Interesting post... I think rather than the ideas themselves, the institutions and culture of risk-aversion and short sighted budget allocations are keeping truly original ideas from being realised .

There are few places left like Bell labs, a place with interdisciplinary teams and no quarterly targets to worry about. That left them free to explore and try off the wall ideas. Of course those were high risk and rarely paid off ... but when they did it sparked whole industrial revolutions ... I am very curious what Google's X as going to produce ... they might be one of the few places left with serious budget and an appetite for trying seemingly wacky ideas .
Academia and huge multinationals probably only will generate incremental improvements ...