ISO has put out a new standard for toilets that are not connected sewer systems, describing what they are supposed to do as opposed to what they are supposed to look like. This means inventors and entrepreneurs have something to shoot for, and if they meet the standard they will have a strong marketing tool. The entire plumbing and wastewater industrial complex (which I am part of) might want to take note. There is always the possibility of a “killer app” along the lines of the digital camera or cell phone coming along and making an entire centuries-old system of infrastructure suddenly obsolete.

There is one risk nobody is talking about – the possibility that aliens cruise by every few decades, note that we are still shitting in our own water supply, and decide we have not yet reached a level of technology that would make us worth invading.