Lithium polymer batteries that make advanced computing portable. We wouldn't be able to create multi function cell phones without the battery power and longevity of those batteries. Star trek tricorders are going to be the next big tech coming to the generation after Gen z.
If you lived in a society that had ready access to replicators and holodecks, you'd probably be asking for teleportation and eternal youth.
What's amazing yesterday is boring today. That's kinda part of the human condition.
Being able to fly anywhere in the world with almost zero planning, and then being able to communicate back to anyone at home with almost zero delay, would have been unheard of just two generations ago, but now that it's normal, it's a shrug and look for the next thing.
If you've got replicators, you already have half of a teleporter, and you already have the technology necessary to fabricate replacements for failing body parts, so you're already at least partway to teleportation and eternal youth.
You're thinking of their com badge, the tricorder was the thing they flipped open to analyse a rock or reverse the polarity of a time crystal. It could do basic medical work, interface with electronics, detect life forms, determine if plants are edible, all sorts
Also, I actually had a vehicle from 1987 that totally flooded the cylinders with gasoline due to a fault in the carburetor, and even then it didn't explode when I started it.
Seriously though, what's up with these EV's that'll just as soon randomly burn your garage and house down while you're asleep and the car isn't even running?
Yes, that's true... But on the other hand, it's much harder to deal with EV fires because a reasonable amount of water won't put it out like normal fires and it will burn for a long time, and spontaneously reignite after the fact as well. Firefighters often submerge the vehicle for weeks or else it would reignite...
Mind you, I still prefer EVs over ICE vehicles because the benefits vastly outweigh the costs, but the EV fires are harder to deal with.
This is why we should do away with personal cars in cities all together and develop better transit systems that are efficient and safe.
Liquid gasoline is not what will explode. You need vapors. Gasoline still requires oxygen to burn, so if air is not mixing with the fuel, nothing's gonna happen.
An internal combustion engine relies on having an environment of maximum flammability in order to function correctly. It's when that environment is no longer contained by the engine that you run into catastrophic problems. Multiplied by how empty your fuel tank is.
Still, gasoline doesn't have a tendency to up and spontaneously combust all on its own, it takes some sort of external spark or flame to ignite.
Lithium batteries play a different game of Russian Roulette though. The car doesn't even have to be running for one worn out cell to overheat and cause a catastrophic chain reaction blowing the entire battery pack.
I wish you people would actually do a comparison between ICE engine explosions vs. EV explosions.
Guess what? Firefighters can actually put out ICE vehicles, but they still haven't figured out a solid way of putting out EV batteries.
Guess what? When ICE vehicles explode, more often than not they're already running and there's some electrical short or something. EV will just as soon explode in your garage while you're sleeping.
Guess what? Studies show that since EV's are way heavier, they wear through tires way faster? Did you know it takes approximately one barrel of crude oil to make an average car tire?
Guess what? Autonomous vehicles seem to have a habit of getting confused around emergency vehicles and causing wrecks, into the very vehicles meant to save people from accidents.
Guess what? Lithium ion batteries are typically rated for a max safe temperature of around 40⁰C, while the pavement the battery sits right over can be over 80⁰C
I'm too lazy to look up links, you're smart, go Google these things or whatever. All these facts check out.