The wizarding world is often portrayed in the fandom as stagnant, but I don't think this is the case. We know the Department of Mysteries does magical research; we know there are academic journals which, for example, Dumbledore was contributing while still a teenager; we see new spells being created; we see constant improvement of the capabilities of brooms; we see Fred and George create new products; we see Voldemort discover how to fly unaided.

It's perhaps true that the wizarding world changes less rapidly than the Muggle world, but this may be simply because there's less they can't do. The list of capabilities which Muggles would like to have is very long; the same list for wizards is substantially shorter.

But let's think of that list. What are the areas in which magic is lacking? What are some magical innovations that wizards might come up with during the 21st century?

Two ideas:

1. Eternal youth. It seems likely that Muggles will, during the 21st century, make significant headway towards reversing the ageing process, or at the least slowing it down. While wizards already live longer lives than Muggles, and part of that is down to the capabilities of healing magic, it would be odd if Muggles were to start living longer than wizards. So I can see advances in alchemy being made which are able to grant wizards longer lifespans and to slow down ageing.

2. Expansion of Daydream Charms. Fred and George created these in HBP and actually they have enormous potential. They're basically a form of completely immersive VR, without the need for any cumbersome or intrusive equipment. All you would need to do is add the ability to have shared daydreams and suddenly you have a wizarding OASIS from Ready Player One.

 

1. Make aircraft that are identical to muggles except they run on magic.

2. Make guns with infinite ammo.

3. Make spaceships except they run on magic.

4. Make a magic version of the Internet.

 

Porn
Sex Industry

 

Large scale transportation. Floo networks and apparition are fine and dandy but they are rather small scale. Imagine big arches tying districts like Diagon Alley all over the world for one large megacity of wizards.

 

Disgusting

 

Most of these make any sense, because they don't fix any problems. Why would wizards need guns? Or create muggle aircraft? The only reason they would have to go into space is exploration, and frankly there's nothing to say that a bubble head charm, a well cast protego, and a half decent broomstick wouldn't do the job.

And as for the internet...why would such a small population need the internet? They have a small society and seemingly quite an uncomplicated economy, so what benefit does the internet solve for them?

I like this idea - kind of ties into a plot bunny I posted a while back about the brick wall entrance to Diagon Alley having other codes that could take you elsewhere. I'd been thinking other places within Britain, but now I'm imagining international dialling codes. That'd be a really cool way to make the world larger but also keep it functional.

 

Old fashion tales have spirits and elves hosting feasts and festivals with food and music beyond mortal ken. Yet all Harry Potter shows us ya making normal food and music, but the production being easier.

When the basics of life are so easy, why aren’t they striving for extra levels of indulgence.

 

A shit reply for a shitpost. Classic.

In all seriousness though, these seem pretty unlikely to be necessary. Then again, wizards do have trains, buses and cars even though they don't really need them, so who knows? The spaceship one is the most promising IMO.

Another magical innovation that could be useful is a combo Vanishing Cabinet/Floo Network. You step in, say your location, and you're there (wherever the other cabinet is). You could link several locations together and be there without worrying about Floo powder, getting the location wrong or people spying on you, and it's not single destination only.

 

Eternal memories, so this is an expansion of the pensive, however, instead of being able to view any memories, whenever. You use one memory put it in there and it will play that whenever, maybe give them a holographic display. The advantage over the magical photography is that they don't have minds of their own and you can have minutes (maybe hours it's not really clear in canon how long they can last) of those special occasions like weddings, graduations, favourite quiddich game, etc. They should be much cheaper than a pensieve, but still a bit more expensive than the photographer to make it feel more special.

Book speakers
I see this mostly for potion making, but it can have referencing applications as well. In my mind this looks like a music stand. You put a book on it and then you can call a page or a heading and it goes to that page and you can have it read out steps or passages while work so you're not constantly looking at your potion formula when you need to focus on your potion. It would turn pages automatically and the like. Key here is it works with any book. So you can have fiction playing to entertain the kids while you have tea, etc.

Meal boxes
Too poor for a house elf? Hate cooking? Then get meal box! Put raw food in specify the dish and meal boxes patented mise en place charms will whip up your meal in 10 minutes or less. Pretty much a magical microwave. I see this for singles that work long days and don't like cooking.

 

New shoes that, like, don't need to be worked in and are comfortable straight away.

 

Metamorph Robes.

Clothes that can change their appearance while you're wearing them. Would erase the need to ever buy any other clothing.

You could have them change into a swimsuit, tuxedo, dress, anything!

 

They should direct all their resources into the creation of a magical Disneyland. There is plenty to be figured out and invented there.

