Five Most Anticipated Technologies That Will Transform Our World

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advanced-technology

Imagine that in the future we will have a much faster computers; flexible and printable electronics; and smaller and better sensors. These things are not pipe dreams. In cloud computing and networking, the trend is towards more multiple operators between networks, higher bandwidth and more virtual services. In human interfaces, the convergence on more portable devices and enormously improved multiple presences between people.

Here are some future technologies based on various experts opinion of when each technology will be scientifically viable (the kind of stuff that Google, governments, and universities develop), mainstream (when VCs and startups widely invest in it), and financially viable (when the technology is generally available on Kickstarter).

  1. Digital currencies
    Electronic money that acts as alternative currency. Currently, alternative digital currencies are not produced by government-endorsed central banks nor necessarily backed by national currencies. It differs from virtual money used in virtual economies due to its use in transactions with real goods and services; not being limited to circulation within online games. Scientifically viable today; mainstream in 2016; financially viable in 2017.
  2. Botsourcing
    The assignment of physical and online tasks traditionally performed by human agents to an autonomous software agent. Scientifically viable in 2017; mainstream and financially viable in 2020.
  3. Smart dust sensors
     A system of many tiny microelectromechanical systems such as sensors, robots, or other devices, that can detect, for example, light, temperature, vibration, magnetism, or chemicals. Scientifically viable in 2022; mainstream in 2024; and financially viable in 2027.
  4. Printed electronics
    A set of printing methods used to create electrical devices on various substrates. Electrically functional or optical inks are deposited on the material, creating active or passive devices, such as thin film transistors or resistors. Printed electronics is expected to facilitate widespread, very low-cost, low-performance electronics for applications such as flexible displays, smart labels, decorative and animated posters, and active clothing that do not require high performance. Scientifically viable in 2021; mainstream and financially viable in 2022.
  5. Memristors
    The reason why the memristor is so different from the other three basic circuit elements is that it retains memory without power. It is a new material that promises computers two orders of magnitude more efficient from a power perspective than traditional transistor technologies, contains multiple petabits of persistent storage, and can be reconfigured to be either memory or CPU in a package as small as a sugar cube. Scientifically viable in 2018; mainstream in 2022; financially viable in 2025.