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Today's Story by Darren Callahan

Anything that scares us all this badly deserves to be on this list.

City of Human Remains – Chapter 30

|| 10 Most Important Inventions of the 21st Century ||

Excerpt from American Invention Magazine, August 2095, Volume 24, Issue 8.

Androids, laser guns, virtual environments, interstellar travel, transporters, and many other predicted inventions have not come to pass.  That’s no reason, though, not embrace some of the successes of American ingenuity from the last 100 years.

Here is a brief (and subjective) list compiled by our staff.

  1.  DPG – “Dental Perfection Grid” by Johnson & Johnson

Long sought technology affords children and adults a perfect set of teeth from birth to death, and at a reasonable cost, too.  Makes the brutal trips to the dentist for root canals, cavities, et cetera things of yesterday.

  1. Eye Dial by SunWorks

An all-in-1 personal unit the size of a quarter.  It’s the liberation consumers have sought for decades.  If you don’t own an Eye Dial, you’re officially old-fashioned.

8. ‘No-Side-Effect’ Drugs by Abbott Laboratories

The introduction in the ’40s of the Imgruden line proved once and for all that it was possible to create medicines that effectively target minor ailments without the usual problems of nausea, headache, dizziness, sleepless, or drowsiness.

7. Non-freezable Drinking Water by Coca Cola

Now used by adventurers across several continents (as well as by emergency and rescue teams worldwide), Coca Cola’s introduction of an H2O that could not be frozen by adverse climates was the most profitable invention on the list, costing only 1.1 billion to develop and netting over 26.7 billion since its introduction in 2067.

6. Tertiary Roads by the Engineers of City 17

Now commonplace in modern cities, it’s easy to overlook this engineering marvel.  By building ‘roads on top of roads,’ engineer Bob Fitzpatrick was able to preserve the routing of city traffic as well accommodate the population explosion.  This, combined with Honda’s Glides, once again made urban living attractive.

5. Health Chips by ConEx Corporation

These chips, implanted in a user’s finger, allow emergency and medical personnel immediate access to a person’s health history.  Though much debated for privacy implications, health chips have saved thousands of lives and prevented misdiagnoses.

4. The Doll Weather System by Doll Industries

Had it not debuted so late in the century, this complex beauty may have claimed the top spot.  However, only in the fourth year of its pilot period, we have yet to know the true impact of the Doll System.  It’s undeniable, though, that with its government sponsor City 32 allowing for thousands of weather poles to be erected throughout the city, it is the most pervasive new architecture since the 20th century’s cell phone towers.  Though regarded as a successful performance, the system is not without flaws.  If these are worked out, there’s no telling its impact of the Doll System on 22nd century humankind.

3. Magic Paper by Friends of the Forest, Inc.

Anything that saves 30 million trees a year deserves to be on this list.  Period.

2. Sevian Missile Satellites by the United States Government

Anything that scares us all this badly deserves to be on this list, too.

(Drum roll, please…)

  1. American Invention Magazine by AIM Partners, Inc.

In print nearly a quarter century!  You didn’t think we wouldn’t plug ourselves, did you?  Silly readers.