まぁ、そんなものですかな？ perhaps this means perhaps, perhaps?


I have seen this construction used various times in Japanese text, but I
cannot really put my finger on as to what it could mean definitively.

> 人類の進歩と調和に役立つもの・・・例えば  
>  ディフレクターに代わる  
>  新しいエネルギーとか  
>  まぁ、そんなものですかな？

Personally, I believe it to be something

of tremendous importance to mankind. Something that will help us better

ourselves and the world. Perhaps, a new energy source, more powerful than

our current refractors.

_My attempt at figuring this out_

It's something of tremendous importance for the progress of mankind. For
example, a new energy source to replace refractors, or something like that,
perhaps?




While there was a comment saying this might be off-topic if the poster is
using a machine translator and asking for clarification, the English text
doesn't look like something that came out of a machine translator. So I will
go ahead and answer.

> まぁ、そんなものですかな？

"まぁ" has a feeling of hesitation, possible when something is thinking about
something, and can be often translated as "well".

"もの" has multiple meanings, primarily to refer to a physical object, but
sometimes referring to an abstract thing in a (for lack of a better term)
"emotional" sense. "そんなもの" (often そんなもん") is an expression that fits more with
the second definition, though the first also applies here too since the
contexts talking about physical things. In both cases "something" often fits
as a translation.

Using the above understanding to make a rough translation we get:

> Well, something like that.

The "かな” in the phrase is often used when the speaker is wondering about
something, often thinking out loud without giving a direct question to anyone.

However, given the context that we are in the middle of a sentence, especially
after listing one possible option, this would probably be better:

> (a new energy source)...or something like that.

Here the "well" is not directly translated, but implied by the "..."

To help add the feeling of the ”かな”, you could possibly throw the phrase "I
guess" somewhere in the phrase (probably at the beginning).

