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I think when technologists attempt to predict the future based on current/existing technologies, they're making a mistake in some ways.  For instance, trying to look at the next steps of social networking (for instance, geolocation applications like Foursquare).  Certainly, doing these deltas when you see the opportunity is good in a way because it's easy.  However, as I've mentioned before, I think that people need to aim at higher goals rather than just doing incremental changes.

My method of getting ideas is extremely simple and I've stated it in previous blog posts.  Here is the steps in a nutshell:

1. Find something that inconveniences you.
2. Determine if that inconvenience can be solved through an existing service or product (whether you pay or not)
3. If the service or product does not exist, figure out if you can automate it.
4. If you can automate it and you see a pattern that other people experience similar misfortunes, that in itself is a great product idea or potential.

There's nothing complicated about my theory of generating products.  It's simply common sense, doing a little research and being selfish for yourself and the good of others.

With that in mind, I want to turn to some areas that have greatly inconvenienced myself and probably millions of others and want to share them with would-be inventors or thinkers that can come up with a solution.

Long Distance Travel

The airlines system is messed up.  It never was great to begin with, but after 9-11, the system just has been going downhill faster than the WTC (bad joke, but let's be honest and put things into context).  I doubt the system is going to eventually "go back to the way it was" in terms of security, but soemthing has to be done to improve the situation.  Here are the primary issues that I see, which need to be addressed:

• Security - Security has compromised convenienced and has made traveling completely bureaucratic rather than business driven.  Unfortunately, the government (TSA, etc.) has stepped in, but has done nothing to truly address the concerns of travelers in terms of making their lives easier.  However, the major issue in security is that people are riding in a potential giant bomb.  Whether or not, a terrorist is involved is irrelevant because you can still have faulty parts or something that causes a plane to go down.  The next generation of aircraft needs to handle these situations.  I think scanners at airports are a waste of time and that true security will be creating a flight system that cannot be used as a military device.
  
• Capacity - Since many airlines have been experiencing heavy financial problems, you often times see flights cramming people onboard.  Also, you have issues like luggage, where people are limited to how much and what they can bring back.  Obviously, airlines want to maximize the number of people they can stuff on a flight.  However, you sacrifice comfort as a result.
  
• Distance - Ideally, in my view, I would prefer having a more privatized mode of transportation if flying long distance.  But economically, this is just not feasible for everyone.  Everyone has dreamed of flying cars, but the ones coming into existence are too limited for traveling farther than a few hundred miles.  Ideally, a new vehicle (in my book) should have enough capacity to go around the world.
  
• Fuel - Because we're so depend on gas, we're pretty much grounded (pun intended).  Instead, we need an alternative energy source to satisfy the condition above.  However, something like nuclear power is problematic because of security reasons.  The fuel source needs to be renewable as well.  Or perhaps the fuel source can be a hybrid.  But it should not be volatile enough such that the vehicle again becomes a bomb.
• Speed - You simply lose too much time on planes.  At this stage, I would prefer going on a cruise ship rather than flying with all the hassle, but you still are losing time there as well.  So whatever mechanism comes into existence, it needs to be fast.
• Freedom - In my view, the ideal vehicle driving experience should be akin to going from LA to Las Vegas.  Right now, the minute you step into an airport, you lose all sense of dignity as the TSA, military, and what-have-you assume control over you.  A traveler's free ought to be maximized so they aren't hassled and that businesses do not attempt to take advantage of their sorry state.
  
• Privacy - With increased security comes an equal decrease in privacy.  Airports at the moment simply strip you naked.  It's bad enough having to stand in line, wait in uncomfortable positions, enter into a statically charged restroom, etc.  Now, you pretty much are at the mercy of someone else.  The next point of transportation should prevent this from occurring and help increase a person's privacy.
  
• Immigration/Internationalization - Ever go on a plane and with all the other BS you have to deal with, you need to fill out some ungodly forms?  Wouldn't it be nice to have something to easily address this?  Wouldn't it be nice, not having to deal with some lunkhead, underpaid ham-n-egger who's ready to make your life hell because they're on some power trip?  I don't like the idea of some bioscanner being injected into me, but if there was a better mechanism for easily identifying someone and being able to trust the agencies not to abuse your information, then I'm all for it.  Also, if we don't have to deal with those people at the same time, that's just another issue being solved.

Obviously, the best answer for here is teleportation.  But realistically, that's probably not going to happen.  However, these issues aren't going away and teleportation in itself won't answer everything.  So there's plenty of opportunity for some services and products to spring up on this idea.

Anonymous WiFi

I read the other day that Google is planning to create their own broadband network.  Also, I recall a friend telling me about these laptops being given to 3rd world nations that use a kind of peer-to-peer technology for networking.  And I had a discussion with a friend regarding the notion of an internet 2, where the government would validate everything.  Well, as I am one who does not trust the government (or any government for that matter), the best solution is an anonymous, WiFi network.  I heard that the issues with something like this is mostly on the power side, but let's forget that issue.  Let's think idealistically on how to address connectivity in the so-called information age.

I see that there's an absolute need for people to have anonymity on the internet.  The real problem is that the government, corporations, hackers, trolls, and just people in general cannot be trusted well enough to have something that is traceable.  Also, I think most people simply won't trust a major institution to really support their needs (e.g. the cable companies).  So to create a fair ground, the best thing is anonymous WiFi.  The internet simply should become prevalent everywhere and no one should be able to have rights to the entire entity.  Instead, people can contribute to it.  But the ownership belongs to everyone, not any single entity who gets to determine what privileges people possess.

Another issue is that this system needs to be REALLY FAST.  I mean, near instantaneous.  It should be like directly accessing files on your local drive.  Forget the realm of the possible here.  Just think of how to push this out.

Zero Downtime Servers and High Speed Websites

Immediately, people will be responding, "Hey, that's what the cloud is for!"  What happens when the cloud goes down?  What happens when resources get overloaded and things feel slow?  I think someone needs to step up and come up with some framework and techniques to ensure 100% availability and improve throughput for websites.  As a web developer, I do realize that this is an oversimplification of an issue that is specific to each website.  I mean, how information is generated on a page differs across the board.  Also, if someone codes up a poorly designed algorithm, then naturally a site can lag.

That said, certain things like updates to a database or fetching data I think are general enough that we should be able to move beyond a certain point and just say, "Fuck it; let's just add more hardware."  Hey, it worked for Microsoft for the longest time!  But I think that scalability should not be an issue in the future.  I hate thinking that many companies have to experience scalability rather than relying on the logical concepts of their website.  Meaning, scalability is an infrastructure issue, not entirely a software issue. 

So I guess if this thing needs to become a truism, the cloud needs to become an entirely abstract entity, something where no single company owns it, but it just runs and people can utilize its resources without worrying about outages or performance issues.

Anyway, I think these areas are money.  Hopefully, someone addresses them completely, not incrementally.