Life sciences? Genetics? Space medicine? Business administration? Communication? Computer science? Robotics? Applied mathematics? Philosophy? Logistics?
Which field will develop the fastest? Which will be the most important to human development?
In 10 years? And in 20 years?
And what about your field of research? Do you predict that it will be boom or regress over the next few years?
The coming exponentiality of medicine, finance, manufacturing; the exponential curve will also be a great challenge for managerial education.
There seems at present a greater re-evaluation of Western ideas and thinking, which is a necessary consequence of globalisation, and therefore I suggest medicine (especially treatment procedures), sociology (investigation into society), philosophy (Hegel, et al).
Hello,
dear joanna, thank you for your good question.
I think, due to the developing of the technology in nowdays, the computer science, robotic and comunication systems will be developed fastly, compared to the other ones.
I am working on different subjects such as electronics, physics, mathematics, pharmacology, Laws, English teaching, etc.
Thanks,
I think environmental related researches is going to be developed faster during the next 10 to 20 years .
My field:
Alternative Healthcare System by modified and directed lifestyle, food habit and use of herbs and nutriceuticals as medicine.
Thanks.
In my opinion the field of medicine, software development, and automation engineering will be the most important in next decade.
In my opinion, the agricultural sector will witness a major development in the coming years, as well as the development of software and energy research.
Two fields of research are important and will grow very fast as under:
1. Genetics
2. Robotics
Most of the world countries is a subsidiary and not a major part of technological development in the Western world and Japan. Finance, investment and profit are usually the main drivers of this technological development, so computer and communication technologies are the most advanced fields in the coming period. Other sciences will gain some development but less by financing and investment.
The coming exponentiality of medicine, finance, manufacturing; the exponential curve will also be a great challenge for managerial education.
In engineering: Renewable energies to tackle the global warming by replacing the burning of natural resources.
Human studies and health, because they have been neglected for long periods at the expense of scientific developments
In my opinion more research will be carried out in computer science, mobile applications, robotics, business, medicine and genetics in the next decade.
Breakthrough Technologies for 2018:
1) 3-D Metal Printing,
2) Artificial Embryos,
3) Sensing City,
4) AI for Everybody,
5) Dueling Neural Networks,
6) Babel-Fish Earbuds,
7) Zero-Carbon Natural Gas,
8) Perfect Online Privacy,
9) Genetic Fortune-Telling, and
10) Materials’ Quantum Leap.
From MIT: https://www.technologyreview.com/lists/technologies/2018/
Metal cutting and advanced machining , advanced manufacturing processes.
I think research on environmental pollution and organic farming is the most advanced in the next 10 years .
Unfortunately, I pretend to know human nature. So the future in science will be closely attached to warfare: robotic guns, robotic soldiers and war planes, biological and chemical warfare, non peaceful atomic development, etc.
Sorry to be so negative. There is little room for idealistic hopes.
Pure science is still there and I hope it can be a word on the subject, but...
Definitely .... medicine and Robotics field of research will develop faster compare to others.
They play key role in further development of human beings.
My field of research is geology....petrology...mineralogy...
It will further strengthen our thoughts to understand the earth related process and...mineral processing alternative minerals trace element bearing minerals/REE will definitely see a surge in application and research.
10 technologies that will change the world in the next 10 years
As computational power rises exponentially, not linearly, so does the rate of change -- and that means the next 10 years should pack in far more technological change than the last 10.
Disruptive technology is, by its very nature, unpredictable, but it is still possible to look at the work being done by R&D labs around the world and see clues as to what the future holds. That's the full-time job of Dave Evans, Cisco's chief futurist and chief technologist for the Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG).
At Cisco Live, Evans outlined what he believed to be the top 10 trends that will change the world in 10 years. Here is his list, with commentary augmented by yours truly based on interviews in the past year with numerous other industry analysts and visionaries.
No. 1: The Internet of Things
We have passed the threshold where more things are connected to the Internet than people. The transition to IPv6 also supports seemingly limitless connectivity. Cisco IBSG predicts the number of Internet-connected things will reach 50 billion by 2020, which equates to more than six devices for every person on Earth. Many of us in the developed world already have three or more full-time devices connected to the Internet when factoring in PCs, smartphones, tablets, television devices and the like. Next up are sensor networks, using low-power sensors that "collect, transmit, analyze and distribute data on a massive scale," says Evans.
