Hypothetical technologies are technologies that do not exist yet, but that could exist in the future. They are distinct from

emerging technologies Emerging technologies are technologies whose development, practical applications, or both are still largely unrealized. These technologies are generally new but also include older technologies finding new applications. Emerging technologies ar ...

, which have achieved some developmental success. Emerging technologies as of 2018 include 3-D metal printing and artificial embryos. Many hypothetical technologies have been the subject of science fiction. The criteria for this list are that the technology: # Must not exist yet # If the technology does not have an existing article (i.e. it is "redlinked"), a reference must be provided for it

Biology

* Acne vaccine * Anti-evolutionary drug *

Antiprion drug Antiprion drugs are drugs that work against prions Prions are misfolded proteins that have the ability to transmit their misfolded shape onto normal variants of the same protein. They characterize several fatal and transmissible neurodegenerat ...

* Artificial gametes * Artificial gill * Artificial "super" mitochondria *

Caries vaccine A caries vaccine is a vaccine to prevent and protect against tooth decay. ''Streptococcus mutans'' (''S. mutans'') has been identified as the major etiological agent of human dental caries. The development of a vaccine for tooth decay has been und ...

* De-extinction * Dyson tree * Ethnic bioweapon * Female sperm *

Flying syringe Flying syringe is a phrase that is used to refer to proposed, but not yet created, genetically modified mosquitoes that inject vaccines into people when they bite them. History In the 1990s, Bob Sinden of Imperial College, London, and Julian Cramp ...

Hair cloning Hair multiplication or hair cloning is a proposed technique to counter hair loss. The technology to clone hair is in its early stages. Experts previously assumed that in the case of complete baldness, follicles are completely absent from the scal ...

* HIV vaccine *

Humanzee The humanzee (sometimes chuman, manpanzee or chumanzee) is a hypothetical hybrid of chimpanzee and human, thus a form of human–animal hybrid. Serious attempts to create such a hybrid were made by Soviet biologist Ilya Ivanovich Ivanov in the ...

Life extension Life extension is the concept of extending the human life expectancy, lifespan, either modestly through improvements in medicine or dramatically by increasing the maximum lifespan beyond its generally-settled oldest people, limit of 125 years. S ...

Liquid breathing Liquid breathing is a form of respiration in which a normally air-breathing organism breathes an oxygen-rich liquid (such as a perfluorocarbon), rather than breathing air. By selecting a liquid that is capable of holding large amounts of oxyg ...

* Male egg *

Nanochondrion Nanochondria are hypothetical nanomachines that are meant to live inside or with biological cells. They are named after mitochondria, due to their similarities in working inside the cell, and their reproduction. Abilities Nanochondria would be ab ...

* Nootropic *

Prime editing Prime editing is a 'search-and-replace' genome editing technology in molecular biology by which the genome of living organisms may be modified. The technology directly writes new genetic information into a targeted DNA site. It uses a fusion protein ...

Respirocyte Respirocytes are hypothetical, microscopic, artificial red blood cells that are intended to emulate the function of their organic counterparts, so as to supplement or replace the function of much of the human body's normal respiratory system. Resp ...

Synthetic epigenetics Synthetic things are composed of multiple parts, often with the implication that they are artificial. In particular, 'synthetic' may refer to: Science * Synthetic chemical or compound, produced by the process of chemical synthesis * Synthetic o ...

* Universal flu vaccine *

Universal snakebite antidote Universal is the adjective for universe. Universal may also refer to: Companies * NBCUniversal, a media and entertainment company ** Universal Animation Studios, an American Animation studio, and a subsidiary of NBCUniversal ** Universal TV, a t ...

Engineering and manufacturing

* Biogel refrigerator * Chitin-cellulose composite *

Diamond trees The Diamond Tree is a giant karri tree located 10 km south of Manjimup, Western Australia on the South Western Highway. A wooden viewing platform built in 1939 is located 49 metres up, and was the oldest wooden platform fire look-out in u ...

Exoskeletal engine The exoskeletal engine (ESE) is a concept in turbomachinery design. Current gas turbine engines have central rotating shafts and fan-discs and are constructed mostly from heavy metals. They require lubricated bearings and need extensive cooling for ...

* Mezoelectronics *

Microfactory A microfactory either refers to a capital-light facility used for the local assembly of a complex product or system or a small (normally automated) factory for producing small quantities of products. The term was proposed by the Mechanical Engineer ...

* Piezer *

Tectonic weapon A tectonic weapon is a hypothetical device or system which could trigger earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, or other seismic events in specified locations by interfering with the Earth's natural geological processes. It was defined in 1992 by Aleksey ...

