Five Trends that will shape future science & technology

Posted by: Malik Mirza on: May 25, 2011

• In: Book Review
• 2 Comments

If you want to know your past, look at your present conditions

If you want to know your future, look at your present actions – Buddhist saying

Many educated guesses are being made about the future. There are numerous books, articles and websites on this subject. However, these days, I am reading a book named: Future Files. Here are some ideas from the book about five trends that will shape science and technology in future:

1. Nanotechnology

Gone are the days when we used ‘floppy disks’ and ‘magnetic tapes’ for storing data. Now, there are USBs, flash drives and what not. This will shrink further. It may happen that there will be a small ‘chip’ for mobile phone and that smallest chip will be connected to fingers for dialing numbers. That is one of the examples of ‘nano’ technology. This technology will affect all industries. However, we will see public debate only when some ‘major’ nano-event happens!

2. Biotechnology

Genetics will be the talk of the world in next 20 – 25 years. People will be impacted by genetically enhanced humans! Biotechnology will be used for benefits of society but like every technology, it will be the brains behind the technology which will determine the use of the technology.

3. Emotionally aware machines

We might see cars with sensors. Those sensors will sense the ‘mood’ of the driver. Online retailers will tailor their pages according to the customers’ need and so on. Seems unbelievable? Once upon a time, flying in air was impossible too!.

4. Robotics

We may see small scale robots working all around, carrying bags, doing repetitive task and helping us in complex tasks. However, to see robotics on a vast scale, we might have to wait for 20 to 25 years!

5. Ethics

With the advent of digital era, privacy is long dead. The only way to maintain privacy is not to use any form of social media or mobile phone which are becoming necessities of life. Hence, debate on ethical use of technology is going to continue in time to come.

Note: The above ideas are from the book: Future Files by Richard Watson.

Your thoughts? You may read about Thomas Friedman’s book: The World is flat from: http://wisdomfrombooks.com/?p=879

Note: I have moved to my own website www.wisdomfrombooks.com . You may visit the website and book mark the same. Thanks

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Tags: future, Richard Watson, science & technology, trends