Such sensors, based on standards like Zigbee, 6LoWPAN and Z-wave, are currently being used in both predictable and surprising ways. Zigbee is being embedded in smart appliances and smart meters. 6LoWPAN (over IPv6) is used by Vint Cerf for his wine cellar climate-monitoring system. Z-Wave is the basis for Verizon's smart home automation service. But more creative uses are emerging, too. Sparked, a Dutch startup, implants sensors in the ears of cattle to monitor cows' health and whereabouts. Sensors are being embedded in shoes, medicine like asthma inhalers, and medical exploratory surgery devices. There's even a tree in Sweden wired with sensors that tweets its mood and thoughts, with a bit of translation help from an interpretive engine developed by Ericsson (@connectedtree or #ectree).
No. 2: Not just Big Data, but a zettaflood
About 5 exabytes of unique information were created in 2008. That's 1 billion DVDs. Fast forward three years and we are creating 1.2 zettabytes, with one zettabyte equal to 1,024 exabytes. "This is the same as every person on Earth tweeting for 100 years, or 125 million years of your favorite one-hour TV show," says Evans. Our love of high-definition video accounts for much of the increase. By Cisco's count, 91% of Internet data in 2015 will be video.
VISUALIZE: Volume of data darn near indescribable ... without the iPad
Much of Cisco's development focus (not to mention its marketing) preaches that the so-called "zettaflood" will require vastly improved networks to move more data, and not drop the ball (or the packets) of our beloved video.
No. 3: Wisdom of the cloud
Much of the zettaflood of data will be stored in the cloud. Certainly, most of it is being accessed by the cloud, rather than only on private networks. By 2020, one-third of all data will live in or pass through the cloud, Cisco predicts. Global cloud services revenue will jump 20% per year, and IT spending on innovation and cloud computing could top $1 trillion by 2014. That's enough to create the next Google. "Already, the cloud is powerful enough to help us communicate through real-time language translation, increase our knowledge from access to powerful supercomputers such as Wolfram Alpha, and improve our health using computing platforms like IBM's Watson in new ways," says Evans. "We're able to communicate in much richer ways."
In addition to video, the computing power of the cloud delivered to endpoint devices changes our ability to communicate with things like real-time translation. Right now, the voice search on an Android phone sends the query to the Google cloud to decipher and return results. "We'll see more intelligence built into communication. Things like contextual and location-based information."
With an always-connected device, the network can be more granular with presence information, tapping into a personal sensor to know that a person's asleep, and route an incoming call to voicemail. Or knowing that person is traveling at 60 mph in a car, and that this is not the time for a video call. (Of course, by then, we'll probably all be using driverless Google cars, and be free to chat while our cars drive us around.)
No. 4: The next 'Net
Evans talks about his home as an example of the speed of network improvements. Network performance has increased by 170,000 times since 1990, when he had just one telnet connection.
Today, Evans has 38 always-on connections and more than 50Mbps of bandwidth, enough for telepresence, streaming movies and online games at the same time. Over the next 10 years, Evans expects the speed to his home to increase by 3 million times.
While most of the industry is focused on 40G and 100G, whole new forms of networks are also being created. Vint Cerf discusses the new protocols needed to build an interplanetary network, which can send data vast distances without being disturbed by latency. Evans notes that multiterabit networks using lasers are being explored. And early work is happening on a concept called "quantum networking," based on quantum physics. This involves "quantum entanglement" in which two particles are entangled after which they can be separated by any distance, and when one is changed, the other is also instantly changed. Production quantum networks are likely decades in the future.
No. 5: The world gets smaller
With always-on connectivity, social networking has the power to change cultures, as we saw with the Egyptian Revolution, which led to the Arab Spring. Social influences will continue to move rapidly between cultures.
A smaller world also means faster information dissemination. "Tweets from people in Japan during the recent earthquake were sent to followers even before the U.S. Geological Survey could issue its official tsunami warning to Alaska, Washington, Oregon and California," says Evans.
The capture, dissemination and consumption of events are going from "near time" to "real time." This in turn will drive more rapid influence among cultures.
