What technologies are on the verge of breakthrough in 2021?
Corona has prepared the world for the next level of technological change. Mind you, we’re not ready for really futuristic stuff like space travel. But there are definitely some exciting developments underway. Here are the shifts that I see happening this year:
The ethical side to Artificial Intelligence
When I see anyone looking at something, thinking and taking action, I think of artificial intelligence. Hard to swallow maybe, but I just think the robots will be capable of a vast range of human activities. We’re still going to be waiting awhile for large-scale adoption though. There are two main ways AI can be applied: as a general approach or as a niche application. So far it’s still mostly niche: things like self-driving cars. There are still thousands of ways we’re not using it yet, and there’s so much potential yet to be discovered.
We’re still figuring out how to apply AI in a more general way. This is also what we should be afraid of. Not so much in terms of jobs being replaced, but in terms of the ethical debates that are needed. Don’t get me wrong, there are already debates underway. Elon Musk is one of the people occupying himself with these questions. But we really have to take a thorough look at how far AI will reach and where we are going to set limits. Looking at the Boston Dynamics robots, I get super excited when I see one them dance or perfectly mimic a pet. But it’s just a small step further to turn them into weapons. So we really need to take a good look at all the potential bad use cases and open up a broader discussion.
Big Data is gaining ground
There’s already a lot being done with data, but it’s still too much of an avalanche. Businesses are gathering lots of data, but they don’t always know what to do with it. More and more sensors and other data generating systems are coming onto the market, but we still need to make sense of all that data. Then there’s the whole cloud matter: you can also link the entire blockchain to that. We’ve seen that a lot of companies who have a large amount of data are looking back and wishing they had gotten more out of it.
A lot of things that have happened recently could have been predicted by data. When you look at the COVID data for instance, you can really see the links between cases and when there were restrictions. The biggest reason why more action isn’t taken based on data is that people still trust their emotions more. Of course you can’t predict everything, but history does tend to repeat itself. This isn’t being leveraged enough. People fall into routines and do what they’re used to. Now we’re heading into an era where more dots will be connected and more insights gained from what’s available to us.
Augmented & Virtual Reality still on the cusp
We’ve been hearing about how Augmented and Virtual Reality are on the rise for years now. But this technology still isn’t really being exploited to help people function better. Why is that? We’re often wary of it, and don’t see a strong enough business case. If there isn’t any money in developing it, we’ll just keep muddling on. So we need to look at other necessary and lucrative ways to use these technologies.
AR and VR are often used for entertainment, which is fine and also needed. But there is so much untapped potential in the business world. For example, say you have a meeting with someone in Russia, someone in Australia and someone in South America. You could make it feel as if you’re all in the same room. Recently I attended a seminar by Duncan Wardle, the creative force from Disney. The example he gave was that he was meeting with someone in South Africa, and that person gave him a pen to write on a whiteboard with. A lot of people are meeting on Google Meet or Zoom, but the next big thing is collaborating in a virtual environment.
Now with corona there’s going to be even more of a push and a demand for practical AR and VR applications. Sometimes we need crises like that to show how much we actually need new tech. This could really make an impact on job satisfaction. Why do we even give people manuals today to figure out things, while in the virtual world it’s all programmed? I’ve been a service technician myself, and wasted many hours trying to figure out what was wrong. Imagine all the frustration it would have saved me to have virtual support. I would also personally be very happy to see virtual meetings advance: I usually fly to Belgium several times a year to spend time with my colleagues there. Now that isn’t happening, and a virtual meeting could be a great solution. Not to mention it would save me time, money and that awful jet lag. Virtual reality could make for really happy employees!
A long way to go
This all sounds promising, but we still have a long way to go in a lot of areas. Some technologies are still meeting with a lot of resistance. For example, 3D printing, which is still in its infancy. Potentially we could grind almond scraps and 3D print almonds. I think that kind of thing is really exciting, but not everyone is ready to go for it yet. Though if I were to go to one of our customers growing almonds tomorrow and show them how to 3D print an almond in five minutes instead of having to spray and harvest an entire orchard for a year, I think they would be amazed! Of course it can be difficult to imagine something if you’ve never seen it in action before. That’s why I foresee an acceleration of all these technologies coming up, as people get a look at all the possibilities with their own eyes.
