No doubt there are many things we could do today, with available materials, but we just don't know how to do it yet. There might be a catalyst that can efficien

No doubt there are many things we could do today, with available materials, but we just don't know how to do it yet. There might be a catalyst that can efficiently combine CO2 with H2O to rip carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and create fuel. There might be a combination of materials and processes that we already know about which would enable grid scale nuclear fusion. There might be a way to use existing materials to create ultrafast photonic circuits. So many technologies are actually pretty simple when you look at their components - a lot of genetic engineering is "just" plastic, metal, and heated water baths.