Ask HN: what would you like to see occur in the next 18 months? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: what would you like to see occur in the next 18 months?

23 pointsadrianwaj51 comments

This question is about where you'd like to see changes occur in the next 18 months as relating to any aspect of the economy or society including in tech and finance, local or global.

A guy like Bob: http://www.youtube.com/user/drinkingwithbob has his own ideas of what he thinks should happen based on problems he identifies.

So what's bothering you? Where, what and how should and could things improve? There are some things that would be almost impossible, and they're best left out.

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The end of software patents in the US.

I'm surprised this isn't being upvoted more, from a tech Entrepreneur perspective that is the biggest thing to help small businesses not get screwed.

Ungh I so hate the patent system.

I want to see Google get its act together and offer a unified open hardware and software alternative to both Apple and Facebook. On the hardware front I want a tablet device running Android that actually looks good and is a pleasure to use (and comes with a 3G connection). On the software end, I want to see them pull together Wave, Buzz and Gmail into an online communication tool that can let me easily pull together all my online correspondence (and keep it private).

The Notion Ink ADAM is on the way. It looks like the best competitor to the iPad, and it runs Android.

so you'd rather have ALL your data AND hardware on Google's hands for the sake of 'openness' instead of having parts of it on other companies' hands (Facebook and Apple)?

1. Reduce the paragraphs of fine print. Poorly-edited text is a waste of time to read. It is deceptive: you either don't understand it, or don't remember everything; and when it's changed, you're never shown a nice "diff". If you need a lawyer to figure it out, you spend money. Many documents can be written as a few bullets of basic English, so they should be.

2. Allow actual threat levels to dictate the allocation of resources. A big one: driving. Statistically, car accidents hurt many more people than the other things that make the news, and yet there's no uproar over clueless drivers and badly-designed intersections. A relatively small investment over 18 months could definitely improve this.

3. Start reviewing the people put in prison for minor offenses, and review the "sex offender" registries. Why are people in jail for years on charges like drug possession, people who didn't hurt anyone but themselves? Why are 17-year-olds who slept with their girlfriends on the same list as offenders who are actually dangerous? In 18 months, a whole lot of people could have their humanity returned to them.

I would like to see Pirate Parties win elections and form governments everywhere in the developed world that holds elections in the next 18 months. They will then proceed to scrap bad laws as software patents, restrictions on circumventing DRM, etc.

Just some personal dreams for the tech world: Apple buys Adobe, Yahoo! buys Twitter, the "next" Facebook launches and grows quickly, Facebook suffers some sort of severe problem/user flight, Google stops messing around with tacking extra contextual trash on to its search results and actually finds a way to get rid of most of the crap riddling their index, the Founders Visa is radically improved upon and passed, Reddit becomes significantly more popular, memristor technologies proven on realistic scales, I reach 10000 karma on HN, err... :-)

I'd like to see +$10,000/mo net without having to take a real job again

In 18 months? Tough but doable, if you are willing to set aside everything else, including a relationship if you have one.

It's all about choices with stuff like that. Personally I would not make that choice.

Pretty much everything else has been put aside for about 6 months now, unfortunately. If I had a consistent net of like 2K from just my software I'd be pretty excited, actually. I pretty well expect there will be another contract before that happens, though.

Political reform in the UK.

More scientists and engineers choosing to work in science and engineering instead of finance and consultancy.

I've got a lot of problems with news (world news, sci/tech, political, etc) and how I get to it. It's hard to stay current with news. Articles are full of fluff, information is spread across many different sources, and getting updates on stories is tough.

The other thing on my mind lately is another content related problem. I feel like more of my web searches are leading towards MFA sites with sub-par content and irrelevant ads plastered everywhere.

What I'd like to see happen is a relaxation in the laws for private investing. I didn't know, but those with a net worth of $1-2.5 million had been burned in scams, so accredited investor status may or will be raised in terms of net worth. I think the law should be changed so that at least 1 investor has to be accredited at the new level, but the rest do not. Or, one's required worth is contingent on what one actually plans to invest.

