Skip to Content
The Daily Dot home
The Daily Dot home
Log In
Advertisement
Culture

14 current technologies people hope will seem ridiculous in 50 years

current technology people hope is obsolete in 50 years
Adobe Stock

Reddit is always asking interesting and thought-provoking questions. The latest from u/Infamous_Horse came from the r/Futurology subreddit, where they asked, "What current technology do you think will seem ridiculous in 50 years?"

Featured Video

Answers ranged from chemotherapy to physical keys. Users shared insightful, funny, and sometimes unsettling predictions about how fast innovation could make today's everyday tools feel outdated and absurd.

Check out 18 of the most interesting answers on Reddit below.

1. Charging cables

Advertisement
Hand holding Electric plug put on multiple socket. Electrical equipment, electrical wires and power strips in the house. Earth Hour saving electrical energy.
Africa Studio/Adobe Stock

"I think charging cables will probably seem ridiculous in 50 years. Like, 'Wait, you had to physically plug in your devices every day?'"—u/Infamous_Horse

2. Dental work

Pile of dentist tools lying at green tissue ready to be used close-up
megaflopp/Adobe Stock
Advertisement

"I still can't wrap my head around the fact that there are human trials underway that involve using a drug to regrow missing teeth. It could become widely available as early as 2030. I never imagined this would be possible in my lifetime."—u/CarbonInTheWind

"Anything regarding present-day dental work will be seen as barbaric. Ditto for chemotherapy."—u/cuppaseb

3. Loud engine noises

truck and smoke from the truck car ecology
Victor/Adobe Stock
Advertisement

"Internal combustion engines, hopefully. I long for the day I don't have to hear loud cars, chainsaws, mowers, etc…"—u/s0cks_nz

4. Trash

View of polystyrene , plastic bottles and other domestic garbage
bepsphoto/Adobe Stock

"'Wait, you guys had like stacks of plastic cups next to a water cooler that you could’ve just drank out of with your mouth or your reusable cup… But instead, you literally took a plastic cup, had a few sips of water, then threw it in the garbage immediately? And that’s where all this garbage in the ground came from?' 🤣🤣🤣🤦🏻‍♂️🥲😭"—u/notoriousToker

Advertisement

5. Medical devices

OR surgical monitoring gear. Advanced medical equipment displays vital signs and patients' data in a modern hospital operating room environment.
Vadim/Adobe Stock

"Today’s CT scan machine will look ridiculous huge and silly in 50 years."—u/lewisfairchild

"Hopefully, breast exams for cancer. That shit hurts I'm sitting waiting for the ultrasound and worrying, so great question."—u/mrsn629

Advertisement

"A lot of medical procedures will be seen as how we look at those of the medieval times. That is unnecessarily cruel and ineffective."—u/CasabaHowitzer

6. Car wrecks

Car accident on wet road during rain, head on collision side view
Tricky Shark/Adobe Stock
Advertisement

"I hope car crash fatalities will be seen as a thing of the past with future autonomous vehicles working together to make the current number of car fatalities seem ridiculous"—u/TheSyn11

7. Gaming consoles

KHARKOV, UKRAINE - DECEMBER 27, 2020: Pile of old 8-bit video game consoles and many gaming accessories like a joysticks and cartridges. Old school retro gaming
mehaniq41/Adobe Stock

"Game consoles as we know them will get 1 or 2 more generations tops. They will be replaced with streaming services."—u/Sarabando

Advertisement

8. ChatGPT

Chat GPT OpenAI through magnifying glass on screen
Adobe Stock

"AI. What we call AI today is not really intelligent. It's just a correlation engine. I wonder if they will have real AI in 50 years."—u/mattmann72

9. Air pollution

Advertisement
kamilpetran/Adobe Stock

"Anything petrol related. I hope to live to see this city with zero emissions vehicles."—u/gotele

10. The internet of things

Handsome Young Man is Standing Next to a Refrigerator While Drinking His Morning Coffee
Gorodenkoff/Adobe Stock
Advertisement

"IoT. Nobody needs their toaster or toothbrush connected to the internet."—u/jdlech

11. Medications and pills

pills and capsules
Andrzej Tokarski/Adobe Stock

"Medications for mental disorders, especially antipsychotics. I'm sure they will be seen the same like lobotomies nowadays."—u/snaccerz

Advertisement

12. Banks

Woman using ATM holding wallet an pressing the PIN security number on the keyboard automatic teller machine
ifeelstock/Adobe Stock

"Today's Banking System: physical currency and ATMs, credit/Debit Cards and card machines, cheques, etc."—u/Plastic_Ad_1106

13. Toilet paper

Advertisement
Rolls of toilet paper on color background
Pixel-Shot/Adobe Stock

"Toilet paper. At least I hope so. It seems to be such a medieval method for something we use so much. It's a waste, it's unhygienic and causes all kinds of sewer problems." —u/BrokkelPiloot

14. Selfie Sticks

lazyllama/Adobe Stock
Advertisement

"My other entry will be selfie sticks (i.e. narcisticks). To be fair, I think many people think they are ridiculous now. And for good reason."—u/BrokkelPiloot


Advertisement

The internet is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here to get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter