A friend of mine sent me an interesting speculative piece on upcoming technology changes that could alter how we conduct our lives. Much of it revolves around advanced computers and the affects it could have on the fields of health, government, automation, education, manufacturing, agriculture and jobs in all types of traditional careers. I thought for the first column of 2017 a peek into the future might be fun.
The article raises two interesting questions; Are we about to enter the 4th Industrial Revolution?
Will Artificial Intelligence cause massive turmoil to most traditional industries in the next 5-10 years? Here are a few budding examples;
Uber is just a software tool, they don’t own any cars, and are now the biggest taxi company in the world.
Airbnb is now the biggest hotel company in the world, although they don’t own any properties.
Artificial Intelligence: Computers are becoming exponentially better in understanding the world. With the IBM Watson, you can get legal advice within seconds, with 90% accuracy compared with 70% accuracy when done by human attorneys. Watson, it claims, is helping nurses diagnose cancer, 4 times more accurately than humans.
Autonomous cars: The theory is in the near future you won’t want to own a car. You will call an automated car with your smart phone. It will show up at your location and drive you to your destination. But if you no longer own a car how might this affect auto dealers or the auto insurance business?
Solar production has been on an extended curve for 30 years, but like digital cameras that were created in 1975 it took 30 years and the cell phone to see their popularity change public opinion. With cheap electricity should come things like cheap and abundant water. Desalination of salt water and water purification needs very little electricity to produce clean water. We don’t have scarce water in most places, we only have scarce clean drinking water. Imagine what changes will be possible if anyone can have as much clean water as they wants?
Health: Soon we will have a medical device called the “Tricorder” derived from the Star Trek TV show. It will work with your smart phone and will take your retina scan, your blood sample and analyze your breath. The device then examines 54 bio-markers that will identify nearly any disease. It will be so cheap, that in a few years everyone on the planet could have access to world class medical analysis.
3D printing: Like many technical innovations, the price of the cheapest 3D printer has come down from $18,000 to $400 within a 10 year span. In the same time, it became 100 times faster. Major shoe companies have already started 3D printing of shoes. In China, they 3D printed a complete 6-story office building.
While I’m still challenged to program the VCR after 40 years of trying, ready or not, this and more just could be on the immediate horizon. So 70 years ago when many laughed at Dick Tracy’s watch phone how much longer will we need to wait until “Beam me up Scotty” replaces all forms of travel?
— Dan Alexander is CEO of Sun Community News. He may be reached at dan@suncommunitynews.com.