Trends Identified
Polarization
"Polarization the rise of divisiveness and divergence..Rise of ideology: Fueled by individual empowerment, access to information and communication technologies, and growing wealth inequalities, the world is seeing a rise in ideology as people and communities seek dramatic change from the status quo. As individuals engage increasingly over social networks due to the proliferation of ICT technologies, networks of ideological thinkers are no longer constrained by proximity and are able to grow exponentially with new followers who seek sources of insight online. Bursting digital bubble: Driven by the increase of mobile technologies that have enabled constant connectivity, the world around us has fundamentally changed. What has resulted is a pervasive dependence on technology for everything from social interaction to transactions to health monitoring. However, venture capitalists are predicting the burst of the tech bubble as the democratization of knowledge has led to an oversaturation and overvaluation of players in the market. Politicism of science: As people become more entrenched in their individual value systems and as environmental outcomes are increasingly tied to political and financial motivations, a politicism in scientific reasoning has emerged in today’s world. This skepticism is an example of one of the negative consequences of an increasingly polarized world, a “kick the can” mentality about issues which affect the long-term viability of our planet.Skillset divide: Following the Great Recession, the workforce particularly in the United States realized more significant employment declines in middle-skilled white- and blue-collar jobs (e.g., construction, manufacturing, mining) than in the high-skill or low-skill sectors. While those losses have stabilized somewhat in the US, the polarization in skillsets valued in today’s global market still exists. Institutionalized radicalism: While the term “radicals” once meant one-off individual extremists as part of a certain religion or political group, the world has evolved to a place where radicalism has become the norm. In one example, we have the rise of ISIS as a pervasive threat in the Middle East that has now infiltrated global corridors with their terrorism. We also see a different kind of radicalism emerge in the United States, the rise of untraditional political players who capitalize on general dissatisfaction with the status quo to galvanize a new tier of supporters with more money, influence, and power."
2017
Beyond the Noise- The Megatrends of Tomorrow’s World
Deloitte
Technologies are converging across multiple industries
"The financial services industry pioneered technology that enables very high speed marketplaces and machine-to-machine communications. Some of these technologies are now being applied in other industries as well as in non-financial markets everywhere. Take general-purpose time series databases and Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), software embedded on hardware to allow a much more deterministic speed, as examples. These technologies have been essential to financial services firms for some time. Now cloud providers are deploying both, and automakers are using FPGA within their vehicle systems. Simultaneously, the financial services industry is looking at how other industries are leveraging technology to increase efficiency, reduce risk, improve customer service and gain competitive advantage. To illustrate, the Internet of Things (IoT) is taking machine-to-machine communications to the next level in many areas including agriculture and supply chain management. GPUs used in gaming are enabling machine learning, which is being applied across all industries. Financial firms are moving away from technology islands and leveraging technology architectures and designs in their core infrastructure that are similar to those used in other industries. Examples include distributed global connectivity solutions used in telecommunications, and global networks and platforms that have been within the purview of Google and Facebook. Tech convergence is all about applying technology in creative ways to solve problems, accelerate innovation and meet customer needs. Nasdaq is working constantly to spot new trends and exploring opportunities to adopt new technologies where appropriate. "
2019
NASDAQ DECODES: TECH TRENDS 2019 -The technology trends that are driving the world of markets forward
Nasdaq
We will ask ourselves hard questions about what free speech means.
"This isn’t about the death of free speech on college campuses, which sometimes can’t find a hall to host a political provocateur on short notice. It’s about a deeper and more deeply fraught idea that has already been embraced by Twitter, YouTube and Facebook, that European-style censorship may be necessary. Maybe there are ideas so obnoxious, like the belief that the parents of students slain in a mass shooting are part of an anti-gun conspiracy, that we shouldn’t let them be amplified endlessly on the Internet. Or maybe we should be uncomfortable that these censorship decisions are being made by a few tech leaders, who historically have had little interest in either the journalistic principles that have guided other media magnates, or the costs of paying human beings to gather and weigh facts. It’s unclear to me how we quash or validate dangerous ideas except through vigorous, open debate, but even I have to admit that this hasn't worked well recently. What we all know now is that the case for free speech is weaker now than it has been in 50 years."
2018
50 Big Ideas for 2019: What to watch in the year ahead
LinkedIn
Silence is gold
"We’re seeing a dramatic escalation in the rate at which people disconnect, unsubscribe and opt out to stem the barrage of content and messages that clutter daily life. As consumers, we’ve come to realize that it’s no longer simply a lifestyle choice, but a serious mental health issue. As we put up more barriers between ourselves and digital technologies, organizations must learn how to offer value to users who crave quiet in a noisy world."
2019
Fjord trends 2019
Fjord
The office will empty out.
