10 ideas on your insights about the future of technology!!!
1. Technology is turning atoms into bits - Nicholas Negroponte
Things are becoming invisible. These little rectangles that we all carry contain all of the books, music and movies ever created.
2. Things that have been turned into bits will be essentially free or on a low priced subscription model.
This has already happened to music, videos and books. Also email, documents (Google Docs, Office 365), video communication (Zoom, Facetime). This is starting to happen with medical monitoring (Apple Watch) and high powered computing (Chat GPT, Google Maps and similar).
3. massive computing power will be used casually
This is already starting to happen: millions of people are using Chat GPT from their phones and getting the benefit of a super computer in their hands. People will be able to take a cell phone video and tell generative AI to make it an action sequence with Godzilla (for free) and then be able to post it to social media for a gag.
Super detailed information is available through Google Maps. It will soon be possible to see live 24/7 video from most parts of the world.
4. In the next 50 years we will transition from oil to nuclear power
Nuclear is the cleanest, most effective power source that we are aware of at this time. Smaller, less expensive reactors combined with an increased need for electric power will accelerate this transition.
5. The first person to be a trillionaire has already been born.
Someone using technology in a novel way will become a trillionaire. Since I can't imagine what this would be it probably won't be me.
6. Standards of living will go up across all social classes
While individuals will always excel or struggle, every social class will see their baseline improve due to better food production, better medicine, cheaper energy and better transportation.
7. The wealth gap will also increase
Since there is really no upward cap on wealth but there is a downward limit to poverty (zero) there will be a larger gap between the haves and the have-nots, even though every social class will be materially better off compared to a decade ago. It will be exponential with the top 10% being maybe 100x wealthier than the bottom 90%, then the top 1% being 100x of the top 10%, the top 0.001 being 10,000x the top 1%, etc.
8. There will be Universal Basic Income and the bottom 75% of people will not own anything: they will rent from the 25%.
This is more of a political decision than a technical one, but technology will make it possible.
9. People, and later society, will lose the ability to perform basic skills that are covered by automation.
I was never a great speller but now I don't even try, and I have auto-correct fix everything for me. We won't remember how to drive, read a map, or edit a photo. People won't know how to write code from scratch or perform medical diagnostics. It will be like Idiocracy.
10. Transportation will be completely autonomous
On the land, sea and air: no humans necessary.
11. The majority of people will spend the majority of their time consuming entertainment
Most people already scroll through their phone many hours a day. This will accelerate. As the need to work decreases and UBI is available only the highly motivated will avoid this trap.
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