Trends Identified
Web/internet: 'Quantum computing is the future'
The open web created by idealist geeks, hippies and academics, who believed in the free and generative flow of knowledge, is being overrun by a web that is safer, more controlled and commercial, created by problem-solving pragmatists. Henry Ford worked out how to make money by making products people wanted to own and buy for themselves. Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs are working out how to make money from allowing people to share, on their terms. Facebook and Apple are spawning cloud capitalism, in which consumers allow companies to manage information, media, ideas, money, software, tools and preferences on their behalf, holding everything in vast, floating clouds of shared data. We will be invited to trade invasions into our privacy – companies knowing ever more about our lives – for a more personalised service. We will be able to share, but on their terms. Julian Assange and the movement that has been ignited by WikiLeaks is the most radical version of the alternative: a free, egalitarian, open and public web. The fate of this movement will be a sign of things to come. If it can command broad support, then the open web has a chance to remain a mainstream force. If, however, it becomes little more than a guerrilla campaign, then the open web could be pushed to the margins, along with national public radio. By 2035, the web, as a single space largely made up of webpages accessed on computers, will be long gone. As the web goes mobile, those who pay more will get faster access. We will be sharing videos, simulations, experiences and environments, on a multiplicity of devices to which we'll pay as much attention as a light switch. Yet, many of the big changes of the next 25 years will come from unknowns working in their bedrooms and garages. And by 2035 we will be talking about the coming of quantum computing, which will take us beyond the world of binary, digital computing, on and off, black and white, 0s and 1s. The small town of Waterloo, Ontario, which is home to the Perimeter Institute, funded by the founder of BlackBerry, currently houses the largest collection of theoretical physicists in the world. The bedrooms of Waterloo are where the next web may well be made.
2011
20 predictions for the next 25 years
The Guardian
Web services (geoportals)
Geoportals – a set of webservices (downloads, visualisation, editing, transformation, analysis, etc.) carried out on the basis of unrestricted access to geographic (geospatial) information – make it possible to improve efficiency and dramatically reduce the amount of time required to deliver public services. Moreover, they address the problem of investment openness and transparency. An important property of geoportals is the self-development of services. Thus, regional geoportals will be able to monitor the movement of state and municipal transport (snow removal machinery, ambulances, etc.). This leads to the accumulation of data on average speeds along main city thoroughfares and makes it easier to find ways to optimise use of the road network.
2016
Russia 2030: science and technology foresight
Russia, Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation
Weather Wars
Weather manipulation tools— such as cloud seeding to induce or suppress rain—are not new, but deploying them at scale is becoming easier and more affordable. As the impacts of climate-related changes in weather patterns intensify, the incentives to turn to technological fixes will increase in affected areas. Think of governments trying to manage simultaneous declines in rainfall and increases in water demand. Aside from the potential environmental consequences, at a time of increasing geopolitical tensions even well-intentioned weather manipulation might be viewed as hostile. Perceptions would be paramount: a neighbouring state might see largescale cloud-seeding as theft of rain or the reason for a drought. Cloud-seeding planes might be viewed as dual-use tools for espionage. Hostile uses are prohibited, but cannot be ruled out—for example, weather manipulation tools could be used to disrupt a neighbour’s agriculture or military planning. And if states decided unilaterally to use more radical geo-engineering technologies it could trigger dramatic climatic disruptions. As technologies evolve and deployment increases, increased transparency—about who is using what, and why—would help limit destabilizing ambiguity. So too would active discussion and collaboration on environmental vulnerabilities, both bilaterally between bordering states and on wider regional and global multilateral platforms.
2019
The Global Risks Report 2019 14th Edition
World Economic Forum (WEF)
Wearables - On-body computing devices are ready for business
Wearable computing has many forms, such as glasses, watches, smart badges, and bracelets. The potential is tremendous: hands-free, headsup technology to reshape how work gets done, how decisions are made, and how you engage with employees, customers, and partners. Wearables introduce technology to previously prohibitive scenarios where safety, logistics, or even etiquette constrained the usage of laptops and smartphones. While consumer wearables are in the spotlight today, we expect business to drive acceptance and transformative use cases.
2014
Tech trends 2014 - Inspiring Disruption
Deloitte
Wearables
A revolution: From fitness to fashion
2017
Top 50 Emerging Technologies 2017
Frost & Sullivan
Wearable Computer
Wearable computer is a body-borne computer that is worn by the user under, with, or on top of clothing. Wearable technology was initially applied in military uses, but can now be applied to various fields including fashion and logistics.
2010
KISTEP 10 Emerging Technologies 2010
South Korea, Korea Institute of S&T Evaluation and Planning (KISTEP)
Weakening of representative democracy
Since the global economy crashed
in 2008, there has been an erosion
of trust in political institutions and processes. Citizens now place more faith in companies than in their own leaders, and even then they don’t particularly trust the private sector, with the latest Edelman Trust Barometer showing global trust in business at 58% while trust in government has sunk to 44%. As a Global Shaper of the World Economic Forum, this is an issue that resonates with those of my demographic: the world’s youth.
2014
Outlook on the global agenda 2015
World Economic Forum (WEF)
Weak States
Many states and some regions will fail to attain the necessary level of economic and political development to compete in a sustained and successful manner in the global economy. These states are likely to be beset by a mixture of environmental, demographic, economic and political pressures with consequent impact on their stability and security. They can be regarded as weak states. Some weak states may fail completely, with sub-Saharan Africa and Central Asia, regions of global concern. The degree to which weak states impact on others is likely to depend on the security of supply of strategic resources to the globalised economy and whether internal instability spreads to neighbours, either through migration or conflict. Responses to weak states are likely to include humanitarian assistance, containment and stabilisation.
2010
Global strategic trends - out to 2040
UK, Ministry of Defence