* Vertical zoo *

Wearable generator A wearable generator is an article of clothing that contains some form of electrical generation system built in. The concept encompasses a variety of generation systems intended to supply small amounts of power to keep portable electronics in a g ...

Computing and robotics

* Dentifrobot * Hypercomputer *

Inferential programming In ordinary computer programming, the programmer keeps the program's intended results in mind and painstakingly constructs a computer program to achieve those results. Inferential programming refers to (still mostly hypothetical) techniques and tec ...

* Plant-based digital data storage *

Quantum memory In quantum computing, quantum memory is the quantum-mechanical version of ordinary computer memory. Whereas ordinary memory stores information as binary states (represented by "1"s and "0"s), quantum memory stores a quantum state for later ...

Quantum money A quantum money scheme is a quantum cryptographic protocol that creates and verifies banknotes that are resistant to forgery. It is based on the principle that quantum states cannot be perfectly duplicated (the no-cloning theorem), making it imposs ...

Robotoid A robotic android, also known simply as a robot android, robotic droid, robot droid, robotoid, robodroid or roboid, is an artificial lifeform that is created through processes that are totally different from cloning or synthetics. In short, it is ...

Roll-away computer A roll-away computer is an idea introduced as part of a series by Toshiba in 2000, which aimed to predict the trends in personal computing five years into the future. Since its announcement, the roll-away computer has remained a theoretical device. ...

* S-money * Universal memory

Megastructures

Cloud Nine (tensegrity sphere) Cloud Nine is the name Buckminster Fuller gave to his proposed airborne habitats created from giant geodesic spheres, which might be made to levitate by slightly heating the air inside above the ambient temperature. Geodesic spheres (structures ...

Globus Cassus Globus Cassus is an art project and book by Swiss architect and artist Christian Waldvogel presenting a conceptual transformation of planet Earth into a much bigger, hollow, artificial world with an ecosphere on its inner surface. It was the Swi ...

* Seascraper *

Shellworld A shellworld is any of several types of hypothetical megastructures: *A planet or a planetoid turned into series of concentric matryoshka doll-like layers supported by massive pillars. A shellworld of this type features prominently in Iain M. Banks' ...

Vertical city Vertical is a geometric term of location which may refer to: * Vertical direction, the direction aligned with the direction of the force of gravity, up or down * Vertical (angles), a pair of angles opposite each other, formed by two intersecting s ...

Nanotechnology

Bush robot A bush robot is a hypothetical machine whose body branches in a fractal way into trillions of nanoscale fingers, to achieve very high dexterity and reconfigurability. The concept was described by Hans Moravec in a final report for NASA in 1999, ...

Claytronics Claytronics is an abstract future concept that combines nanoscale robotics and computer science to create individual nanometer-scale computers called claytronic atoms, or ''catoms'', which can interact with each other to form tangible 3D objects ...

* Grey goo * Mechanosynthesis * Molecular assembler *

Nanocomputer Nanocomputer refers to a computer smaller than the microcomputer, which is smaller than the minicomputer. Microelectronic components that are at the core of all modern electronic devices employ semiconductor transistors. The term nanocomputer i ...

* Nanomatrix skyscraper * Programmable matter *

Santa Claus machine A Santa Claus machine, named after the folkloric Santa Claus, is a hypothetical machine that is capable of creating any required object or structure out of any given material. It is most often referenced by futurists and science fiction writers w ...

* Utility fog *

Wet nanotechnology Wet nanotechnology (also known as wet nanotech) involves working up to large masses from small ones. Wet nanotechnology requires water in which the process occurs. The process also involves chemists and biologists trying to reach larger scales b ...

Zettascale computing Zettascale computing refers to computing systems capable of calculating at least "1021 IEEE 754 Double Precision (64-bit) operations (multiplications and/or additions) per second (zetta FLOPS)". It is a measure of supercomputer performance, and ...

Transport

* Bering Strait crossing *

ET3 Global Alliance ET3 Global Alliance is an American open consortium of licensees dedicated to global implementation of Evacuated Tube Transport Technologies (ET3). It was founded by Daryl Oster in 1997 with the goal of establishing a global transportation system ...

Flying submarine A flying submarine, submersible aircraft or aerosub is a combination of a seaplane and a submarine. It is supposed to be able both to fly and to travel under water. Taking-off from the surface of water is also intended. Since the requirements fo ...

