what is “futuristic” in this context?
A calculator is pretty futuristic depending on where you start
I was thinking of something that would be considered futuristic to an average person today. So, maybe something uncommon, with impressive capabilities, but still affordable?
Not sure if many items fit that criteria, but was curious if any!
A basic DNA test can tell you your ancestry back thousands of years and identify numerous genetically determined traits. It’s kinda crazy what kinds of things they can tell you about yourself.
And if you send in your dna three times, you can find all three if your ancestries! Really tho, there was some funny news on this a while back when identical twins took those tests and got different results
Bluetooth headphones/headset/earpiece. You too can look like Uhura from Star Trek by sticking a wireless speaker in your ear!
She is hearing always in mono. Maybe she lost one of them?
A knife. Futuristic in that it will be handy for hunting and self-defense after the future collapse of civilization that results from our insatiable appetite for consumption - of, among other things, useless gadgets.
I once found a curved 4k monitor at my local thrift shop for $70.
While “good for you” and “congrats”, it’s not something anyone can buy for under 100 bucks.
That specific monitor? No. But I often see things second-hand that are under $100 and could be considered “futuristic tech”.
If you know where to look and are patient there are good deals to be had.
Still this thing, 20 years on:
3 sea shells.
you can get several smart outlets around your home for that, have fans and lamps and humidifers etc all remote controlled even with your voice.
£76.77
The pound isn’t the future since Brexit.
You can buy a cheap smartwatch that will monitor your pulse, give you a pulse oximeter reading, handle text messages and phone calls, take photos, and also within a reasonable margin of error check your blood sugar for about $35 on AliExpress.
And ping all that data to CCP instead of our corporate overlords? No thanks
And if you read the manual of even the latest fancy pancy samsung or apple ones, you’ll find that it’s health monitor is nothing more than a gimmick
What do you mean with that? Depending on the recency of your device they can be quite accurate. I use a Garmin though because they last longer on battery and are a bit more oriented towards sports and health. Some studies I found back then suggested Garmin is not that far off lab testing on most metrics. Yes even the guestimated ones like vo2max.
A 1-terabyte MicroSD card
For under 100$ ?
Yeah, as low as $61 on Amazon for 1TB. Pretty amazing if you’re old like me and remember diskettes.
Those can’t be real
Most of the ones on Amazon aren’t trustworthy. Especially at high capacities. But apparently you can get up to 2TB now, at least in theory. I imagine the support for them is pretty limited though still.
In the uk I can get 1TB for 95gbp from sandisk website.
So probably less than 100 usd in usa from a reputable seller.
They’re sold as 1TB for that price. But if you actually write that much, you’ll find that only part of your data is there. The rest is garbled or zero.
There’s tools to restore this (on windows/linux), and it’ll show up as a smaller size when you run them. You can also use such tools to set any fake size you like
I bought a large capacity unknown brand cheap SD card somewhat recently, it seemed real at first but after installing an OS on it and running a few minutes became bricked somehow. At least I got a refund.
Devices less sophisticated than smart phones were once pretty common in sci-fi novel, but they still achieved the same sort of thing, all the world’s knowledge in the palm of your hand.
You can get smartphones for absurdly cheap these days, and while crappy by modern standards they’re still technological marvels.
A Voxellab Aquilla FDM printer. They’re regularly on sale for about $70. Maybe cheaper these days since they’re kind old now.
Probably a cheap 3D printer
I’m actually blown away by how good of a 3D Printer you can get for ~$200 now. Huge improvement from just a few years ago.
I got an ender 3 pro for about $100 a couple years ago
I started off on an Ender 3 V2 a few years back. The AnkerMake M5C and Bambu A1 Mini are both down to $199 and can’t believe how much faster / more reliable they are for the price.
this entirely. It’s awesome and frustrating haha. My Neptune 3 from 2022, that I’ve poured hundreds of dollars and hours into, is completely outclassed by an out-of-the-box printer of the same or lower price today.
I’m really happy that it’s getting so approachable now, I hope that I can get my grandfather his own printer during his time. I love that you don’t need to be an engineer anymore to get the things to work.
A bow drill fire starter.
…I suppose it depends on what you assume the future will be like…
Barring that, you can get some small vials of tritium gas for under that price.
What would one do with small vials of tritium gas?
Not much really. Looks cool though. I suppose it’s more of a decoration than “tech.” About the only practical application of it is a tool to terrify the uneducated. The quantities of tritium the average person can buy are beyond harmless. You could breathe a hundred vials of the stuff and be completely unaffected. If you drank nothing but tritium water for several weeks, you would have some issues. But tiny vials with micrograms of tritium vapor inside? Utterly harmless.
Or, I suppose for the criminally minded, you could find some evil uses for it. You could probably rob a bank with it. “Give me all the money or I break this vial of radioactive vapor!” That would probably get you a wikipedia page, if you’re just dying for your 5 minutes of fame. You could go down in history as, “that mad scientist that robbed a bank using radioactive gas.” Of course it would be a bluff.
Though if you’re just going to bluff your way through bank robbery, you can just stick your hand in a hoodie pocket for the same effect.
I suppose you could use it for other similar criminal acts of varied nobility. You could probably use the same bluff to create a hostage situation to bring awareness to whatever political/religious cause is your cup of tea. Ultimately most people are very ignorant of nuclear science, and simply the words “radioactive tritium” would cause people to shit themselves. And that fear could be harnessed for all sorts of malevolent purposes. (Even better as you can actually show people the faint glow from it, and prove that you do have something radioactive.)
Hmm… what else could you use tritium for? I suppose you could use it for religious purposes. Absolute quantities really don’t matter much for that.
What else? You could tie it to a keychain and be able to find your keys in a dark room.
But really, it’s mostly a novelty. I think small amounts of it can be used for gun sights. But in any quantity the average person could afford or legally be allowed to purchase, it’s a harmless novelty. Larger quantities can be used in fusion reactor experiments and nuclear weapons. But if you try to acquire that much, you better have a budget in the millions, and the NRC is going to be on your ass. The average person can get a small vial of it that faintly glows blue in a dark room. It looks cool embedded in jewelry, but it really doesn’t have much practical purposes beyond perhaps terrifying the ignorant. But I really don’t consider malevolent uses to be truly practical applications.
(In case it isn’t obvious, I do not endorse using radioactive tritium in the commission of any crime or act of violence or threat of violence.)
Lmao I love that this became a thought exercise on the nefarious uses of tritium. Thanks for the info! I’ll keep all of these in mind when trying to determine what to do with my newly acquired tritium. >=)
^^^ Umm, FBI, if you’re reading, it was all their idea! ^^^^
°_°
How many vials of tritium do I need until my bluff in the bank lobby is no longer an empty threat?
Umm, contact (202) 324-3000 and ask them. They’ll know for sure.
I have a little tritium vial on my keys because I am a clumsy oaf with ADHD and the little greeny glow has been useful a couple of times. It’s great when I’m out at night and my keys yeet themselves out of my pocket and land in the darkest possible area.
I mostly got it because it’s cool though. Radioluminescence is fukken rad!
