According to the US National Intelligence Council's study Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds, four technological areas will affect global economic, social, and military changes by 2030. Information technologies, automation, manufacturing technologies, resource technologies, and health technologies are the ones to look out for.
Information and communication technologies
Before 2030, three technology advances with an IT focus have the potential to revolutionize the way we live, do business, and defend ourselves.
1. Governments and commercial organizations will have more opportunities to "know" their consumer’s thanks to solutions for storing and analyzing enormous amounts of data, including "big data." Customers may complain about the acquisition of too much data, but the technology is here. In any case, these remedies are likely to herald a North American economic boom.
2. Individual users can build online social networks with the aid of social networking technology. As leading services incorporate social functions into everything else an individual could do online, they're becoming a part of the fabric of online living. Social networks provide for both valuable and hazardous communication across various user groups and geographical boundaries. Business Tips Write for Us Blog is a fantastic method to share your knowledge and experience. Email id: business.glimpse.info@gmail.com
3. Smart cities are urban areas that use information technology to increase inhabitants' economic productivity and quality of life while reducing resource consumption and environmental harm.
Automation and manufacturing technologies
As manufacturing has gone global in the last two decades, a global ecosystem of manufacturers, suppliers, and logistics companies has formed. New manufacturing and automation technologies have the potential to change work patterns in both the developed and developing worlds.
1. Robotics is today in use in a range of civil and military applications. Over 1.2 million industrial robots are already in daily operations around the world and there are increasing applications for non-industrial robots. The US military has thousands of robots on battlefields, home robots vacuum homes and cut lawns, and hospital robots patrol corridors and distribute supplies. Their use will increase in the coming years, and with enhanced cognitive capabilities, robotics could be hugely disruptive to the current global supply chain system and the traditional job allocations along supply chains.
2. 3D printing (additive manufacturing) technologies allow a machine to build an object by adding one layer of material at a time. 3D printing is already in use to make models from plastics in sectors such as consumer products and the automobile and aerospace industries. By 2030, 3D printing could replace some conventional mass production, particularly for short production runs or where mass customization has high value.
3. Autonomous vehicles are mostly in use today in the military and for specific tasks e.g. in the mining industry. By 2030, autonomous vehicles could transform military operations, conflict resolution, transportation, and geo-prospecting, while simultaneously presenting novel security risks that could be difficult to address. At the consumer level, Google has been testing for the past few years a driverless car.
Resource technologies
Technological advances will be required to accommodate the increasing demand for resources owing to global population growth and economic advances in today's underdeveloped countries. Such advances can affect the food, water, and energy nexus by improving agricultural productivity through a broad range of technologies including precision farming and genetically modified crops for food and fuel. New resource technologies can also enhance water management through desalination and irrigation efficiency, and increase the availability of energy through enhanced oil and gas extraction and alternative energy sources such as solar and wind power, and biofuels.
Health technologies
Two sets of health technologies are highlighted below.
1. Disease management will become more effective, more personalized, and less costly through such new enabling technologies as diagnostic and pathogen-detection devices. For example, molecular diagnostic devices will provide rapid means of testing for both genetic and pathogenic diseases during surgeries. Readily available genetic testing will hasten disease diagnosis and help physicians decide on the optimal treatment for each patient. Advances in regenerative medicine almost certainly will parallel these developments in diagnostic and treatment protocols. Replacement organs such as kidneys and livers could be developed by 2030. These new disease management technologies will increase the longevity and quality of life of the world's aging populations.
2. Human augmentation technologies, ranging from implants and prosthetic and powered exoskeleton to brain enhancements, could allow civilian and military people to work more effectively, and in environments that were previously inaccessible. Elderly people may benefit from powered exoskeletons that assist wearers with simple walking and lifting activities, improving the health and quality of life for aging populations. Progress in human augmentation technologies will likely face moral and ethical challenges.