Society Baby

If you could go back in time to 1856 and give a 1 hour lecture to the Royal Society, what topics would you do?

You could talk about any scientific or technological topics of the future 150 years. (ps. The Royal Society is/was the independent scientific academy of the UK) I know what I'd like to talk about. I'm interested in what others might think.

Public Comments

1. I would talk about the HD DVD and Blu Ray format war
2. I would discuss the dangers of polluting a timeline. Seriously. I wouldn't discuss anything with them, unless it could be proven beyond the shadow of a doubt that I had moved into an alternate universe rather than going back in my own universe (time). The paradoxical anamolies that could result are too bizzare to think about, and too numerous to gaurd against.
3. I would give a lecture on Fluid Mechanics. Fluid mechanics is a relatively new field with most advances being discovered during research conducted for WWII. Fluid mechanics has changed our lives....ink jet cartidges, boilers, airplanes, precise flow for manufacturing processes, and on and on. I love fluids!
4. Time travel obviously
5. The future and mankind.
6. Hmmm. The electric light bulb and gasoline engine would be so close to full-scale development that I wouldn't waste any time on those . . . I think I would talk about the work of Charles Babbage and how to turn that into reality given some of the great stuff computers could do . . . "It is interesting to contemplate the effect on history if Babbage had realized that a stored program computer could be made using relays. Such a computer could have been built in the 1800's, and would have advanced the use of the modern computer by almost a century. "
7. quantum stuff I think - no-one would believe me!