Trends Identified
Declining Civic Values
The spread of transnational networks are likely to impact on an individual’s identity. Many people in affluent societies are increasingly likely to regard their relationship with the state in consumerist rather than civic terms, while governance standards in many developing societies are unlikely to keep pace with economic and social change. Civic support systems may decline producing an increased reliance on local communities, extended family networks and personal patronage.
2010
Global strategic trends - out to 2040
UK, Ministry of Defence
The Role of the State
The state will remain the basic unit in international relations, although it will face challenges and the authority vested in it will vary. Most states will retain authority over the full spectrum of activities, whereas others, such as those in the EU, will voluntarily divest some to regional or supranational authorities. Others, such as some states in Africa, will have little practical authority. Transnational movements and groups will remain influential and are likely to further erode some aspects of state power. The varying levels of authority will complicate the ability of states to achieve and sustain multilateral partnerships and agreements.
2010
Global strategic trends - out to 2040
UK, Ministry of Defence
United States Transition
The status, culture and actions of the US will have a decisive effect on the evolution of the international system, as it adjusts to an uneven, possibly unbalanced transition from a uni-polar to a multi-polar world.
2010
Global strategic trends - out to 2040
UK, Ministry of Defence
The high street will band together.
The story is repeating itself in every country: From the famed big box stores of America to the high street chains of the U.K., physical retailers buckle as they face deep-pocketed online disruptors. “Things have never been more competitive,” says entrepreneur Naomi Simson, CEO of the Big Red Group in Australia, where Amazon launched with fanfare just a year ago. But smaller players are starting to band together to stand up to the giants, she says. “It might be through buying groups, marketplaces, associations, movements such as ‘buy local’... There will also be M&A,” she predicts. “The difference now is mindset. Business owners used to think the shop next door was competition. Now they know that there is safety in numbers.”
2018
50 Big Ideas for 2019: What to watch in the year ahead
LinkedIn
Limited and declining EU cohesion funds and infrastructure investments
The Structural Funds and the Cohesion Funds are the financial instruments of EU regional policy intended to narrow the development disparities among regions and EU Member States. Together with agriculture, they are the biggest spending blocs. Both agriculture and cohesion policies suffered hefty decreases for the upcoming budgetary cycle (2014-2020). It follows an ongoing trend in the EU budget away from agriculture and cohesion policy allocations.
2014
Challenges at the horizon 2025
European Strategy and Policy Analysis System (ESPAS)
Machine Learning – The Algorithms to Make Everything More Intelligent
The success of Google AlphaGo in 2016 marks the rise of machine learning. It is based on the idea that machines can learn for themselves if they get access to large volumes of data and comprises deep learning, neural networks and natural-language processing algorithms. The technology has very strong connections to big data and real-time analytics but needs high quality data and a clear process to be trained. Machine learning and IT vendors will in build intelligent capabilities into business intelligence systems, analytics and into many devices, robots and machines. This is rising a number of ethical questions such as the future of our work, how machine learning will affect our behavior, how can we guard us against mistakes and unintended consequences, and how do we stay in control. Extracting the qualitative data needed for machine learning training is a challenge, as well as finding experts. Machine learning can be used to solve a tremendous variety of problems and automate tasks that had to be handled by humans before, such as translations, face, speech and pattern recognition, text analytics, analyzing large data sets and more. The technology promises to save costs and improve the quality of work by automating 80% of the roughly 50% work activities that are suitable for automation. Most of todays’ knowledge work contains the following activities: pattern recognition (99%), generating and understanding natural language (75%), optimizing and planning (30%). Furthermore, machine learning may generate faster insights and speed up decision making based on large data sets and accelerate innovation by faster prototyping. While machine learning will affect all industries, expectations are the highest for media, telecom, technology, consumer and fi nancial services. The fi rst wave of machine learning will focus on automating repetitive tasks and analyzing large data sets such as invoicing, text analysis, image recognition, and fraud detection but will be used for autonomous vehicles, virtual assistants, product intelligence and advanced robotics as well.
2018
Trend Report 2018 - Emerging Technology Trends
SAP
Synchronous Interactions
The success of HQ Trivia, a game with shows scheduled for specific times, “harkens to olden days,” says Siegler. “When people were forced to listen to the same thing, or watch the same thing on TV, dating back to the game shows of the ’50s, when people gathered around, or even more recently to Who Wants To Be a Millionaire. It’s antithetical to the way social networks have been predominantly used, connecting people but doing so asynchronously. What if there’s a desire for people doing the same thing at the same time in a connected way?”
2018
The Most Important Tech Trends Of 2018, According To Top VCs
Fast Company
The end of the fossil era has begun
The successful global progress of renewable energies, the signal sent by the G7 states from Schloss Elmau in June 2015, the discussion started after the climate protection pledge in the USA and China on an effective global climate regime plus the decreasing use of coal in China and the USA and a spectacular drop in the price of oil since 2014 all lead to the question of whether the beginning of the end of the fossil age has already begun. Besides the reality of climate change, the drivers of this development are the increasingly volatile energy prices, particularly the above-mentioned drop in the price of oil, and a growing global awareness of the health effects of fossil energy generation, leading to growing regional protests.
2015
Megatrends in the global energy transition
WWF Germany
Collapse of a Pivotal State.
The sudden collapse of a pivotal state would threaten regional and global stability. For example, the descent into instability of a major hydrocarbon exporting state, such as Nigeria, Iran, Saudi Arabia or Russia, would have local and regional consequences, disrupting global energy supplies. This would affect global energy markets causing widespread economic, social and political dislocation. Similarly, if internal tensions caused instability within China the global economy could be disrupted by the simultaneous drop in demand for raw materials and reduced supply.
2010
Global strategic trends - out to 2040
UK, Ministry of Defence
Superconductivity power transmission technology
The superconductivity power transmission technology is suitable for the green energy strategy that can solve the power supply issue of the major metropolitan cites. Using superconducting cables with high temperature superconductive conductor, it is possible to distribute electric power with large capacity and high efficiency while being eco-friendly.This technology is expected to play a pivotal role in the 21st century power grid, and will be developed as the revolutionary technology that can solve the world’s energy problem, by establishing the global power network that distributes electric power among countries and continents.
2012
KISTEP 10 Emerging Technologies 2012
South Korea, Korea Institute of S&T Evaluation and Planning (KISTEP)