Please feel free to flame me, but my mind is thinking mechanicals today. I know timing belts and chains generally do an excellent job doing what they're supposed to but what could be used in the place of them, could the cam shaft be connected to a dedicated electric motor and run by all the ECM parameters , or would it never be accurate enough to time all the valves correctly, as I write this I'm realizing that a timing chain/belt driven by the crank will probably never go away as it makes the most sense. I know engineer types are probably laughing at me but I was just speculating