Fiction to Fact – in Five years Flat
Today being 31st Dec and the year 2019 is about to end. The decade is about to end, and we are geared up to welcome the next decade of 2020. Got a message on my WhatsApp couple of days ago indicating how do we write date to avoid confusion in year 2020…responded with three options a) write with apostrophe i.e. ’20 or b) don’t complicate as no one has edited the date when we wrote date in current year…the chance of getting the date was equally high when we wrote 2-Oct-19 or c) use digital signatures!!! 😊
We have come a long way; I still remember the day when we transited from year 1999 to 2000. There was a big noise about the millennium bug (aka Y2K bug). People were indeed scared and concerned about the technology in use and our dependence on technology at that point of time. Nothing major incident happened as enough preventive steps had been taken and we sailed into year 2000 smoothly.
First decade post year 2000, was an era of mobility where in we saw rise of mobile networks. The next decade (2009-2019) was of smartphone and cloud compute and we all got hooked to it! Today mobile penetration has crossed 100% in most of the urban markets. Our mobile is more than supercomputer for an individual compared to old computers in 1970. Today, right from train ticket to air ticket to paying bills to paying to a local kirana wala most of our day to day transaction got executed using a smartphone.
In today’s world we are surrounded by disruptive technologies be it Artificial Intelligence or Machine Learning or Blockchain or Virtual Reality or Drone or chat bot or Robotics or 3D Printing…now is the era when the confluence of multiple technologies would take shape and more and more new use cases would evolve to our benefit. Many say that machines would rise and take over our jobs. While technology is eating away our jobs, technology is also creating new jobs. Future of work is an interesting topic and is being studied and discussed at length in universities & conferences. If decade of 2009 was known as decade of mobile networks and decade of 2019 was of mobile applications; the next decade would be known as decade of 5G, edge compute and quantum compute.
The solution to a problem which used to be a fiction few of years ago is being converted to reality at the supersonic pace. Thanks to technology and the entrepreneurs around. The amount of trust we have on technology today is much higher than it used to be a decade ago. This rise of technology and innovation is result of uniform availability of internet infrastructure, robust hardware & on demand compute.
Now let us have a look at the technology trends for the years to come. Top 10 technology trends which would drive disruption in 2020 are:
- Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning
- Internet of Things
- Robotic Process Automation
- Block-chain
- Edge Compute
- Virtual Reality / Augmented Reality / Mixed Reality
- Cyber security
- 5G
- Voice Compute / NLP
- 3D Printing
These trends would lead us to confluence of technology and new / improved use cases such as:
- Nextgen Commute i.e. Autonomous cars, drone taxi, Hyperloop
- Supply of life saving drugs in remote areas using drones
- Block-chain enabled electronic health records
- Smart Speakers in homes and enterprise
- Smart homes
- Next level entertainment and sports enabled by Virtual Reality
- Streaming platforms providing 4K & 8K video
- Auto mitigation of Cyber Attack using Deception technologies
- 3D printing in healthcare
- Digital Transformation in Enterprise
- Edge Compute in Smart Cities
- 5G enabled autonomous factories
Still there a few challenges (including but not limited to) we need to focus and put more efforts upon:
- Clean potable water & air
- Food for all
- Containing wildfires
- Global Warming
- Reduction of fossil fuel
- Efficient recycling waste and e-waste
- Ethics in Technology
- Ocean Clean up
- Fake news
- Prevent Soil erosion
However, we are progressing in the right direction and here are few use cases which renews our confidence that with use of technology we can overcome any challenge:
- An AI enabled device to detect 90% of diseases in flat 10 minutes
- Lab grown meat to overcome food shortage
- 3D printed organs & medicines
- Biodegradable plastic
- Space tourism
- Smart Fertilizers and precision agriculture
- Super microbes eating oil spills in the ocean
- Human Augmentation and Hibernation
- Smart IoT sensors to ensure right quality of clean air in smart cities
- Time travel
- Gene editing i.e. CRISPER
- Inter plenary communication network
- Holographic Telepresence
- 3D Printers in Space to build space colonies
- Block-chain enabled Crypto Currencies
- Human Head transplant using AI, ML & Robotics
Conclusion:
Steve jobs rightly said, “Technology is nothing. What’s important is that you have a faith in people, that they are basically good and smart, and if you give them tools, they will do wonderful things with them.”
The technology seemed distant is coming to our life at a higher pace solving our problems and making our life more comfortable. Indeed we are in an era where fiction is becoming fact. Let us embrace benefits and continue to learn-unlearn and relearn to progress with technologies and the trends around.
Thanks for your time. Hope you liked our collaborative effort. Feel free to Like/Comment/Share !
Wishing you a Happy New Year 2020 !!!
This article is a collaborative effort by Chintan Oza, Biren Parikh, Ajit Joshi & Chander Wanchoo who are members of TMI group. TMI Community is a professional community of Technology, Management and Innovation enthusiasts. Started in 2016, the community has been growing every year and collaborating on an ongoing basis.