Like childbirth, the emergence of new technologies can take time and come in starts and stops. The moment of inception is fleeting, and then there follows a long series of transformations. If all goes well, in the end, a healthy new technology is ready for prime time, but it too must grow and be transformed over time. And like human life, all technologies have a preset duration, after which they don’t seem to solve the world’s latest challenges. In fact, they become unsuitable, and new technologies take their place.
Back in 1985, for example, the compact disc, also known as the CD, was considered an emerging technology. And before that, portable cassette players with headphones were on the cutting edge. But today, these technologies seem clunky vis-à-vis today’s technologies. But that’s how it goes. One step at a time!
Last year, the worlds best, brightest, and richest got together at the World Economic Forum and identified the top 10 emerging technologies as explained in the following video. The 10 include:
- Nano sensors and the Internet of Nanothings
- Generation Batteries
- The Blockchain
- 2D Materials
- Autonomous Vehicles
- Organs-On-Chips
- Perovskite Solar Cells
- Open AI Ecosystem
- Optogenetics
- Systems Metabolic Engineering
2017’s Emerging Technologies according to CTO Bytes include:
- Enterprise Digital Hubs
- Artificial Intelligence
- Emerging BI from Analytics
- Vendor Innovation Gap
- The Internet of Things
- Distributed Ledger and Block Chain
- Mandated Innovation
- Digital Automation
- Video
- Virtual Reality
Finally, the Future Today Institute provides a very detailed report on emerging technologies. The 2016 version is 80 pages long!
