Dead and dying technologies

[Cymric]

In a decade, now that's tough. I can think of a few which are definitely on their way out, though:

The compass --- to be replaced with the GPS/Galileo receiver. Doesn't suffer from magnetic declination effects. And works anywhere on Earth. Is still impossible to beat in terms of price and simplicity, which secures its use for a good many years yet.

The barometer for altitude measurement --- also to be replaced with the GPS/Galileo receiver. Doesn't suffer from weather conditions which require frequent calibration.

Penicillin --- thanks to sloppy prescription and use, bacteria have become more and more resistent to it. Superbugs which are nigh impossible to kill are appearing all over the world.

Any type of battery save very small or specialised ones --- to be replaced with fuel cells.

Hydrocarbon fuel --- to be replaced with hydrogen fuel. Is a very slow, expensive transition, but it will eventually happen.

The Amiga --- overpriced, underpowered. 'Nuff said.

[Cymric]

The idea is to keep on forcing people to buy the same music over and over again. Unfortunately, once the 96 kHz, 24-bit music makes its entry in the living room, there is no need any longer for further improvement: humans simply can't hear any better. (Some people claim that they do, well, some people claim to have been abducted by aliens too :-).) Besides, if you look at the utter crap (amplifier, speakers) people use to listen to their CDs, you can really, really wonder what good encoding at the higher frequency range will do. Then there is the problem of the acoustic properties of the room, and so on, and so forth.

So I think the recording industry will continue to sell lots of CDs for quite a while yet :-).