* Gravity train *

Gravity-vacuum transit Gravity-vacuum transit (GVT) was a form of transportation developed by American inventor Lawrence Edwards in the early 1960s.Scientific American, August 1965: High-Speed Tube Transportation. Origin The origin of this technology is Alfred Ely Beac ...

* Transatlantic tunnel * Vacuum airship *

Water-fueled car A water-fuelled car is an automobile that hypothetically derives its energy directly from water. Water-fuelled cars have been the subject of numerous international patents, newspaper and popular science magazine articles, local television news c ...

Minds and psychology

* Artificial general intelligence *

Brain in a vat In philosophy, the brain in a vat (BIV) is a scenario used in a variety of thought experiments intended to draw out certain features of human conceptions of knowledge, reality, truth, mind, consciousness, and meaning. It is a modern incarnatio ...

Brainwashing Brainwashing (also known as mind control, menticide, coercive persuasion, thought control, thought reform, and forced re-education) is the concept that the human mind can be altered or controlled by certain psychological techniques. Brainwash ...

* Cortical modem *

Digital immortality Digital immortality (or "virtual immortality") is the hypothetical concept of storing (or transferring) a person's personality in digital substrate, i.e., a computer, robot or cyberspace (mind uploading). The result might look like an avatar beh ...

* Endoneurobot * Gliabot * Global brain *

Infomorph An infomorph is a virtual body of information that possesses self-awareness and sentience. The term was coined in Charles Platt's 1991 novel ''The Silicon Man'', where it refers to a single biological consciousness transferred into a computer thro ...

* Intelligence amplification * Language-learning pill * Matrioshka brain * Memory editing * Mind uploading *

Moral enhancement Moral enhancement (abbreviated ME), also called moral bioenhancement (abbreviated MBE), is the use of biomedical technology to morally improve individuals. MBE is a growing topic in neuroethics, a field developing the ethics of neuroscience as well ...

* Omega Point *

Simulated reality The simulation theory is the hypothesis that reality could be simulated—for example by quantum computer simulation—to a degree indistinguishable from "true" reality. It could contain conscious minds that may or may not know that they live i ...

* Sphalerizer * Superintelligence * Synaptobot * Technological singularity *

Thought recording and reproduction device A thought recording and reproduction device refers to any machine which is able to both directly record and reproduce, via a brain-computer interface, the thoughts, emotions, dreams or other neural/cognitive events of a subject for that or other su ...

Physics

* Anti-gravity *

Antimatter weapon An antimatter weapon is a theoretically possible device using antimatter as a power source, a propellant, or an explosive for a weapon. Antimatter weapons are currently too costly and unreliable to be viable in warfare, as producing antimatter i ...

* Artificial gravity * Brownian ratchet *

Cloaking device A cloaking device is a hypothetical or fictional stealth technology that can cause objects, such as spaceships or individuals, to be partially or wholly invisible to parts of the electromagnetic (EM) spectrum. Fictional cloaking devices have bee ...

* Cold fusion * Coleopter *

Computronium Computronium is a material hypothesized by Norman Margolus and Tommaso Toffoli of MIT in 1991 to be used as "programmable matter", a substrate for computer modeling of virtually any real object. It also refers to a arrangement of matter that is t ...

Electrogravitics Electrogravitics is claimed to be an unconventional type of effect or anti-gravity force created by an electric field's effect on a mass. The name was coined in the 1920s by the discoverer of the effect, Thomas Townsend Brown, who spent most of hi ...

* Faster than light communication * Femtotechnology * Fusion torch * Gamma-ray bomb *

Gravitational shielding The term gravitational shielding refers to a hypothetical process of shielding an object from the influence of a gravitational field. Such processes, if they existed, would have the effect of reducing the weight of an object. The shape of the shie ...

Hafnium bomb In physics, induced gamma emission (IGE) refers to the process of fluorescent emission of gamma rays from excited nuclei, usually involving a specific nuclear isomer. It is analogous to conventional fluorescence, which is defined as the emission of ...

Inertia negation Inertia negation is a hypothetical process causing physical objects with mass to act as if they were of lower mass or were massless. The effect is the opposite of adding ballast. No such process is known to exist in the real world: if current und ...

* Monopolium *

Muon collider A Muon Collider is a proposed particle accelerator facility in its conceptual design stage that collides muon beams for precision studies of the Standard Model and for direct searches of new physics. Muons belong to the second generation of lept ...

* Neutronium * Nuclear bullet *

Nuclear clock A nuclear clock or nuclear optical clock is a notional clock that would use the frequency of a Atomic nucleus, nuclear transition as its reference frequency, in the same manner as an atomic clock uses the frequency of an Atomic electron transition ...

