Be the first to know 13 Technologies that will change your life

From Smart Dust to Digital Twins. This tech is going to change your life more than the smart phone did.

1.    Micro/bio-chips

The current main idea behind micro-chips is for tracking bio-metrics at work, as part of the smart workspace technology ecosystem. Though it’s nothing too exciting yet, this technology currently helps with identifying employees and paying for lunch and coffee (Woo).

Unless everyone suddenly agrees to let their blood pressure be monitored daily at work, this tracking is likely to remain benign in the near future. Beyond work, these chips (which are made from an array of molecular sensors on the chip surface that can analyze biological elements and chemicals) will be able to detect diseases early. Which leads us to…

2.    Nanorobotics

For those wanting to go even smaller than micro-chips: nanorobots, which are currently in the R&D phase, are essentially very very tiny sensors.

The first useful applications of these nanomachines may very well be in nanomedicine. For example, biological machines could be used to identify and destroy cancer cells or deliver drugs. Another potential application is the detection of toxic chemicals, and the measurement of their concentrations, in the environment.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves: Smart Dust will be discussed soon.

3.    Enhanced Genetic predictions

No, I’m not talking about Gattaca (yet). But we’re getting pretty close to it: scientists can already use your genome to predict your chances of getting heart disease or breast cancer, and even your IQ (mine is anywhere between 75 and 135 according to random, non-scientific BuzzFeed Quizzes). As such, DNA-based “predictions” could be the next great public health advance, regardless of the risks of genetic discrimination. For example, if women at high risk for breast cancer got more mammograms and those at low risk got fewer, those exams might catch more real cancers and set off fewer false alarms, leading to a better treatment rate and lower insurance premia.

It could also lead to the rise of personalised medicine, though the logistics of such a task would likely be a financial and logistical disaster given the current political climate.

4.    CRISPR

Even if a Gattaca-like future does come about, changing some genes to make an individual healthy could be the key to ruining a perfectly good apocalyptic future. CRISPR/Cas genome editing techniques have many potential applications, including medicine and crop seed enhancement.

5.    3D metal printing

3D printing may already appear to be a thing of the past (when in fact the ideas behind it have only gotten more realistic), but we’re yet to see the full extent of the tech’s capacities with regards to new materials. Working with various metals will allow for lighter, stronger and more complex objects, which will be great for complex or custom mechanical parts (think tricked out car engines). The process is however incredibly hard to master (I cover 4D printing below,for those brave enough to go there).

6.    Smart Dust

Smart dust is a swarm of incredibly tiny (.15 x .15 mm) sensors which would gather huge amounts of information over a large area without disturbing the ecosystem. Some of the applications include detection of corrosion in aging pipes before they leak in factories (Or drinking water…), tracking mass movements in cities or even monitoring inaccessible areas, however large they may be.

One of the issue with this technology being discussed is the ecological harm these sensors could cause, as well as their potential for being used for unethical behavior. Another is how actionable the data gathered may be as opposed to satellite images.

7.    4D printing

The name 4D printing can lead to confusion: I am not implying that humanity will be able to create and access another dimension. Put simply, a 4D-printed product is a 3D-printed object which can change properties when a specific stimulus is applied (submerged underwater, heated, shaken, not stirred…). The applications are still being discussed, but it could be a way for many industries to become more sustainable, and for some products to be much more practical.

How cool would it be to own clothes and footwear that optimise their form and function by reacting to changes in the environment?

8.    Neuromorphic Hardware

Now this is what I call real SciFi. Taking a page from biology, physics, mathematics, computer science, and electronic engineering, neuromorphic engineering aims to create hardware which copies the neurons in their response to sensory inputs.

We’re not really sure how far this idea can be taken, but exploring it is, if anything, great for theoretical A.I research. Should said research go further and become actionable, you’ll find me knocking on Sarah Connor’s door.

9.    Digital Twin

Digital twins integrate artificial intelligence, machine learning and software analytics to create a digital replica of physical assets that update and change as their physical counterparts change, hence providing a variety of information throughout an object’s life cycle. With an estimated 21 billion connected sensors and endpoints by 2020, digital twins will exist for billions of things in the near future, if only for the potential billions of dollars of savings in maintenance and repair. Improving operations and optimising the IoT’s performance is also very much on the table.

All the above is very cool, but imagine how much cooler it’d be if instead of objects we could make a digital twin for humans to see diseases in real time, or even for entire cities!

See you in 2050 for the details.

10. Volumetric displays / Free-space displays

If one cuts through the blah blah, volumetric displays are essentially holograms. Their use in advertising may be either greatly entertaining, or absolutely terrible because of potential impracticabilities. The same can be said for more or less any industry which would claim to use such a tech. I’m also dubious about the tech’s importance: computers were supposed to kill paper and I still print every single presentation I receive to read it.

I don’t see hologram being anything else than a hype-tech attached to other more interesting techs (such as adaptive projectors).

11. Brain-Computer interface

Sometimes called a neural-control interface, mind-machine interface, direct neural interface, or brain–machine interface, is a direct communication pathway between an enhanced or wired brain and an external device. It sounds super cool and futuristic, but you’ve probably already seen it at work in prosthetics, for example.

But it’s the 24/7 access to internet which would be most transformative. Beyond the sociological, ethical and financial worries, it is the theological issue which interests me more:

if everyone has access to the entirety of human knowledge at all time, every single human will be, in essence, a god. And if everyone is god, nobody is.

It’s a comforting thought.

12. Smart Robots / Autonomous Mobile Robots

This has also been a staple of SciFi for many years, for obvious reasons: imagine mixing robotics with enough General Artificial Intelligence to entertain the idea of the digital world becoming physical.

Before any of this can ever happen, we will need to improve robotics and create a new branch of A.I research. AMRs will also need nice a strong batteries, hence the current research into Lithium–silicon technologies. Elon Musk can’t get ALL the glory, can he?

 In any case, EdX actually offers a free class to learn about Autonomous Robots’ basic concepts.

13. Biotech / Cultured/Artificial tissues

These biohacks will fall into four categories that will redefine what it means to be human: technology augmentation, nutrigenomics, experimental biology and grinder biohacking.

·       Technology augmentation is the use of various tools to improve our poor limbs (think augmented vision, 3D printed limbs or artificial tissues).

·       Nutrigenomics is the study of the effects of foods and food constituents on gene expression, and could be use to slow down aging, cancer or obesity once properly grasped.

·       Experimental biology is primarily and experimental science (as per its name) and I don’t fully understand it soooo…

·       And finally, grinders are people who apply the hacker ethic to improve their own bodies with do-it-yourself cybernetic devices or introducing chemicals into the body to enhance or change their bodies’ functionality. Turns out, DIY might in fact be the way of the future.