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Comment by edward | Hacker News Reader

I like this one: “The appliances of 2014 will have no electric cords, of course, for they will be powered by long- lived batteries running on radioisotopes.”

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I found that one particularly interesting, as That was a core theme of his "Foundation" novels. Those who were able to gadgetize nuclear energy were at a distinct advantage over others.

Not RTG-based, but still a seriously proposed concept https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Nucleon

Wouldn't be surprised if something like that is coming soon. Maybe not radioisotopes exactly, but something. Battery technology has been one of the major bottlenecks in advancing electronics, mobile computing, and transportation. It's an area ripe for change, and the economic pressure/incentive is definitely there.

I look around me and see that everything to which a power cord is attached has evolved enormously since his prediction or didn't exist at all. Yet the cord remains as it was a couple centuries ago.

This has always amazed me and as I look at the incredible rats nest of them around me I do hope for a breakthrough.

A lot of things haven't changed at all. Televisions (apart from the screen itself), most kitchen and household appliances, all almost exactly as they were 50 years ago.

You must live in a museum. :-)

Maybe your oven has a touchscreen and apps on it but it basically still heats your food by converting electricity to heat.

And people do seem to love to contradict and argue.

Nope, mine uses electricity to radiate microwaves.

Which are by dielectric heating converted to heat...

Well, sure, if you want to heat something, you must create heat. That's a tautology. But it's not true that the appliance is almost exactly as it was, it just has the same goal.

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