As we move closer towards a future more than 100 years away, we need to imagine what the world will look like. What technologies will exist and how will they be used? What advances might be made in the next century?
What was technology like 100 years ago?
We can get some idea of what advanced technology might look like from looking back at what existed 100 years ago. One hundred years ago, radio was invented and there were already patents for helicopters. Most forms of transportation were still horse-drawn or street cars with trolley lines on electricity. It’s safe to say that many of those inventions weren’t able to anticipate future technological development and are currently outdated or forgotten technologies (think radios without batteries).
Future technology will be very different from the technology of the past as computers, electronics and robotics advance. Written language, electricity, and airplanes are still around but have changed drastically. Text messaging and social media is a more recent form of communication.
Transportation has evolved from horse-drawn carriages to automobiles to planes to rockets to now spaceships. Medicine has advanced from leeches to advanced surgical techniques. The world is constantly changing and adapting as we move forward into the next century. We need to keep an open mind about what might be possible in a hundred years.
What technologies are there today?
Today there is a huge variety of technologies available. Communication is on an entirely different level compared to 100 years ago. Instead of having to go to a telegraph station to send a message, we can text someone from our computer or phone with little effort. Satellites relay information faster than ever before from one side of the world to the other. We can communicate with people around the world instantaneously; emailing and video chat over the internet makes staying in touch easier than ever before. Communication has made the world much smaller than it used to be; we’re more connected together than ever before. We can also communicate with people who lived 100 years ago in written documents. The printing press has been around for hundreds of years, and access to the internet is quickly becoming a right of passage for children.
You might have noticed that when you text someone or call someone on your cell phone, the type of writing changes depending on the time of day or how formal you want to be (using cursive vs. print). Because we’re so connected (literally!) with other people through technology, we’re more available to each other, even though we might be across town or an ocean away. When we want to show someone our vacation pictures, all we have to do is send them pictures from our digital camera.
Technology is changing much faster than the rest of society. In response to diseases that plagued the past century, doctors are now able to move at a rapid pace due to technology such as robotics and robotics. Trauma surgery is a common procedure with cutting-edge instruments such as robot arms, laparoscopic surgery tools, and just recently stents have been developed that help doctors guide blood flow through blockages in order to save patients from heart failure.
There are countless technologies that change our lives on a daily basis. The advances in medicine, transportation and communication has made our world more connected and safe. With the advances in technology, there will be no more time wasted in the future as people can live a much more productive life.
What technologies will emerge in 100 years?
Hopefully by the time we reach 100 years from now, we will have taken enough technological leaps forward that it’s not necessary to predict what might happen because it already is. However, there are several technologies that have been invented since the Industrial Revolution that could greatly impact our lives in the next century.
Robotics and AI: Artificial intelligence and robotics are some of our best technologies for our future. There are many advancements happening in AI which seem like science fiction, but have been produced. AI has been able to learn from past experiences and is increasing in ability to perform tasks in a manner that humans haven’t seen in a long, long time. There will be a greater demand on people’s work as robots become more common. They can be self-sufficient and are able to do things that humans could not do before. As robots grow in technology, there will be no need for people to take jobs with the risk of dying if they don’t perform well or follow orders correctly. This will lead to a decrease in job opportunities for humans as robots take over more tasks faster than we can adapt.
Robots will certainly change our life but our needs and wants will change with them. As robots become more advanced, they’ll be able to perform things that we can’t do easily at all. Can you imagine a robotic butler who helps you with your chores while you relax? Robots will also be able to take care of our kids and pets while we work.
These robots might change how people live in the next 100 years as they automate many tasks that now require human labor; so much so, humans may have to adapt to a life without jobs.
Artificial Intelligence is advancing at an exponential rate, and because of this, it’s hard to predict what future advancements might look like. It’s best to believe what is possible in the near future and leave some room for further advancements.
Most of the increasing technological abilities in AI are being driven by women and a great future for them might be in store for us. In order to help close the gender gap, women have been getting more interest in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, math). We still have a long way to go as there are fewer women entering these fields than men. Because they go into these fields, they’re better able to imagine what will happen in the future with AI. They’re more likely to be on the cutting edge of new advancements because they’re already on the cutting edge of society.
Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality: AR/VR is already being used to help us understand what we see, but it can be used in a much more immersive way. With a lot of VR scenarios, it’s hard for people to distinguish between reality and the virtual world. If you could overlay certain elements of the virtual world onto the real world, it would create new ways that people can communicate and interact with each other. For example, if we overlay 3D models or videos into an AR environment, we could have an interactive experience that would allow us to bring into our current lives. AR/VR can also be used in medicine where it can help diagnose problems at a faster rate, or in military settings where soldiers can train with virtual soldiers.
While AR/VR are still far from being a reality for the average person, scientists are working on it, and they’re making rapid strides. It’s not hard to imagine scientists using VR headsets to become experts at understanding the human body and its systems in order to help cure cancer or other diseases, or even give people experience of what it might feel like to walk on Mars.
Teleportation: Teleportation is going through a big breakthrough as we’ve been working towards teleportation for years now. There are a few companies that are working on teleportation, but it still has quite a long way to go before it becomes mainstream.
Transportation: The internet of things is going to have a big impact on transportation. The idea of connecting anything and everything to the internet will allow us to create new transportation methods including self-driving cars, drones, and trucks that can be controlled by their drivers. For example, you could be waiting in traffic or sitting at home in your car when you get an email that says there’s a job that you can do remotely. You start using your car to get the job done, then get home, check the report and maybe even go out to dinner.
All of this will still be quite some time away, but at least we know that it’s possible. In the meantime, you should invest in stocks that can stand the test of time. Stocks such as Apple Inc are going to continue seeing their prices soar in the coming future. You may want to consider investing in other companies such as Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) or SolarCity Corp (NASDAQ:SCTY).
It’s no secret that stock market investors like gold and silver because they believe these assets have real value and hold their value over time. But in the world of technology, it’s becoming clear that the key to profiting in the stock market is to invest in companies that don’t have a physical commodity.
There are reasons for why tech investments are always more profitable than commodity investments, but one big reason is because technology investments can be infinitely replicated. The same can’t be said about gold or silver because there is only so much of these assets that exist. Once demand grows beyond a certain point, there will no longer be enough gold or silver to meet the demands of investors. Most investors don’t realize this yet, but once market demand grows beyond supply they will feel it in their pocketbooks.
Current technologies are creating new markets. We can see the market of virtual reality grow over the last year as more and more people are buying VR headsets for video games and watching videos. The technology is advancing at an incredible rate, so we can expect to see a lot more of it in the coming years.
There will also be many new business models as industries shift towards using tech instead of physical commodities. Most retail businesses will continue using physical goods until demand for them begins to decline, but some businesses will use online sales completely instead, especially if they’re only selling virtual goods. Tech companies are better suited to use this model because they can make many times more money from each sale.
Conclusion: Technology has changed our lives for the better; but it won’t stop there. We are on the cusp of a great technological revolution that will change almost every facet of human existence. The sheer number of advancements could easily be more than any person can imagine, but we have a much greater chance of predicting what will happen in 100 years than our ancestors did in their time. This is because of how rapidly technology is advancing and how quickly we are able to take advantage of it.
With all these technologies around us, the most important thing to realize is that they won’t fully replace us, but rather help us do things faster and better instead.