- IE9 adopting HTML5, including Canvas

- Chrome with NativeClient ready

- NPAPI released so NativeClient can integrate with browsers

- Serious consideration of NativeClient as a standard

- Start replacement of plugins and browsers with NaCl modules of functionality

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- A theory of more things in physics

- LHC finding something

- A theory of more things in brains, social systems

Do many thinkers on the level of Albert Einstein, Bertrand Russell or Leonardo Davinci exist today, but are just not as widely celebrated? Is the advancement of scientific knowledge held back by a lack of such individuals, or do teams of researchers with technology make it less important?

It's probably the media that changed the way it covers things. Einstein became a celebrity because his theories challenged that of another famous name, Newton. Famous scientists almost didn't exist, so Einstein's celebrity was a noticeable exception.

Leonardo was not a big celebrity in his day, he was known in the art world, like the programmer who made Java is known in the CS world.

I wasn't familiar with nativeclient before http://code.google.com/p/nativeclient/

Looks interesting.

Recognition of the potentially enormous value of anti-aging research.

A better accelerator/incubator/social network for entrepreneurs.

Nothing against YC or PG, but both are focused on a particular niche of the market, and a particular strategy, and there's room for someone else in the game for sure.

e.g., something with a mentoring system; something with well-defined series of steps that can help introduce individuals with different kinds of businesses to people that might be interested in partnering or investing in them; something with occasional regional social gatherings; something that reliably connects freelancers to the businesspeople that need them; etc.

(There are many other things I'd like to see, some more than this, but this seems like the only thing that might have a chance of coming to fruition by mentioning it here.)

A democratically elected government in Egypt and a clean departure of the Mubarak regime. I am not Egyptian, but the example of peaceful transfer of power, from dictator to the people will serve as an excellent role model for the region.

After that, maybe by 100 years, a one-nation state in the Holly Lands; where Palestinians are acknowledged as rightful natives of the land and taken into the fold of the Israeli state as equal partners.

I can see the first, but the second is not going to happen in a 1000 years, forget about 100.

It will take many generations before there is going to be some objectivity in that dispute.

The end of oil might achieve it, as would a collapse of the US.

- More people reading books.

- Less wishful thinking. Actually, no wishful thinking at all.

- New flashmobs and fun projects.

- Some consensus on the Linux community and actually fixing and improving things (sorry if someone is offended, but that's my point of view so far).

- No more "this service is blocked in your country".

That's quite broad, but I think covers everything I could expect to see in such a time frame.

Less people thinking the dark ubuntu theme is nice.

Less wishful thinking. Actually, no wishful thinking at all.

Recursive irony?

Yep. I would say it was in purpose, but it would be wishful thinking again expecting people to believe.

In America: regarding politics a focus on actual issues and problems rather than sensationalism especially in news outlets such as things like the new "tea party" and socialism... but that isn't going to happen in the next 18 months sadly.

Tech: widespread broadband to more rural areas for reasonable costs

Economy: steady improvement, continuing incentives for housing are always nice.

Most of the things I really want to see happen in the next 18 months are things I'm already working toward, and either involve my personal life, or, are startup ideas that I don't feel like sharing in a public venue quite yet.

What I'd like to see happen in the next 3-5 years or so:

* switch to a more merit-weighted voting system in the US. (Examples: Dr. Smith's vote in a Presidential election should weigh more than Billy Bob. An astronaut more than an ex-con. Higher tested IQ's more than those with lower.)

* switch to a single-payer health system in the US

* complete withdrawal of US military forces from Iraq and Afghanistan; then massively reduce overseas deployment and positioning of US forces, then cut US military budget in 1/2 (to start)

* some serious steps taken by the US government to truly start reducing the deficit and pay off the debt (with serious consequences to those in power if they do not stick with it, such as leaders/politicians going to jail if they do not)

Yikes. I think introducing 'merit' based voting is a terrifying idea. People with high IQs still can make stupid votes. How about trying to educate people on what the issues are, and how their votes would change those issues.

I read this today: "Peace between Israel and the Palestinians is not possible because Islam won't permit it and militates against it."

