A few decades ago, I recall queuing up in the Central Telegraph office for making trunk or overseas telephone calls. The recalcitrant government staff were plain ill-behaved and believed that their monopoly could never end. I never imagined that I will be blessed with carrying a mobile phone a few years later, extracting from it more than I could ever imagine. Ten years ago, a flight ticket could not be booked or cancelled without running to the airlines office or to the travel agent’s. Today you can do it with ease at home. You can stay home and order for clothes, food or any item, buy them, sell them at ease, without the rigours of walking around shops. You can call a cab, pay by card in advance and have a nice ride without hassles of fudged meters and consequent fights with the cabbies.
Technology revolution has already influenced our lives from farming to industries, from thoughts to style of living. The changes are still on and will continue to influence us more in the coming two decades.
Technology fibres, dirt, oil, water, stain and odour resistant will show up in the next 5 years. You could buy a dress and wear them as long until you wear out and pass it on.
Energy storage sector like futuristic batteries will usher complete switch over to E cars, with charging time a mere few minutes and logging a thousand miles or more with each charge. The electric cars will have no drivers and will perform better than human drivers, reducing steeply the number of accidents and consequently impacting motor car insurance badly. Alternative power generation methods from renewable sources will make power abundantly cheaper, turning many present power-giants to close shop.
3D printing will substitute many conventional manufacturing sectors, from auto parts to artificial human organs for transplants.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) will take over as secretaries to high and mighty, safeguarding secrecy accessible only to their masters by multilevel biometric security features. IBM’s Watson, in a matter of seconds, has delivered solutions to all law related problems with a +90% accuracy, throwing the fear of redundancy of lawyers.
Domestic and industrial security systems would advance with better equipment and lesser manpower. Farming will rely on advanced Robots and machinery; the yield of produce increasing by leaps and bounds to meet the needs of larger population.
Water scarcity will be a thing of past, as man would have mastered desalination of seawater, from energy derived from ocean currents and tidal waves. In the land-locked regions, it would become commercially viable to condense water from atmosphere.
Smartphones, despite many additional features, will still fit into pockets and will act as a health inspector, doctor, lawyer, security alert, purchaser, seller, movie projector and will control human mind. Blockchain technology and cryptocurrency could become legal and will throw normal banking to chaotic situations.
Aadhar could be a precursor to more transparency and data accessibility by administrators there will be no secrecy in living, save perhaps the bedroom and bathroom. Child bearing by mothers could get replaced by growth in artificial wombs in labs. Food habits could go through a sea change, the day foods shrunk into a capsule or a teaspoon sized sachet, which could sustain 6-8 hours of optimum energy. Gyms could be for fashion, as body shaping will be done in small cabins without the necessary to jog or run.
Neither would be the need to type down these kind of posts, as mere dictation could printout flawless posts, posting them wherever you wish to. I look at a plentiful world, which would alleviate sufferings, and with less influence from religion more peace on the planet.
Watch out for the AI.
Sampath Kumar
Intrépide voix
Pic courtesy BBC.com