Trends Identified
Blockchain: Democratized trust - Distributed ledgers and the future of value
Trust is a foundational element of business. Yet maintaining it—particularly throughout a global economy that is becoming increasingly digital— is expensive, time-consuming, and, in many cases, inefficient. Some organizations are exploring how blockchain, the backbone behind bitcoin, might provide a viable alternative to the current procedural, organizational, and technological infrastructure required to create institutionalized trust. Though these exploratory efforts are still nascent, the payoff could be profound. Like the Internet reinvented communication, blockchain may similarly disrupt transactions, contracts, and trust—the underpinnings of business, government, and society.
2016
Tech trends 2016 - innovating in the digital era
Deloitte
Mechanised Truth - Centralised routes to corporate truth-building
Truth, trust, believability – all under serious pressure in a consumer landscape developing a healthy disrespect for traditional arbiters of truth and authority, and where claim and counter-claim on any given issue mean that settled, mainstream truths are in short supply. Enter new, centralised routes to commercial truth- building that herald a future in which tangible, mechanised truths more robustly challenge emotionally-charged “alternative facts” and meet a significant need for corporate transparency.
2018
Trending 2018
Foresight Factory
Nanotechnology: 'Privacy will be a quaint obsession'
Twenty years ago, Don Eigler, a scientist working for IBM in California, wrote out the logo of his employer in letters made of individual atoms. This feat was a graphic symbol of the potential of the new field of nanotechnology, which promises to rebuild matter atom by atom, molecule by molecule, and to give us unprecedented power over the material world. Some, like the futurist Ray Kurzweil, predict that nanotechnology will lead to a revolution, allowing us to make any kind of product for virtually nothing; to have computers so powerful that they will surpass human intelligence; and to lead to a new kind of medicine on a sub-cellular level that will allow us to abolish ageing and death. I don't think that Kurzweil's "technological singularity" – a dream of scientific transcendence that echoes older visions of religious apocalypse – will happen. Some stubborn physics stands between us and "the rapture of the nerds". But nanotechnology will lead to some genuinely transformative applications. New ways of making solar cells very cheaply on a very large scale offer us the best hope we have for providing low-carbon energy on a big enough scale to satisfy the needs of a growing world population aspiring to the prosperity we're used to in the developed world. We'll learn more about intervening in our biology at the sub-cellular level and this nano-medicine will give us new hope of overcoming really difficult and intractable diseases, such as Alzheimer's, that will increasingly afflict our population as it ages. The information technology that drives your mobile phone or laptop is already operating at the nanoscale. Another 25 years of development will lead us to a new world of cheap and ubiquitous computing, in which privacy will be a quaint obsession of our grandparents. Nanotechnology is a different type of science, respecting none of the conventional boundaries between disciplines and unashamedly focused on applications rather than fundamental understanding. Given the huge resources being directed towards nanotechnology in China and its neighbours, this may also be the first major technology of the modern era that is predominantly developed outside the US and Europe.
2011
20 predictions for the next 25 years
The Guardian
Gaining from connectivity without losing trust
Twenty years ago, trust wasn’t as high on the business radar as it is today. In fact, we didn’t survey CEOs about it until 2002, when the business community was reeling from accounting fraud scandals, the bursting of the dotcom bubble and the collapse of the equity markets. With hindsight, it seems hard to believe that only 12% of CEOs thought public trust in companies in their country had greatly declined, and only 29% thought the fallout from corporate misdeeds was a serious threat. Since then, the financial crisis has catapulted trust into the limelight, and the after-effects of stagnant economic growth and spiralling debt levels continue to fuel a climate of mistrust. The impact on CEOs has been significant: in 2013, 37% worried that lack of trust in business would harm their company’s growth. This year, the number has jumped to 58%. The breakdown in public trust now poses a potent risk to political, economic and social systems the world over.
2017
20th Annual global CEO survey
PWC
Dueling Neural Networks
Two AI systems can spar with each other to create ultra-realistic original images or sounds, something machines have never been able to do before.
2018
10 Breakthrough Technologies 2018
MIT Technology Review
Immersive Technologies – Enhancing the Digital Experience
Two distinct but merging technologies are behind immersive technologies: Virtual Reality (VR), computer- generated, digital environments that fully immerse users in a virtual world and Augmented Reality (AR), which overlays digital information on the physical world and augmented reality operating environments. Companies are already experimenting in pilot projects and the technology has the potential to become the next computing platform. Mobile devices are currently at the center of the implementation of AR/ VR and they could replace large parts of the PC landscape. We observe a co-evolution with digital twins and gaming. Hardware is important, but the user experience such as ease and comfort of use and real-time performance as well as a structured content are keys for success. High data quality including realtime analytics is also a prerequisite. Immersive Technologies are still in early development and are five to ten years from wide mainstream adoption. They currently show a slower adoption than smartphones but will probably experience a similar cost reduction and speed up significantly cost reduction and development speed. Hardware vendors are accelerating computing and speeding up application performance and vendors are already developing and offering enterprise-level collaboration tools and augmented reality operating environments. For now, the clumsiness of the current devices has reduced mobility and the cost for adopting content are slowing progress and cybersecurity and safety of usage remain issues. Immersive technologies promise unique user experiences including 3D interactions, new ways of data handling, and interaction with the physical world and has the potential to accelerate and simplify business practices or even invent new ones. Use cases are hands-free tasks like in field service and maintenance, digital twins for operations, architecture, real-estate etc., live media streams, and augmented information for any digital supported workplace.
2018
Trend Report 2018 - Emerging Technology Trends
SAP
Deep space travel
U.S. President Obama has indicated that the USA, and mandated NASA, to send a human mission to Mars by mid-2030 with intermediary steps to Lagragian points in 2020s. NASA is consequently developing appropriate capabilities with the SLS launcher and the Orion crew capsule that should be ready by early 2020s. This would allow human to ventures farther into deep space compared to previous endeavours in the last century.
2015
Preparing the Commission for future opportunities - Foresight network fiches 2030
European Strategy and Policy Analysis System (ESPAS)
Inequalities in labour market outcomes persist
Underlying these aggregate labour market and social trends are disparities across a number of demographic groups. Gender disparities are of particular concern. On average, women are less likely to participate in the labour market, facing a global gender gap in participation of over 26 percentage points, and are less likely to find a job when they do participate. These gaps are particularly wide in Northern Africa and the Arab States, where women are twice as likely to be unemployed as men. Once in employment, women face segregation in terms of the sector, occupation and type of employment relationship, resulting in restricted access to quality employment. For instance, 82 per cent of women in developing countries are in vulnerable forms of employment in 2017, compared to 72 per cent of men.
2018
World Employment and Social Outlook
International Labour Organization (ILO)
DARQ Power
Understanding the DNA of DARQ.New technologies are catalysts for change, offering businesses extraordinary new capabilities. Distributed ledger technology, artificial intelligence, extended reality, and quantum computing will be the next set of new technologies to spark a step change, letting businesses reimagine entire industries.
2019
Accenture Technology Vision 2019- The Post-Digital Era is Upon Us ARE YOU READY FOR WHAT’S NEXT?
Accenture
Brain-inspired technologies
Understanding the human brain is one of the greatest challenges facing 21st century science. Advances in this understanding can help us gain profound insights into what makes us human, develop new treatments for brain disease and build revolutionary new computing and robotic technologies. Modern ICT has now brought these goals within sight.
2015
Preparing the Commission for future opportunities - Foresight network fiches 2030
European Strategy and Policy Analysis System (ESPAS)