The next fifteen years are going to be a ride.
When you look at all the game-changing technologies that on the verge of going mainstream, it can be mind-boggling. Combine that with the need for big changes to curb climate change and things are going to move quickly.
- Automation – Robots are getting more sophisticated and common. It won’t be long before they’ll be able to do many of the things that people do now.
- Virtual reality – Immersive entertainment is just around the corner, and there are many other uses for virtual reality. You can already have a face-to-face conversation with someone thousands of miles away.
- Augmented reality – Ubiquitous information and the Internet of Things (IoT) are going to transform how we interact with the world around us.
- Electric cars – Electric vehicles are here and are poised to take over in a short time. EVs are simpler, will last much longer than internal combustion engines, and may fundamentally change how we think of cars.
- Self-driving cars – What will you do with your commute time if you don’t have to drive? What if you could send your kids to soccer practice in a self-driving car and stay home?
- Artificial intelligence – AI the way we envision it in science fiction is still a ways out, but it’s likely to make huge strides during the next fifteen years.
- Bioengineering – Editing genes and printing organs seem far off, but they are already here.
- Engineered food – We’re growing meat in a lab, and that’s just the start.
- Gene editing – CRISPR has made editing genes incredibly easy and inexpensive.
- 3D printing – Why wait for Amazon if you can just print what you want right away. Right now, you have limited materials and slow print times, but that will change.
- Climate change – Even if we manage to stop dumping CO2 into the air tomorrow, we’ll still have effects that we will need to manage into the future. Mitigating the damage done will take money and effort.
- Space flight – With SpaceX and others competing to get into space, it seems likely that we will start becoming space travelers in the next fifteen years.
I’m planning to be here, writing and trying to help people make the transitions that they’ll need to make.
I think the best thing you can do to prepare for the future is strengthen your personal universe. As part of that, you’ll find that you’ll be more flexible in your thinking and will be able to handle big changes more easily.
The next best way to prepare for the future is to create it.
What are looking forward to most? What scares you?