* Nuclear lightbulb * Nuclear shaped charge *

Organic nuclear reactor An organic nuclear reactor, or organic cooled reactor (OCR), is a type of nuclear reactor that uses some form of organic fluid, typically a hydrocarbon substance like polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB), for cooling and sometimes as a neutron moderat ...

Perpetual motion Perpetual motion is the motion of bodies that continues forever in an unperturbed system. A perpetual motion machine is a hypothetical machine that can do work infinitely without an external energy source. This kind of machine is impossible, a ...

* Phased-array optics *

Picotechnology The term picotechnology is a portmanteau of picometre and technology, intended to parallel the term nanotechnology. It is a hypothetical future level of technological manipulation of matter, on the scale of trillionths of a metre or picoscale ( ...

* Plasmonster *

Project Excalibur Project Excalibur was a Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) Cold Warera research program to develop an X-ray laser system as a ballistic missile defense (BMD) for the United States. The concept involved packing large numbers of expendab ...

Pure fusion weapon A pure fusion weapon is a hypothetical hydrogen bomb design that does not need a fission "primary" explosive to ignite the fusion of deuterium and tritium, two heavy isotopes of hydrogen used in fission-fusion thermonuclear weapons. Such a weapon ...

* Room-temperature superconductor * Space-time cloak * Tachyonic antitelephone *

Teleforce Teleforce is a proposed defensive weapon by Nikola Tesla that accelerated pellets or slugs of material to a high velocity inside a vacuum chamber via electrostatic repulsion and then fired them out of aimed nozzles at intended targets. Tesla clai ...

* Teleporter *

Time machine Time travel is the concept of movement between certain points in time, analogous to movement between different points in space by an object or a person, typically with the use of a hypothetical device known as a time machine. Time travel is a w ...

Tipler cylinder A Tipler cylinder, also called a Tipler time machine, is a hypothetical object Theory, theorized to be a potential mode of time travel—although results have shown that a Tipler cylinder could only allow time travel if its length were infinite ...

Torsion field (pseudoscience) A torsion field (also called axion field, spin field, spinor field, and microlepton field) is a feature of pseudoscientific proposals that the quantum spin of particles can be used to cause emanations to carry information through vacuum orders of ...

* Tractor beam * Wet workshop

Space

* Alderson disk * Alcubierre drive *

Antimatter rocket An antimatter rocket is a proposed class of rockets that use antimatter as their power source. There are several designs that attempt to accomplish this goal. The advantage to this class of rocket is that a large fraction of the rest mass of a ...

* Artificial universe * Asteroid laser ablation * Beam powered propulsion *

Bernal sphere A Bernal sphere is a type of space habitat intended as a long-term home for permanent residents, first proposed in 1929 by John Desmond Bernal. Bernal's original proposal described a hollow non-rotating spherical shell in diameter, with a tar ...

* Bias drive * Bishop ring *

Black hole starship In astronautics, a black hole starship is the theoretical concept of a starship capable of interstellar travel using a black hole as an energy source for spacecraft propulsion. The concept was first discussed in science fiction, notably in the book ...

* Bracewell probe * Bussard ramjet *

Dean drive The Dean drive was a device created and promoted by inventor Norman Lorimer Dean (1902–1972) that he claimed to be a reactionless drive. Dean claimed that his device was able to generate a uni-directional force in free space, in violation of Ne ...

* Diametric drive * Dipole drive * Disjunction drive * Dyson sphere * Dyson–Harrop satellite *

Enzmann starship The Enzmann starship is a concept for a crewed interstellar spacecraft proposed in 1964 by Dr. Robert Enzmann. A three million ton ball of frozen deuterium would fuel nuclear fusion rocket engines contained in a cylindrical section behind that ...

* Field propulsion *

Fission sail The fission sail is a type of spacecraft propulsion proposed by Robert Forward that uses fission fragments to propel a large solar sail-like craft. It is similar in concept to the fission-fragment rocket in that the fission by-products are directl ...

* Ford-Svaiter mirror *

Fusion rocket A fusion rocket is a theoretical design for a rocket driven by fusion propulsion that could provide efficient and sustained acceleration in space without the need to carry a large fuel supply. The design requires fusion power technology beyond cu ...

Gravity tractor A gravity tractor is a theoretical spacecraft that would deflect another object in space, typically a potentially hazardous asteroid that might impact Earth, without physically contacting it, using only its gravitational field to transmit the requ ...

* Halo drive * Information panspermia *

Isotropic beacon An isotropic beacon is a hypothetical type of transmission beacon that emits a uniform EM signal in all directions for the purposes of communication with extraterrestrial intelligence. Isotropic beacons and their relation to SETI An isotropic ...

