The jetpack, the flying car, free electricity for the world – all these ideas are way ahead of our time in the practical sense.
With time on our side, however, the idea of what's out of our technological reach is always changing. Circuits get smaller, engines get more efficient, bored scientists find new and interesting solutions to unusual problems.
Then that cutting-edge stuff becomes commonplace and gets used as a foundation to go a little deeper, rattle a few more technological sabers.
For example, we couldn't explain to you how a flush toilet works, but ancient Minoans were building them in 18th century BC.
Here's a collection of this and 7 other inventions that were simply ahead of their time.
Contact lenses – 1632
Rene Descartes, the "I think therefore I am" guy, is actually the first on record as having come up with the idea of corrective lenses in a 1632. (Leonardo da Vinci had a similar but ultimately different idea before him). Instead of using semi-sexy language like "corrective lenses," Descartes described them as glass tubes filled with liquid, placed in direct contact with the cornea.
Solar cells – 1883
The solar cell was first demonstrated experimentally in 1839. But Charles Fritts, in 1883, was first to build a functioning solid state version.
Vending machine – some time in the first century
Forget your Cokes and Mike & Ikes – the first vending machine dispensed holy water. It was a device invented by Hero of Alexandria in the first century.
If anyone's especially interested in vending machines, make sure to look into its culture in Japan. Yes, it's a culture.
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