11 reasons to look at the technology of the future with enthusiasm

The rapid development and wide distribution of technology - the most powerful force that drives human progress.

The Economist

In 1820, the average human life span was 35 years,Max Roser.Life Expectancy. , 94%Max Roser.world Poverty. the world's population live in deep poverty, and less than 20% were literate. Today, people live an average of more than 70 years, in conditions of extreme poverty exists less than 10% of the global population and the literate is more than 80% of the world's populationThe OECD.How was life? Global well-being since 1820. .

These improvements we owe mainly to technological development, which began in the industrial age, and continues now in the information age.

A lot of exciting new technology will continue to transform the world and improve the quality of human life. Here are 11 of them.

1. unmanned vehicles

Existing unmanned cars win on the level of security in the traditional in most driving conditions. As they become even more reliable and truly popular over the next 3-5 years.

according to estimatesWHO.Road traffic injuries. The World Health Organization, as a result of road accidents killed 1.25 million people each year.

Half of them - pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists, hit by a car. Cars are considered to be the main cause of death for people aged 15-29 years.

In the same way as the traditional machines changed the world in the XX century, their unmanned counterparts transform reality in this century. In most cities, 20-30%Charlie Gardner.We are the 25%: looking at street area percentages and surface parking. the territory occupied by parking spaces, and a large part of the car idle 95% of the time. Unmanned same machine will almost always be used (you can call them using mobile applications), which will reduce the need for parking.

Cars will communicate among themselves as to avoid accidents and traffic jams. A former drivers will be able to spend the time spent on the road for work, education, communication, and other things.

2. Clean Energy

Efforts to reduce energy consumption, to stop the changes in climate have been unsuccessful. Fortunately, scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs are working diligently in order to make convenient and cost-effective clean energy.

Through continuous improvement of technologies and approaches to production, since 1977 the solar battery price fell by 99.5%SaskWind.Wind and solar cost decline. 1980 to 2015. .

According to the cost-effectiveness of solar energy will soon surpass fossil fuels. The cost of wind power is also reduced to historic lows. And, for example, in the past decade, this resource provided more than a third of all the energy produced by new plants in the United States.

Forward-thinking organizations are using the benefits of clean energy. So, in India Initiative to equip airports with solar panels. Tesla is developing a high-performance and relatively affordable electric cars, as well as sets the charging power plants around the world.

Some facts give hope that the development of clean energy is approaching a tipping point. For example, in Japan the amount of electric power for charging the vehicle has already exceeded the number of traditional ingredients. And Germany produces more renewable energy than it can spend.

3. Virtual and Augmented Reality

Computers only recently become powerful enough to provide a comfortable and compelling experience with virtual and augmented reality. Facebook, Google, Apple, Microsoft and other companies are investing billions of dollars to make VR and AR more exciting, convenient and accessible technologies.

Contrary to popular opinion, these developments will be used not only for games. They find application in various spheres of activity. For example, we will manage the 3D-objects and interfaces to see distant interlocutors in augmented reality. A virtual reality is already helping to treat phobias and rehabilitate paralyzed people.

Fans of science fiction for decades dreamed of VR and AR. The next few years will turn their dreams into widespread reality.

4. Flying cars and drones

The road? Where we go, the roads are not needed.

Dr. Emmett Brown, / f "Back to the Future"

GPS started his way as a military technology, but now it is used to call a taxi, find directions, and hunting for Pokémon. Likewise, it began the history of the drones, and now they are included in a long list of consumer and commercial applications.

For example, the drones are helping to inspect places of natural disasters and critical infrastructure areas such as power transmission lines and bridges. With their help, calculate poaching. Amazon and Google are developing drones to deliver packages. Startup Zipline uses drones to provide medications village, distant from roads.

Among the new wave of start-ups, there are those who are working on flying cars. Among them - Two projects funded by Google co-founder Larry Page. The flying car uses the same advanced technology found in the drones, but with the expectation of people transportation.

Thanks to breakthroughs in the development of materials, batteries and software such machines are much more affordable and convenient than today's airplanes and helicopters.

5. Artificial Intelligence

It must take place hundreds of years before the computer to win a man in the first - if not more.

New York Times, 1997

Google computer program defeated the champion of the game board.

New York Times, 2016

New algorithms, the growing power of computers and fast data collection significantly improved artificial intelligence for the last 10 years. AI can be applied in virtually any area. For example, he gives the photographs the features typical of the style of famous artists. A Google uses artificial intelligence to manage the energy supply of its data centers. Therefore, the company will save hundreds of millions of dollars.

It is expected that the AI ​​will free us from similar intellectual problems as well as the industrial revolution freed the people from the routine physical work.

If artificial intelligence is better to teach people to play chess, it means he can help us become better pilots, doctors, judges and teachers.

Kevin Kelly, futurist

Some people worry that the AI ​​will take away their jobs. History shows that technology really make useless profession, but at the same time create new jobs. For example, the invention of the personal computer has reduced demand in the print shop, but more than offset this demand for graphic designers.

Imagine doomed to extinction profession much easier than those that appear in the future. Today, millions of people are employed by application developers, drivers raydshering services, drone operators and the SMM-managers. Ten years ago, the profession did not exist, it was difficult to even imagine.

