[pilotbob]

So, what sci-fi technologies do you thing are impossible or possible?

Here are some of my thoughts.

Impossible
Transporters - basically to work it would have to kill you.

FTL Travel - while I think we will learn ways to travel faster I think light speed or even above is a fantasy.

Sentient Computers - yes computers will get much more powerful and programming will improve. But, skynet or M5 just can't happen. I am very happy a recent Numbers episode kept this reality firmly in place.

Possible
Space Colonies - I think this will happen... probably not in my life time. But, we are talking about withing our system. Perhaps on the moon or mars. Perhaps even a space station type structure.

Alien life - while I think it is highly possible that there are "alien" life forms. I don't think we will ever meet them. The vastness of space and the distances between start systems with the lack of "warp speed" pretty much seals this.

Voice Computer Interfaces - while I don't think we will see a positorinc brain or skynet (see above) I do think PCs will have the power and programming to do some hueristic work. It will be able to perform tasks that you need it to. It will be able to adjust to your patterns. As a matter of fact, I recently heard a story about a company working on a GPS that did some of this. It monitored your patterns and help route you around traffic. It could know if you were bringing Billy to school today or just going strait to work. We alread see the beginning of "agents". For example, rather than just having to skim over hundreds of RSS articles your "news agent" will learn what stories you like or might be interested. It will summarize it. It will also be able to find events that tie in with your likes and dislikes. Of course this is a much more sophisticated task than we have now with "targeted" advertising.

Space Elevator - yes, with enough Time and Money you [google] can do anything.

BOb