The future of technology is unpredictable, but advancements and trends suggest that computers will become more powerful and cheaper, while emerging technologies like biotechnology and nanotechnology will continue to grow. Futurists predict an increase in robotic technology and automation, leading to decentralized production and the use of 3D printers. Other areas of advancement include new materials, renewable energy, and artificial intelligence. The future will have better technology, but its use remains to be seen.
No one can exactly predict the future of technology, because no one can see the future. However, there are reasonable arguments that can be made, based on the advancements and trends in technology in the past. For example, it’s reasonable to expect that computers will continue to get more powerful, more numerous, and cheaper. Areas with huge potential that is just starting to be tapped today, such as biotechnology, nanotechnology and other emerging technologies, will continue to bear fruit.
Technology in general will likely continue to improve, as it has for millennia, creating both promise and risk. Some futurists have even claimed that the rate of technological progress is accelerating, citing the argument that better tools help us make even better tools, and that there are more skilled scientists and engineers today than ever before.
In the computing domain, we already see increasing miniaturization and functionality. Today someone could interact with tens or hundreds of microchips embedded in their homes and offices, in the future it will be many thousands. Rising bandwidth and falling costs will lead to what some have called “ubiquitous computing”: computers everywhere help us with everything. This takes computer technology to the next step.
Some commentators, notably Bill Gates, believe the coming decades will be highlighted by long-awaited revolutions in robotic technology, with robots entering the home and workplace on a massive scale. Robots are already being used to clean swimming pools, carpets and perform rudimentary safety functions. In Japan and elsewhere, research is intense to develop robots that can care for the elderly and help automate more manual labor tasks. This process of increasing automation will generate wealth, allowing for further investment in automation, until eventually most physical labor will be optional.
Other futurists see trends in automation technology leading to desktop factories that decentralize production and allow users to rapidly fabricate things like tools and cell phones from simple precursor parts, like circuit boards and plastic powder. “3D printers” could revolutionize product distribution in the same way that P2P networks have revolutionized music and video distribution today. Users can share product designs on open source sites, making them available to anyone in the world with the necessary desktop factory.
Beyond these two areas, there are dozens if not hundreds of domains that will continue to advance technologically: new materials, nanotechnology, pharmaceuticals, gene therapy and stem cells, renewable energy, display and interface technology, artificial intelligence, and more. One thing is certain: the future will have better technology than the past. But will we make better use of it? Only time and effort will tell.
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