6. Public mobile supercomputers

By 2020, 80% of the adult population of the planet will be connected to the Internet with your smartphone. Inside the iPhone 6 has 2 billion transistors, which is approximately 625 times greater than in 1995 Intel Pentium computer years. Today, smartphones are what is considered to be supercomputers.

smart phones connected to the Internet provides opportunities for ordinary people who have recently been available to a select few.

Now the people of Maasai warrior from Kenya with a mobile phone in his hand has more opportunity for communication than the president of the same country 25 years ago. And if his smartphone has access to Google, you at the disposal of that person more information than has been the president of the United States only 15 years ago.

Peter Diamandis, an engineer and entrepreneur

7. Cryptocurrency and blokcheyn

If in 1989 people were asked what could make their lives better, it is unlikely they would be talking about a decentralized network of information nodes linked hypertext.

Farmer & Farmer

Protocols - the Internet is the pipeline. Most of them were created by the government and the scientific community for decades ago. Then the focus shifted towards the development of proprietary systems such as social networks and instant messengers - and protocols almost no one did.

Cryptocurrency blokcheyn and change the situation, creating a new business model for the Internet protocols. Only this year, a variety of innovative projects from this area have attracted hundreds of millions of dollars.

Based protocols can blokcheyn that was not available to their predecessors. For example, the new protocol blokcheyn Ethereum It allows you to design services for secure transactions and storage of databases, protected from corruption and censorship.

8. High-quality online education

While the cost of higher education continues to grow, anyone with a smartphone can study almost any subject online. Internet contains a wealth of free educational content, the quality is getting better.

The famous "Encyclopedia Britannica" was worth $ 1 400. Now it is enough to have a smartphone to access even more information from the "Wikipedia" for free.

Once programming study was limited to schoolwork and reading literature. Now you can learn from the 40 millionth community programmers Stack Overflow. YouTube holds millions of hours of free video tutorials, many of which are created with the participation of the best professors and universities.

Quality online education has been steadily increasing. Over the past 15 years, MIT (USA) writes on video lectures and other materials from 2000 courses.

The idea is simple: to publish the proceedings of all the courses online and make them available to everyone.

Dick Yu, a professor at MIT

Being, perhaps, the largest research university in the world, MIT always stands out from the rest. In other research organizations to follow suit over the next 10 years.

9. Improved food production

The area of ​​the fertile areas and the amount of pure water is reduced. This is partly due to the extremely low efficiency of the food industry.

To produce 1 kg of beef takes as much as 15 tons of water.

Fortunately, the development is the set of technologies that should improve the current situation. For example, entrepreneurs engaged in new products - palatable and nutritious substitutes for traditional food production which is less harmful to nature.

startup Impossible Foods It creates products from plants with meat taste and characteristic appearance. For the production of burger requires 95% less area to 74% less water, and is released in the process is 87% less greenhouse gas than is the case with traditional burgers.

Other startups are working on substitutes milk, eggs and other commonly used products. Soylent - a harmless and inexpensive substitute for meat, which produce a complex of ingredients with minimal damage to the environment.

Some of the new products - the results of the genetic modification. This technology is often wrongly considered dangerous.

According toJon Entine, Rebecca Randall.Scientific consensus on GMO safety stronger than for global warming. Research Center Pew Organization (USA), 88% of scientists believe genetically modified products are harmless.

Another exciting trend in the food industry - automated covered farm. Thanks to advances in solar energy, sensors, lighting, artificial intelligence and robotics, farm indoor becoming an alternative to traditional.

Unlike ordinary farms covered analogs used is about 10 times less water and grounds. Plants in the past is much more likely to produce a crop, do not depend on the weather, and do not require treatment with pesticides.

10. computerized medicine

Until recently, computers were on the periphery of medicine. They were used only for research and storage. Today, a combination of computer science and medicine leads to breakthroughs in the field of health.

Genome sequencing (determination of RNA and DNA structures) 15 years ago was worth $ 3 billion. Today, that figure has dropped to 1000 dollars and continues to decline.

The sequencing is poised to become a routine medical procedure. It generates massive amounts of data that can be analyzed with the help of powerful software. This process allows you to check blood samples for early signs of cancer and choose the optimal treatment.

Another result of the use of computers in medicine - the emergence of high-tech prostheses.

Modern artificial limbs can control muscle contractions. And in the future brain-computer interface allow to control prostheses by sheer force of thought.

In addition, the computer shows the high efficiency in the diagnosis of diseases. Recently, IBM Watson system of artificial intelligence has detected signs of leukemia, the doctors are not noticed. This is due to the fact that the car was found hidden patterns in 20 millions of cancer records.

11. New space technologies

Since the beginning of the Space Age, which occurred in 1950, flights were carried out mainly at the expense of government. And over time, their funding significantly decreased. Thus, from the 1960s to the present day NASA cash resources decreased from 4.5% of the state budget to 0.5%.

The good news is that the private space company took the initiative in their own hands.

They provide a wide range of products and services, including communications and observation satellites, missile launches, research and speculative business model like mineral resource extraction in the asteroids.

The most famous private space company - SpaceX, founded by Elon Musk. Its reusable rocket back to Earth for the re-start.

But the most intriguing of these companies - Planetary Resources. It can become a pioneer of a new industry, aimed at the development of asteroids. If successful, we are waiting for a new gold rush in the open space. Even if the costs will not bring the desired result, as was the case with gold mining, financing will ensure the development of technology and infrastructure.

These are just some of the amazing technologies that will develop the next ten years. 2016 - only the beginning of a wonderful new century.