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2010/05/the_crux_of_isla...

People everywhere just can't and won't swallow it.

To be fair, there are also a lot of fanatics who believe that Israel was given to them by God, My wish for the next 18 months is a movement for removing religion from politics.

Swallow that pill.

Jewish fanatics, if that's what you want to call them, have nothing to do with ultimate Muslim hostility toward Jews, no matter whether they be of the fanatic (your term) or secular variety, especially in Israel or elsewhere. Why is this so hard to grasp?

Some actual results from stem cell research.

I'd like to see Google offer a VoIP solution based on the Gizmo5 acquisition, integrated with Google Voice (on Android at least). I'm pretty sure it's coming within 6 months though.

Wall Street to stop being a bunch of jerks.

With Extrapolation my monthly net income from the Internet will go past the yearly income of my father.

My stocks going up.

The use of technology to take people with radically different opinions and worldviews and create and mold a conversation where both parties feel emotionally rewarded for participating and that it was time well-spent. This could be for any topic -- the business model works best for things like corporate policy-making, but it would kick ass in things like local politics and getting consensus in charity organizations too.

I think you could mean Chatroulette, but without the roulette part, coupled with a voting or survey system.

Also, it would be interesting to have sequenced conversations - where AI could be used to string a sequence of conversations together to yield more informed or more challenged viewpoints, based on the results of surveys performed during the conversation flow. Users can see in advance the viewpoints they are about to confront. Some conversations will be locked to say 2 minutes, others the time is optional.

Some sane form of electronic medical records. The foolishness I've witnessed this last year has been enough to warrant a mandated return to paper charts and clipboards. Until a reliable electronic format can be transferred within and between institutions anyone admitted is at risk.

Indeed: my records at the now dissolved practice of my former GP are inaccessible "because they're electronic" (and they were) or so I was told by a front office worker. I'm sure all of us can figure out the various possibilities that lead to an apparent total data loss.

Nothing important for me was lost but I'm sure many weren't as fortunate.

However, for better or worse, the stimulus package mandated a move to electronic records.

Your records, by law, have a paper copy in a medical records warehouse. Accessing them on short notice is the problem.

According to what law? There should be no reason a doctor with a new practice should need to keep paper copies of their charts. Remote backup copies yes, though I don't know the rule here, but not necessarily paper copies.

Obama's requirement for EMR's is mostly an attempt to save money. Paper records are very expensive, but he can't change the law until the question of reliability is addressed sufficiently, so in the meantime vast warehouses of paper records continue to drain resources. IANAL but I'm sure you can find the law, if you wish to.

HL7 3.0 is a step in the right direction, and hopefully we'll see more modular EMR systems with the new mandates for 'meaningful use.'

My cofounder and I are currently working on a start-up in this area, so I'm curious to what 'foolishness' you've seen.

Foolishness is a harsh word, but when loved ones are involved it tends to get emotional. Some of the problems I've seen are:

1) Tests, often uncomfortable, which were already done, only stopped because I informed the staff that they had been run only hours earlier.

2) Medicines which had been marked as not to be administered due to adverse reactions, readministered due to lack of documentation or notification.

3) Physical disks containing MRI data transferred personally, but utterly useless because of format problems

Did they pull back some of the needless complexity later? I only remember shuddering in 2003 or so when I first saw the drafts, and this was after working on v2!

I work in that field as a programmer. From where I'm sitting, I don't see it happening any time soon. This whole field is too much of a mess and it's filled with incompetent people. It's too much of a dinosaur to change though; in my personal opinion.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. The more I work in the healthcare sector, the more I realize that I don't want to work in the healthcare sector.

Bezos invested in http://www.qliance.com/ and they might have simplified much of the required forms customarily requested.

Some improvement in the education system (at least in my university :) )

Things That can happen:

1)New course based on (and with help with) industrial requirements.

2)Implementation of a more research based curriculum.

3)Option to submit a undergraduate dissertation to obtain a B.Tech (Hons.)

Things that should happen:

1)Implementation of choice based credit system.

2)More option of research on campus.

3)Establishment of a HackerSpace.

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