simply constructing the sentences in my brain and if necessary move them around, without the need to speak them.

That's probably closer than you think, no pun intended. Facebook have probably got a patent on it already.

Edit: Bloody hell, I was only joking.

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-...ain-machine-interface-neuralink-a9028801.html

 

[TheDoctor]

I'd like :-
Geography and/or geometry that puts all hills into the correct (downwards) direction.
A means to invest in the stock market a year ago, based on what I know today. See also National Lottery.
Inoculations against weight gain.
The ability to switch gender at will. This might be a surprise for my partner...
Transporters, replicators and Star Trek tech in general.
A retrospective cure for cancer so I can see my Dad again. This would also require a cure for cremation, so a little bit tricky.

 

[Once a Wheeler]

Haven't read the linky but what of dirty bombs made up from the nuclear waste. A terrorist's or blackmailer's dream?

This is indeed a danger but if you put yourself in the terrorists' shoes the waste from sub-critical plants is not really dirty enough for your purposes. The danger here would be from a sub-critical plant which was using waste from a critical plant as fuel, having its fuel stolen. After use, the fuel would be even more degraded and less interesting to terrorists. The spent fuel danger for dirty bombs is principally a problem for existing critical plants. A greater danger than terrorists is probably rogue states trying to re-engineer sub-critical fuels into uranium compounds. Discussion of this danger here: https://www.nature.com/articles/492031a
However, it is almost certainly far easier for a rogue state to go down the Iranian-style conventional nuclear pathway than to be reliant on sub-critical fuels as a weapons input source.

Of course, using existing nuclear waste as a fuel should, over time, become obsolete. When sub-critical nuclear becomes the norm it would be hoped that all the waste would be reprocessed and current critical stations would not be renewed at the end of their lives. The spent sub-critical fuel would still be radio-active and need protected storage but it would be many magnitudes less dangerous than current nuclear waste.

Other than existing waste, the main candidate for fuel in sub-critical plants is thorium. This is a naturally occurring mineral with deposits in many parts of the world. There is probably enough thorium in Scotland and Wales to provide all the UK's needs. Having said that, thorium is currently produced as a by-product of mining for other minerals in several parts of the world, so there may well be supplies, even ready stocks, available more cheaply on the world market. The UK's most probable supplier is likely to be Scandinavia. Unused thorium fuel would be useless as a component of dirty bombs.

More about thorium here: https://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/current-and-future-generation/thorium.aspx

Keep informed. In a world serious about tackling climate change, sub-critical nuclear is bound to play a role.