No. 6: The power of power
The human population also continues to grow, and Evans estimates that a city with 1 million inhabitants will be built every month over the next two decades. More efficient methods to power those cities are becoming a necessity, particularly solar energy.
"Solar alone can meet our energy needs. In fact, to address today's global demand for energy, 25 solar super sites -- each consisting of 36 square miles -- could be erected. Compare this to the 170,000 square kilometers of forest area destroyed each year," says Evans. Such a solar farm could be completed in just three years.
TRYING: Energy Dept. spends $2B to double US concentrated solar power capacity
Technologies to make this more economically pragmatic are on their way. In June, Oregon State University researchers showed off a novel, relatively affordable, low-impact method to "print" solar cells using an inkjet printer.
No. 7: Tea. Earl Grey. Hot
More items will move from physical to virtual. Today, we download e-books and movies, rather than bound books and DVDs. A technology called 3D printing will allow us to instantly manufacture any physical item, from food to bicycles, using printer technology. This is strikingly like the replicator concept from "Star Trek."
"3D printing, or additive manufacturing, is the process of joining materials to make objects from 3D model data, usually layer upon layer," says Evans.
Already, things ranging from toys to cars to living structures are being printed and because the process is done by adding layers of materials on top of one another, they are printed fully assembled and decorated, too. The bicycle pictured with this story is an actual working bicycle created by a 3D printer.
LEGAL? 3D printing may bring legal challenges, group says
In the not-too-distant future, we will be able to print human organs," says Evans. In March, Dr. Anthony Atala from the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine printed a proof-of-concept kidney mold onstage at TED. It was not living tissue, but the point was well made even so.
Trend 8: Another family tree
Virtual humans, both physical (robots) and online avatars will be added to the workforce. "Already, animated characters can recognize speech, convert text to speech, and have knowledge of previous encounters," says Evans.
By 2020, robots will be physically superior to humans. IBM's Blue Brain project, for instance, is a 10-year mission to create a human brain using hardware and software. "They believe that within a decade they'll start to see consciousness emerge with this brain," Evans says.
By 2025, the robot population will surpass the number of humans in the developed world. By 2032, robots will be mentally superior to humans. And by 2035, robots could completely replace humans in the workforce.
Beyond that, we'll see the creation of sophisticated avatars. Evans points to IBM's Watson as a template for the virtual human. Watson was able to answer a question by returning a single, accurate result. A patient may use a virtual machine instead of a WebMD search. Or hospitals can augment patient care with virtual machines.
Between now and then, augmented reality and gesture-based computing will enter our classrooms, medical facilities and communications, and transform them as well. "Already, machine vision enables users to take a picture of a Sudoku puzzle with their smartphone and have it solved almost immediately," he notes.
No. 9: Yes, there's a cure for that
"We think nothing of using pacemakers," Evans points out. In the next 10 years, he believes medical technologies will grow vastly more sophisticated as computing power becomes available in smaller forms. Devices such as nanobots and the ability to grow replacement organs from our own tissues will be the norm. "The ultimate integration may be brain-machine interfaces that eventually allow people with spinal cord injuries to live normal lives," he says.
Today we have mind-controlled video games and wheelchairs, software by Intel that can scan the brain and tell what you are thinking and tools that can actually predict what you are going to do before you do it.
No. 10: Humans or Borg?
According to Stephen Hawking, "Humans are entering a stage of self-designed evolution." Taking the medical technology idea to the next level, healthy humans will be given the tools to augment themselves. Evans offers the following examples:
July 2009 -- Spanish researchers discover substance for photographic memory.
October 2009 -- Italian and Swedish scientists develop the first artificial hand with feeling.
March 2010 -- Retina implants restore vision to blind patients.
June 2011 -- Texas Heart Institute develops a "spinning" heart with no pulse, no clogs and no breakdowns.
While the early use of these technologies will be to repair unhealthy tissue or fix the consequences of brain injury, eventually designer enhancements will be available to all.
Ultimately, humans will use so much technology to mend, improve or enhance our bodies, that we will become the Borg. Futurist Ray Kurzweil is pioneering this idea with a concept he calls singularity, the point at which man and machine merge and become a new species. (Kurzweil says this will happen by 2054). Evans is not convinced about singularity, particularly in Kurzweil's time frame. Evans sits on the Singularity University in Mountain View and finds the data plausible, and agrees that we are on that trajectory.
reference / https://www.networkworld.com/article/2179278/lan-wan/10-technologies-that-will-change-the-world-in-the-next-10-years.html
regards
Many fields have fast envelopment in the last years, however, computer sciences have the most development in the last decade.
