Trends Identified
Gene Drive - A genetic tool that can alter—and potentially eliminate—entire species has taken a dramatic leap forward
Research into a genetic engineering technology that can permanently change the traits of a population or even an entire species is progressing rapidly. The approach uses gene drives—genetic elements that pass from parents to unusually high numbers of their offspring, thereby spreading through populations rather quickly. Gene drives occur naturally but can also be engineered, and doing so could be a boon to humanity in many ways. The technology has the potential to stop insects from transmitting malaria and other terrible infections, enhance crop yields by altering pests that attack plants, render corals resistant to environmental stress, and keep invasive plants and animals from destroying ecosystems. Yet investigators are deeply aware that altering or even eliminating a species could have profound consequences. In response, they are developing rules to govern the transfer of gene drives from the laboratory into future field tests and wider use.
2018
Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2018
Scientific American
Cyber security
Resilience in the age of rising cyber breaches
2017
Top 50 Emerging Technologies 2017
Frost & Sullivan
Resource Nationalism
Resource nationalism is state control or dominance of particular resources, especially energy, and the use of this power to achieve national political objectives. In 1978, international companies controlled production from 70% of oil and gas reserves; at present they control only 20% with national or state-dominated oil companies controlling access to 75% of proven conventional reserves.
2010
Global strategic trends - out to 2040
UK, Ministry of Defence
Slow shift in the types of resources that are scarce, and the areas that are at risk
Resource scarcity is a potential source of conflict. Advances in synthetic biology could reduce pressure on some scarce natural resources by increasing the security of energy, material and food sources. In parallel, new and different minerals may become scarce. For example, lithium reserves may come under pressure as the demand for batteries grows. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change anticipates that food and water scarcity driven by climate change will be a growing issue and a potential source of conflict and population displacement. Cheaper solar energy would lower the cost of desalination, which could increase food production and reduce the number of refugees forced to leave some drought-prone food-growing areas. This could be bolstered by the development of hardier crops and more adaptive farming methods using new technologies.
2013
Metascan 3 emerging technologies
Canada, Policy Horizons Canada
Resource-based services for distributed and parallel computing (metacomputing)
Resource-based services for distributed and parallel computing (metacomputing) allow the use of supercomputers to significantly increase the effectiveness of scientific research, as well as to increase the competitiveness of products across numerous sectors of the economy. Key directions in the development of metacomputing include grid-algorithms and software for distributed solutions to complex computing tasks; and algorithms and software to develop, verify and test large programmes. With the growth in demand for metacomputing services standard mechanisms will be developed for internal regulation of this services market and quality metrics will be created for these services which will make it possible to form business models for interaction between providers and consumers of the services. In the field of material production, thanks to e-science metacomputing services there will be a fall in the entry threshold for start-up companies onto knowledge-intensive product markets (microelectronics, pharmaceuticals, new material design, bioengineering). The development of this product group requires entirely new methods to solve the problems of energy consumption, component times between failures and the parallelism of the further movement towards increasing the real performance of metacomputing hardware platforms.
2016
Russia 2030: science and technology foresight
Russia, Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation
Retail Hacked
Retail has always been competitive but things have moved up a gear. Survival of the fittest, fastest, smartest and most creative is now the order of the day.
2018
Most contagious report 2018
Contagious
You’ll eat that bug in your salad.
Retailers are warming up to the idea, which means you’re next: Sainsbury’s in the U.K., Provigo in Canada or Carrefour in Spain have all put bugs on their shelves in the past year. Insects have more protein than any other meat and are lauded as an environment-friendly way to feed a growing population. To combat the eek-factor, they can be ground into a protein-packed flour or used for animal feed. “If I had half a billion dollars to invest right now, mark my words, a large portion would be allocated to this emerging field,” says futurist QuHarrison Terry. “Currently, over 2 billion people worldwide consume insects on a regular basis for a source of protein. Yet, the industry is only estimated at $406 million. We’re one hit product away from seeing it become a multi-billion-dollar industry.”
2018
50 Big Ideas for 2019: What to watch in the year ahead
LinkedIn
Uber and Lyft will lead a wave of IPOs.
Ride-hailing companies Lyft and Uber just filed papers on the same day to go public in early 2019. This could be a banner year for tech IPOs, with total proceeds forecast north of $100 billion. “According to the Chinese calendar, 2019 rings in the Year of the Pig...and boy is that apt for the IPO market!” says CBS News’s Jill Schlesinger. “Uber, Lyft, Palantir, Slack, Airbnb all could take the plunge in 2019. With the tech sector taking a bit of a hit recently, the C-suite execs and their bankers are trying to carefully weigh the old Wall Street mantra: ‘Bulls and bears make money; pigs get slaughtered!’” Despite a shaky market, they may still pull the trigger this year to avoid running into a downturn and an election cycle in 2020.
2018
50 Big Ideas for 2019: What to watch in the year ahead
LinkedIn
User Engagement
Right information, right user, right time, right context, right outcomes For years, organizations grudgingly accepted the “limitations” of IT as immutable truths: Users spend far too much time logging in and out of well-intentioned applications designed around the constraints of information flows instead of real work flows. These individual applications didn’t talk to one another, requiring manual bridges between systems, content, and context – leaving users to their own devices for much of the insight needed to run the business. Dots remained unconnected, critical proprietary information went unmanaged and unshared, and decisions – from shop fl oor tasks to board-room endeavors – were poorly supported by the enabling IT.
2010
Depth perception A dozen technology trends shaping business and IT in 2010
Deloitte
The Innovation Tug-of-War
Rising concerns regarding technology companies’ increasing power is driving pushback from government organizations, and we expect this trend to gain momentum in 2018. Greater government and regulatory oversight is likely to protect consumers and curb corporate overreach, but may also stunt innovation. Underscoring this trend will be the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which comes into effect in mid-2018, as well as adjusted net neutrality rules in the US.
2018
Top 10 Tech Trends For 2018
Forbes