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Six Technologies That Will Change The World -- Washington Post

"To the average person, it may seem that the biggest technology advances of 2015 were the larger smartphone screens and small app updates. But a lot more happened than that. A broad range of technologies reached a tipping point, from cool science projects or objects of convenience for the rich, to inventions that will transform humanity. We haven’t seen anything of this magnitude since the invention of the printing press in the 1400s."

See: Technologies

Comments

  • Very interesting and well-written article
  • Being in the middle of Silicon Valley and involved in the startup ecosystem, I am very jaded wrt to such talk. Especially exposed to VCs talking like that all the time. Take the latest buzz word technologies and hype them far from current reality and go on to the next big thing next year.

    The author is beyond the curve in bitcoins. That is so 2014. 2015 was the year reality caught up after significant investments in 2014.

    Wearables are so primitive in their capabilities that they require significant breakthroughs to do what the author is suggesting and so what has happened so far would be irrelevant.

    Drones have significant potential but the only breakthrough that happened in 2015 was FAA starting to regulate them which will soon make them useless in urban areas unless there is significant breakthroughs in automated routing and traffic control to manage security and privacy concerns.

    Internet has definitely changed things but the assumption of driving out ignorance is naive. One could argue that by avoiding curation of information, it has made it possible for people with ignorance and biases to find echo chambers that reinforce them than educate them. This has political and economic consequences that we see in the US already. Same thing will likely happen in developing countries, etc.

    Energy become free? No private industry in a capitalistic society can exist where the price of something goes to zero, cost doesn't. What are they going to do? Serve advertisements for free electricity, like the most common business model in Silicon Valley startups?

    Don't want to sound like a Luddite. My career has been in innovating new technologies but there are doers and there are talkers. A bit allergic to the latter.
  • Good summation vkt. no need to apologize. I too keep a large bottle of Benadryl at the ready and my knee high rubber boots on.
  • edited December 2015
    FWIW...

    The Bitcoin and Disintermediation is number three on this list. A recent article in The Economist suggests the blockchain, the technology behind the bitcoin, could transform how the economy works. Relatedly, Nasdaq recently announced the first blockchain-based share sale. Perhaps this technology does belong on a list like this one.
  • edited January 2016
    Nadine the Nanny ??
    New social robot Nadine has a personality
    In the future, social robots might serve as companions and caretakers for the children and the elderly at home.
    By Brooks Hays | Dec. 30, 2015 at 2:12 PM UPI

    image
    SINGAPORE, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- On Tuesday, engineers at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore unveiled an emotionally intelligent robot. The robot, named Nadine, has been employed as a receptionist at the university to test her skills.

    Powered by a software technology similar to Apple's interactive interface Siri, Nadine talks and acts like a human. Deployed with her own personality, Nadine can use her social intelligence to express emotions and change moods in accordance with the topic and tone of conversation.

    Her memory allows her to recognize people she's met before and recall what was said during previous conversations.
    Thalmann says in the future social robots like Nadine could become office assistants or serve as companions and caretakers for the children and the elderly at home.
    http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2015/12/30/New-social-robot-Nadine-has-a-personality/8201451499326/
    New York Post take
    Soft-skinned, brunette robot wants to be your friend
    By Yaron Steinbuch December 31, 2015 | 10:24am
    http://nypost.com/2015/12/31/soft-skinned-brunette-social-robot-nadine-wants-to-be-your-friend/
    Here's the Beef !!
    Mooo X INFINITY 01.01.1612:15 AM ET
    Abby Haglage The Daily Beast
    This year, a Chinese company plans to open a massive factory to clone 100,000 cows. Just how far will this mass reproductive technology go?
    Two decades after the birth of Dolly the sheep—the world’s first successfully cloned mammal—the year 2016 will likely see the rise of mass-produced animal clones, thanks to an enterprising and madcap scientist in China.
    Sometime in the next year, a company called Boyalife Genomics will open a massive factory in the coastal Chinese city of Tianjin, where it plans to clone 100,000 cattle per year—a way to address the Middle Kingdom’s rising appetite for beef. Eventually, the company aims to clone 1 million cattle a year, as well as other animals like champion racehorses and drug-sniffing dogs.
    http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/01/01/this-mad-scientist-will-clone-100-000-cows.html
    Boyalife Group, a $2 billion venture with four locations and 22 subsidiaries—the newest is Boyalife Genomics.
    http://www.boyalifegroup.com/english/video.aspx
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