Your question about obvious technology which has been missed is a good one. But I wonder too about high investment projects which have no obvious application to the people who are working on the technology, but would be transformative to humanity were they created.  However the people who consider the investment don't immediately see the applications, and the people who see the applications can't conceive of an enormous investment.  <br><br>Twice (and probably more), we have seen a project undertaken at enormous cost for very limited application come to transform humanity.  The invention of the internet was merely a military project for redundant communication to keep lines open after a nuclear attack.  Yet the internet transformed the economy and life in general in a manner only paralleled by the invention of movable type.  Similarly, the military invested an enormous sum in GPS (or GLONASS or the others) for the limited purpose of guiding troops and maybe munitions.  Yet civilian usage, from surveying to self-driving cars, have piggybacked on this technology.<br><br>What if, instead of waiting for the military to do something for military use, then slowly trickle that technology to non-military application, we invested large sums in projects that would be broadly useful to everyone from the start?  But what would those projects be?  Indeed, I doubt many people can imagine, because it requires understanding both technical feasibility of these large projects, and seeing the applications.  I wonder how many such really important, transformative technologies we could have if only we had the imagination.