 

I do think the penseive has a lot more potential than we see in the books.

From my perspective, an interesting development would be the ability to not just extract and view memories, but extract and make copies of them.

I'd envision it as a expensive service used by governements and rich individuals to quickly learn skills, without the person they're collected from actually losing them. Just having the memories doesn't give you the skill of application, but it makes getting that competence a lot easier, especially in purely mental skills like languages.

For instance if a ministry official gets a posting as ambassador in say Egypt, he gets an intensive course of memories from the person he's replacing in local customs, the language, the basic history and interactions of all the local players, where the skeletons are hidden, knowledge on the local geography, flora and fauna plus some rudimentary skills in self defence. Enough that he's as competent as his predecessor immediately.

The same might occur for the offspring of people in the trades, where the reason that single families are so dominant is that the vast majority of say Ollivander's inheritance is a memory dump of all that his ancestors, going back years, know on the topic of wand crafting.

It'd also have applications in say sports. There's a saying in Football at least that the 'ultimate' player has an 35 year old brain and 17 year olds legs. With this invention, that'd be possible. Join a quidditch team and on day one you get a copy of the coaches memories of 20 years in the sport. Every trick, every feint, all the stresses and experiences of playing in the big leagues. Want to be a pro dueller? Show enough potential and pay enough money and you can immediately have all of Flitwicks memories in your head before you even step in a ring.

It'd lead to interesting social issues though, likely leading to a huge disparity between the rich who can afford to learn a load more and the poor who have to do it the old fashioned way. It might also enhance the already present benefits of a 'good school' where what you learn relates directy to what your teachers themselves know. Hogwarts is the best school in the world for transfiguration and charms not just because Flitwick and McGonnagal are good teachers, but becuase by graduation you have all of their memories on the subject immediately to hand.

It'd also raise interesting questions around personhood. Has one attained eternal life if you can simply transfer all your experiences into a new body? I'd argue no, because the soul is a real thing in HP world, but on a functional level?

What makes a person unique and how do you prevent these memory dumps fundamentally changing the nature of the recipient? how do you reatin your individuality and privacy as a person if 100 others are wandering around with a fair chunk of your memories and experiences? Perhaps you can only donate memories after death?

 

Healing. It may not be something that's completely unorthodox, but it is something that would probably be advanced. As in the muggle world, there is plenty of room for advancement in the wizarding world. Wizards still have to deal with ever changing diseases. There are plenty of curses, such as the werewolf curse and blood-curses where treatment could be developed or a cure synthesized. I'm sure there are a few poisons where treatment could be improved. Dark magic remains an ever-present area of improvement. Limbs severed via dark magic could finally be re-attached. As Taure has said, the length of life could be improved as well.

Of course, the difference between muggle medicine and healing is that while healing improves, the injuries and how they're acquired get worse in the wizarding world. Dark wizards can themselves invent new curses, and improve their ability to permanently maim someone for life.

 

You know you like it

 

Isn't this a wand?

 

1. Wizarding analogue of Thief’s Downfall to be employed at the Ministry. I can imagine some post-war developments going into solving the recurring problem of government officials being imperio-d.

2. Brooms seem to be continually improved upon in cannon, so faster brooms. In turn, faster bludgers and snitches.

3. Lycanthropy cure. After all, someone developed Wolfsbane.

4. Time turners. Cursed Child lul.

5. Escalator-like Enchantments on staircases. (Nvm this exists. Good catch, Avian)

6. Insanity/Mental-health cures. Reversal of damage to Neville's parents. Counters to long-term dementor effects. Etc

 

This exists in canon

 

I would think expanding ways to travel, something like a worldwide Floo network. Maybe the various magical government don't play nice with each other and don't want easy travel between nations but it'd be pretty cool to have a globalist magical utopia where you can step into a portal in Britain and exit in Africa.

 

1. More cooperation with other beings to advance magic, we already see the begining of this in the books with Firenze teaching Centaur divination to wizards. But in general it seems like each race jealously guards whatever special magical knowledge they have. Like imagine how much drama could have been avoided if the Wizards knew how to create a Thief's downfall.
2. Live long distance communication, not as neccesary as for muggles because of easily avaiable teleportation, getting in contact with traveling wizards is rather hard without owls or advanced magic. Things like mirror from Sirius seem to be a step in the right direction and show that wizard posses the capability, but a way for regular wizard to immidiatly contact one another would sitll be convenient.
3. More items with enchantments for spells that the average wizard can't use, I strongly doubt that the shield charm is the only useful spell most wizards cant cast and the Weasley twins showed how needed such things are.