* Krasnikov tube * Laser broom * Laser propulsion * Launch loop * Lightcraft * Lunarcrete * Lunar space elevator *

MagBeam MagBeam is the name given to an ion propulsion system for space travel initially proposed by Professor Robert Winglee of the Earth and Space Sciences Department at the University of Washington for the October 2004 meeting of the NIAC. MagBeam is d ...

Magnetic sail A magnetic sail is a proposed method of spacecraft propulsion that uses a static magnetic field to deflect a plasma wind of charged particles radiated by the Sun or a Star thereby transferring momentum to accelerate or decelerate a spacecraft. ...

McKendree cylinder A McKendree cylinder is a type of hypothetical rotating space habitat originally proposed at NASA's Turning Goals into Reality conference in 2000 by NASA engineer Tom McKendree. As with other space habitat designs, the cylinder would spin to pr ...

* Momentum exchange tether *

Nano electrokinetic thruster The Nano electrokinetic thruster is a theoretical space propulsion system based on the principle of electro-osmosis (also electroosmotic flow). It allows for a high specific impulse and high thrust-to-power ratio as well as a high final velocity ...

* Nanoship * Non-rocket spacelaunch * Nuclear pulse propulsion * Nuclear salt-water rocket * O'Neill cylinder * Orbital ring * Ouroboros habitat * Photon rocket * Photonic railway * Pitch drive *

Plasma bubble Plasma or plasm may refer to: Science * Plasma (physics), one of the four fundamental states of matter * Plasma (mineral), a green translucent silica mineral * Quark–gluon plasma, a state of matter in quantum chromodynamics Biology * Blood pla ...

Quantum telescope A quantum telescope is a concept for a telescope aimed at overcoming the diffraction limit of traditional telescopes by exploiting some properties of quantum mechanics Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics that provides a d ...

Quantum vacuum thruster A reactionless drive is a hypothetical device producing motion without the exhaust of a propellant. A propellantless drive is not necessarily reactionless when it constitutes an open system interacting with external fields; but a reactionless ...

* Quasite * Ringworld *

Reactionless drive A reactionless drive is a hypothetical device producing motion without the exhaust of a propellant. A propellantless drive is not necessarily reactionless when it constitutes an open system interacting with external fields; but a reactionless ...

RF resonant cavity thruster The EmDrive is a concept for a thruster for spacecraft, first written about in 2001. It is purported to generate thrust by reflecting microwaves inside the device, in a way that would violate the law of conservation of momentum and other laws o ...

Rocket sled launch A rocket sled launch, also known as ground-based launch assist, catapult launch assist, and sky-ramp launch, is a proposed method for launching space vehicles. With this concept the launch vehicle is supported by an eastward pointing rail or ma ...

* Rotating wheel space station *

Self-replicating spacecraft The concept of Self-replicating spacecraft, as envisioned by mathematician John von Neumann, has been described by futurists including physicist Michio Kaku and discussed across a wide breadth of hard science fiction novels and stories. Self-rep ...

* Skyhook * Solar thermal rocket * Soletta * Space coach * Space dock * Space elevator * Space fountain * Space gun * Space mirror *

Space tether Space tethers are long cables which can be used for propulsion, momentum exchange, stabilization and attitude control, or maintaining the relative positions of the components of a large dispersed satellite/spacecraft sensor system. Depending on t ...

* Space tug * Spomified asteroid * Stanford torus *

Starlifting Star lifting is any of several hypothetical processes by which a sufficiently advanced civilization (specifically, one of Kardashev scale, Kardashev-II or higher) could remove a substantial portion of a star's matter which can then be re-purposed ...

Starseed launcher Starseed is a proposed method of launching interstellar nanoprobes at one-third light speed. The launcher uses a 1,000 km-long small-diameter hollow wire, with electrodes lining the hollow wire, an electrostatic accelerator tube, similar t ...

* StarTram * Statite * Stellar engine *

Sun scoop A Sun scoop or sunscoop is a refueling technique for starships seen in science fiction. It involves a literal scooping of plasma directly from the outer surface of a star to use as fuel. Doing so would be extremely dangerous and only used in emerg ...

Terrascope {{Infobox magazine , image_file = pto.png , image_size = , image_caption = ''Ptolemaic Terrascope'' logo , editor = Phil McMullen (1988–2005) Pat Thomas (2005-07) , editor_title = , staf ...

* Thermonuclear micro-bomb engine * Topopolis

References

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