Do you think the world has achieved a lot of innovation in the last 15 years? I agree with you – it was actually a lot. But wait to see what’s coming in the near future. We’ve seen mobile phones change the speed of our life, how we interact with each other using the Internet, becoming overnight a YouTube sensation, our smartphones that have tons of features, Facebook that is building virtual life. All that has disrupted the way we used to live our lives. We now can’t imagine our lives without being always plugged in or having access to Internet from anywhere in the world. Other ideas that promise to alter our habits are beginning to take shape. Again.
Here you have 5 new technologies that I believe are going to take us out of our comfort zone:
1. Virtual Reality (VR)
VR is not the future, it is present. Samsung and Oculus Rift already launched and continue to develop their products – headsets that enable us living a new experience. This new technology is going to disrupt a lot of industries: the adult content, architectural design, photography, how people consume news, education and of course – gaming. Using those headsets we’d be living the digital experience like it was the real thing.
2. Internet of Things (IoT)
There is nothing new about this new concept. Some of you probably use it already, but most of us will be controlling their homes and offices from our smartphones – heating, light and air conditioning. The equipment is already developed and sold by many companies and it will continue to improve so that we would control our power points from our smartphones. Apple is also on the way helping people with that. The company revealed that it will launch a special app called Home, that will be the central directory to control your house from your mobile.
3. Solar Energy and Electric Cars
Elon Musk has been on of the pioneers of investment and development of the technology of electric cars. The book written about him by Ashlee Vance says a lot about how stubborn he is to achieve his goals. The electric cars are already on the streets, but still too expensive for the mass market. The Model 3 Tesla revealed this spring is going to be another game-changer. Despite the huge media coverage Tesla has, the car would not be available for the next two years, which made some of the outlets to say Tesla sold an inexistent car. One thing is for sure: electric cars, busses and trains are the next future. We have risked too much with our ecosystems and ambience till now. The latest reports say that Germany, Norway and Holland are on the way of setting a ban to gas-powered vehicles. All of them are discussing the possibility to allow only electric vehicle sales starting 2025-2030.
4. Wearables
This is going to be a hit for the next 5-10 years. For sure. Computers made us spent our lives in a sedentary way and wearables are going to teach us move again. They will develop the health culture that many of us never had or have lost it. Fitbit sold last year more than 8 mln fitness trackers and Apple sold about 12 mln Watches the previous year (not everybody bought them for fitness). Statistics show that more and more people are paying attention to their health and those wearables are already here to help them.
5. Online Money, Online Banks
Like the feeling of cash, holding them in your hands or having the freedom to check your account balance at an ATM? Well, that could be history in 10 years. By 2020, 70 percent of the world will be using a smartphone, according to Ericsson’s mobility report. That means the digital wallets will be the new reality. If you have a Google Wallet account you can send money by email (Gmail). Facebook added a new feature in Messenger that gives people a more convenient and secure way to send or receive money between friends. The feature is being tested already one year in some countries. Banks start to exist just online. There are some examples of these financial institutions that exist on the Internet ONLY.
Bonus: Artificial Intelligence and tracking softwares
Many of you have seen movies where robots become smart or computers are taking control of all the existent tech systems in the world. It’s now going to happen that way, but there is a scent of truth in all that fiction. And it is happening in a few stages:
1. We have built super-computers.
2. Those computers and systems became able to process huge amount of data – we now have big data. That amount of information allows giants like Google and Facebook, for instance, to create systems that analyze our online behavior pattern. The’ll know when you are online, what you do there, what are your interests, what you buy, what type of products, etc. All this information opens a new chapter: tech giants will know what are your needs, will understand them better than we do and will serve them to us. And we would have no idea that it’s happening. Everything will be seamless.
3. Loading robots with such systems that have the ability to learn our needs automatically. Because they were programmed to do so. Some of them could happen to be very useful: helping doing stuff at home, cleaning the house, building cars and machines.
Be ready for the future!
Reflecting upon all these new things that will invade our lives, one thing is for sure: this life is changing too damn fast. Our parents had a shock when transiting to mobile phones, computers and Internet. We’ll also have to face it: but 5 times faster and with many more challenges.