"With cities filling up and housing prices rising, employers will have to pay more for employees to afford an urban life. Some businesses will open an office in a smaller town; more will embrace employees’ working from home. The whole point of an office weakened years ago with the disastrous open floor-plan, a warren of people wearing headphones and messaging their brains out, together in name only. More recently, the movement to give working parents more flexibility has made managers hesitant to grade on attendance. And now, Slack, Github, Jira and other tools for virtual teams are being co-opted by workers of all stripes."A gradual process will, in 2019, reach a tipping point: The office will empty out. Working from home will change the most basic rhythm of industrial life. People will have more time to work, and also to play. What we’ll lose is the water cooler, which alongside the altar and the school entrance, was a place for us to connect with new people. Offices are also one of the last spots in an increasingly secular society for all of us to get a sense of community and purpose. I’ll be sorry to see them so diminished."
2018
50 Big Ideas for 2019: What to watch in the year ahead
LinkedIn
Operating Systems And Analytics For Buildings
“As there’s more data available from sensors in buildings, they will provide analytics that could ‘say, turn off your HVAC 20 minutes earlier,’ and that could be a huge savings. Anything that moves in a building, a hinge, an elevator, a desk, will have a sensor in it…No joke, it’s a trillion-dollar capital opportunity.”
2018
The Most Important Tech Trends Of 2018, According To Top VCs
Fast Company
“Disruptive” technologies
“Disruptive” technologies in development, the spread
of which will bring substantial changes in production, employment, well-being, governability, and human relations.
2016
Why and how latin america should think about the future
theDialogue
Open-source warfare grows
“Do-it-yourself” surveillance and weapon systems will likely become more common, enabling new kinds of crimes and conflict. For example, the Switchblade Drone is lethal at short distances and fits in a small backpack. New developments in sensors, robotics and nanotechnology could lead to the more widespread use of remote sensors in surveillance, intelligence and warfare. Miniature unmanned aerial, surface and aquatic vehicles and devices – controlled either remotely or autonomously – are expected to become more prevalent. These will be smaller, cheaper and more widely available than today. Open-source knowledge may lead to widely distributed cyber-warfare capabilities. In addition, do-it-yourself enthusiasts may use synthetic biology to produce and release harmful substances into the environment – either accidentally or on purpose. In all these cases, technology originally created to enhance security may become the threat. In response, pre-programmed nanodevices and robots will likely create security networks and sensing surfaces that could identify threats such as nano-enabled weapons, viruses and poisons.
2013
Metascan 3 emerging technologies
Canada, Policy Horizons Canada
Fuel cell vehicles
“Fuel cell” vehicles have been long promised, as they potentially offer several major advantages over electric and hydrocarbon-powered vehicles. However, the technology has only now begun to reach the stage where automotive companies are planning to launch them for consumers. Initial prices are likely to be in the range of $70,000, but should come down significantly as volumes increase within the next couple of years. Unlike batteries, which must be charged from an external source, fuel cells generate electricity directly, using fuels such as hydrogen or natural gas. In practice, fuel cells and batteries are combined, with the fuel cell generating electricity and the batteries storing this energy until demanded by the motors that drive the vehicle. Fuel cell vehicles are therefore hybrids, and will likely also deploy regenerative braking – a key capability for maximizing efficiency and range. Unlike battery-powered electric vehicles, fuel cell vehicles behave as any conventionally fuelled vehicle. With a long cruising range – up to 650 km per tank (the fuel is usually compressed hydrogen gas) – a hydrogen fuel refill only takes about three minutes. Hydrogen is clean-burning, producing only water vapour as waste, so fuel cell vehicles burning hydrogen will be zero-emission, an important factor given the need to reduce air pollution. There are a number of ways to produce hydrogen without generating carbon emissions. Most obviously, renewable sources of electricity from wind and solar sources can be used to electrolyse water – though the overall energy efficiency of this process is likely to be quite low. Hydrogen can also be split from water in high-temperature nuclear reactors or generated from fossil fuels such as coal or natural gas, with the resulting CO2 captured and sequestered rather than released into the atmosphere. As well as the production of cheap hydrogen on a large scale, a significant challenge is the lack of a hydrogen distribution infrastructure that would be needed to parallel and eventually replace petrol and diesel filling stations. Long distance transport of hydrogen, even in a compressed state, is not considered economically feasible today. However, innovative hydrogen storage techniques, such as organic liquid carriers that do not require high-pressure storage, will soon lower the cost of long-distance transport and ease the risks associated with gas storage and inadvertent release. Mass-market fuel cell vehicles are an attractive prospect, because they will offer the range and fuelling convenience of today’s diesel and petrol-powered vehicles while providing the benefits of sustainability in personal transportation. Achieving these benefits will, however, require the reliable and economical production of hydrogen from entirely low-carbon sources, and its distribution to a growing fleet of vehicles (expected to number in the many millions within a decade).
2015
Top 10 emerging technologies of 2015
World Economic Forum (WEF)
All products have become services
“I don't own anything. I don't own a car. I don't own a house. I don't own any appliances or any clothes,” writes Danish MP Ida Auken. Shopping is a distant memory in the city of 2030, whose inhabitants have cracked clean energy and borrow what they need on demand. It sounds utopian, until she mentions that her every move is tracked and outside the city live swathes of discontents, the ultimate depiction of a society split in two.
2016
Eight predictions for 2030
World Economic Forum (WEF)