It's pure speculation and says more about desires and doubts of answering people than there are reliable criteria. In the light of remaining and growing conflicts worldwide I assume that the tools or destroying (also for destroying nature to gain more ressources) are in further progress.
My area of interest is sustainable logistics and supply chain management.
And I wish sustainability should be research area of 21 century
Dear Joanna,
several field appear very promising about technical-economical effects that they can generate in our society. I think to the Wearable devices, Internet of Things, Data science, Crypto-currencies, Driver-less cars, 3-D printing, Virtual reality, Genomics, Nanotechnology, applications of the Graphene and (maybe, if we focus on the next ten years) Nuclear Fusion. A key technology, present and fundamental in many of this research field is the so called Machine Learning, the core of AI.
Best regards,
Marco
The nano technology in last teen yeasr play an important role in wold.
Dear Joanna, it is a difficult question. Our answers might be biased based on our knowledge of different fields. But I want to open another window for discussion: the difference between the demand and supply of new knowledge.
As for supply, we can extrapolate the recent trends, because finance of science will boom there. I mean finance, medical research, artificial intelligence. Perhaps this will boost certain fields of applied mathematics, especially in Big Data and Complex systems.
What about demand? The key challenges for our civilization are in growing pollution, destruction of ecological systems, demand for fast growth of clean energy, tension in social relations at all levels. We need a boost in these fields, because we need to solve those problems urgently. However, we may not have enough scientists and their might be not enough finance for a revolutionary breakthrough there, comparing with the fields listed above (supply).
With the scientific & technological development with the global environment & natural disturbing problems including the man made creation in the entire world it is not possible to visualize & prognosticate the result of coming 10 years time .
But we have not to be that much pessimist ,it is very likely that because of Scientific research for the welfare program for humanity in areas of medicine,& it is also likely that if the humanity due to the global & natural environment suffer,physical & mentally humanity may move towards philosophy & its cultural effects in their physical existence .
Let hope for better but recent development of Robot to carry out the work with us along with our working environment including the agriculture, & labor problems this may creates a hardship to the humanity at very large scale .
This is my personal opinion
Virtual reality technologies, education, medicine and robots using the internet (like AI).
"Which field will develop the fastest? " I guess this areas will grow together and feed each other.
I do not know if it will happen in the next decade, but I think people will use it near the full potential and become more conscious by using the latest information they have gained.
People will learn how to use materials more efficiently and in different ways. Especially the use of organic materials will increase (etc. artificially created organs).
Unfortunately there will be more progress in military areas. Weapon and defense systems will grow more aggressive and different ways.
Dear Dr. Joanna
- Genetics.
- Medicine .
- Computer science .
Predicts prosperity within years.
Best regards
Dear Joanna,
Very good question, again!
Which field of research will develop the fastest and will be the most important in the next 10 years?
- Genetics, TeleCommunication and Sustainable fuels, in my opinion.
About the others thar you´ve cited "Life sciences, Genetics, Space medicine, Business administration, Computer science, Robotics, Applied mathematics and so on" all of them will develop fastest, since we have donne a big progress in electronic means to help make it all quicker.
Which will be the most important to human development? In 10 years? And in 20 years?
-I believe that in both cases, 10 and 20 years, the same I said before. But maybe with Environmental research gaining importance.
what about your field of research? Do you predict that it will be boom or regress over the next few years?
- My field is Economic Development of BRICS focused on Productivity of Brazil. Nowadays, it´s a challenge to answer, because my country is in trouble (political and economical) and so, many researchers are losing opportunities to discover/develop goodm models for the country growth and development. But, Crisis are (almost always) followed nearly by opportunities. Hope we can see and have good outcomes of that opportunites.
artificial intelligence , Web Hosting Publicity ....
Also, the healthcare sector, products and services related to the provision of health services is one of the fastest growing segments of the global economy....
Thank you so much for all the answers! I read all the with great pleasure and interest. The image emerging from all these comments gives food for thought, doesn't it?
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