Envisioning emerging technology for 2012 and beyond.

Understanding where technology is heading is more than guesswork. Looking at emerging trends and research, one can predict and draw conclusions about how the technological sphere is developing, and which technologies should become mainstream in the coming years.

Envisioning technology is meant to facilitate these observations by taking a step back and seeing the wider context. By speculating about what lies beyond the horizon we can make better decisions of what to create today.

What is the visualization?

Understanding where technology is heading is more than guesswork. Looking at emerging trends and research, one can predict and draw conclusions about how the technological sphere is developing, and which technologies should become mainstream in the coming years.

Envisioning technology is meant to facilitate these observations by taking a step back and seeing the wider context. By speculating about what lies beyond the horizon we can make better decisions of what to create today.

License & credits

“Envisioning technology” has a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license, which means that you are free to use it as an individual (or in your organization) whichever way you see fit, as long as you credit the author.

Technologies mentioned

Artificial Intelligence:

High-frequency trading, Software agents, Natural language interpretation, Machine translation, Procedural storytelling, VR-only lifeforms, Machine-augmented cognition.

Internet:

Cloud computing, Cyber-warfare, 4G, Mesh networking, Virtual currencies, 5G, Reputation economy, Interplanetary internet, Remote presence, Exocortex.

Interfaces:

Multitouch, Gesture recognition, Speech recognition, Augmented reality, 4K, Haptics, Holography, Telepresence, Immersive virtual reality.

Sensors:

Depth imaging, Near-field communication, Pervasive video capture, Biometric sensors, Smart power meters, Biomarkers, Machine vision, Computational photography, Optogenetics, Neuroinformatics.

Ubicomp:

Tablets, Volumetric (3D) screens, Flexible screens, Boards, Picoprojectors, Eyewear-embedded screens, Context-aware computing, Fabric-embedded screens, Reprogrammable chips, Skin-embedded screens, Retinal screens.

Robotics:

Appliance robots, Smart toys, Robotic surgery, Self-driving vehicles, Powered exoskeleton, Unmanned aerial vehicles, Domestic robots, Swarm robotics, Embodied avatars, Utility fog.

Biotech:

Personal gene sequencing, Organ printing, Synthetic blood, Smart drugs, Personalized medicine, In-vitro meat, Synthetic biology, Stem-cell treatments, Gene therapy, Hybrid assisted limbs, Artificial retinas, Nanomedicine, Anti-aging drugs.

Materials:

Additive manufacturing, Self-healing materials, Graphene, Personal fabricators, Meta-materials, Optical invisibility cloaks, Carbon nanotubes, Biomaterials, Molecular assembler, Nanowires, Programmable matter.

Energy:

Inductive chargers, Tidal turbines, Fuel cells, Bio-enhanced fuels, Multi-segmented smart grids, Photvoltaic glass, Piezo-electricity, Biomechanical harvesting, Nano-generators, Artificial photosynthesis, Enernet, Thorium reactor, Traveling wave reactor, Space-based solar power.

Space:

Commercial spaceflight, Sub-orbital spaceflight, Space tourism, Lunar outpost, Mars mission, Space elevator, Solar sail.

Geotech:

Weather engineering, Vertical farming, Seasteading, Desalination, Carbon sequestration, Climate engineering, Arcologies.

• Published in FastCompany, Huffington Post, SeattlePI, EDGE, io9, LaStampa and WIRED (Understanding The World, 2014).