Jump to content
Sign in to follow this  
bmo

A Think Tank's Crystal Ball Predictions - Our Future.?

Recommended Posts

A Think Tank's Crystal Ball Predictions - Our Future.?

An interesting talk by the Head of Daimler Benz a bit mind blowing to say the least !

In a recent interview, the Head of Daimler Benz (Mercedes Benz) said their competitors are no longer other car companies, but Tesla, and now, Google,  Apple, Amazon 'et al' are……  Software will disrupt most traditional industries in the next 5-10 years.

Uber is just a software tool, they don't own any cars, and are now the biggest taxi company in the world.
Airbnb is now the biggest hotel company in the world, although they don't own any properties.

Artificial Intelligence:  Computers become exponentially better in understanding the world.  This year, a computer beat the best Go player in the world, 10 years earlier than expected..

In the U.S.., young lawyers already can't get jobs.  Because of IBM Watson, you can get legal advice (so far for more or less basic stuff) within seconds, with 90% accuracy compared with 70% accuracy when done by humans.  So, if you study law, stop immediately.  There will be 90% less lawyers in the future, only specialists will remain.

Watson already helps nurses diagnosing cancer, 4 times more accurate than human nurses.  Facebook now has a pattern recognition software that can recognize faces better than humans. In 2030, computers will become more intelligent than humans.

Autonomous cars: In 2018 the first self-driving cars will appear for the public.  

Around 2020, the complete industry will start to be disrupted.  You don't want to own a car anymore.  You will call a car with your phone, it will show up at your location and drive you to your destination.  You will not need to park it, you only pay for the driven distance and you can be productive while driving.  Our kids will never get a driver's license and will never own a car.

It will change the cities, because we will need 90-95% less cars for that.  We can transform former parking spaces into parks.  

1.2 million people die each year in car accidents worldwide.  We now have one accident every 60,000 miles (100,000 km), with autonomous driving that will drop to one accident in 6 million miles (10 million km).  That will save a million lives each year.

Most car companies will probably go bankrupt.  Traditional car companies will try the traditional approach and try to build a better car, while tech companies (Tesla, Apple, Google) will take the revolutionary approach and build a computer on wheels.
Many engineers from Volkswagen and Audi are completely terrified of Tesla.

Auto Insurance companies will have massive trouble because without accidents, car insurance will become much cheaper.  Their car insurance business model will slowly disappear.

Real estate will change. Because if you can work while you commute, people will move further away to live in a more beautiful neighborhood.

Electric cars will become mainstream about 2020.  Cities will be less noisy because all new cars will run on electricity.  Electricity will become incredibly cheap and clean:  Solar production has been on an exponential curve for 30 years, and now you can now see the burgeoning impact.

Last year, more solar energy was installed worldwide than fossil.   Energy companies are desperately trying to limit access to the grid to prevent competition from home solar installations, but that can't last.  Technology will take care of that strategy.

With cheap electricity comes cheap and abundant water.  Desalination of salt water now only needs 2kwh per cubic meter (@ 0.25 cents).  We don't have scarce water in most places, we only have scarce drinking water.  Imagine what will be possible if anyone can have as much clean water as he wants, for nearly no cost.

Health innovations:  The Tricorder X price will be announced this year.  There are companies who will build a medical device (called the "Tricorder" from Star Trek) that works with your phone, which takes your retina scan, your blood sample, and you can breath into it.
It then analyses 54 biomarkers that will identify nearly any disease.  It will be cheap, so in a few years everyone on this planet will have access to world class medical analysis, nearly for free.  Goodbye, medical establishment.

3D printing:  The price of the cheapest 3D printer came down from $18,000 to $400 within 10 years.  In the same time, it became 100 times faster.  All major shoe companies have already started 3D printing shoes.
Some common spare airplane parts are already 3D printed in remote airports.  

The space station now has a printer that eliminates the need for the large amount of spare parts they used to keep in the past.

At the end of this year, new smart phones will have 3D scanning possibilities.  

You can then 3D scan your feet and print your perfect shoes at home.

In China, they already 3D printed and built a complete 6-storey office building.  By 2027, 10% of everything that's being produced will be 3D printed.

Business opportunities: If you think of a niche you want to go in, ask yourself:  "In the future, do you think we will have that?", and if the answer is yes, how can you make that happen sooner?
If it doesn't work with your phone, forget the idea.

Work: 70-80% of jobs will disappear in the next 20 years.  There will be a lot of new jobs, but it is not clear if there will be enough new jobs in such a small time.

Agriculture:  There will be a $100 agricultural robot in the future. Farmers in 3rd world countries can then become managers of their field instead of working all day on their fields.

Aeroponics will need much less water.  The first Petri dish that produced veal is now available and will be cheaper than cow produced veal in 2018.  Right now, 30% of all agricultural surfaces is used for cows.  Imagine if we don't need that space anymore.  

There are several startups who will bring insect protein to the market shortly. It contains more protein than meat.  It will be labeled as "alternative protein source" (because most people still reject the idea of eating insects).

There is an app called "moodies" which can already tell in which mood you're in.  
By 2020 there will be apps that can tell by your facial expressions, if you are lying..   Imagine a political debate where it's being displayed when they're telling the truth and when they're not.

Longevity:  Right now, the average life span increases by 3 months per year.  Four years ago, the life span used to be 79 years, now it's 80 years. The increase itself is increasing and by 2036, there will be more than one year increase per year.  So, we all might live for a long time, probably way more than 100.

Education:  The cheapest smart phones are already at $10 in Africa and Asia.  By 2020, 70% of all humans will own a smart phone.  That means, everyone has the same access to world class education.

Every child can use Khan academy for everything a child needs to learn at school in First World countries. There have already been releases of software in Indonesia and soon there will be releases in Arabic, Swahili, and Chinese this summer. I can see enormous potential if we give the English app for free, so that children in Africa and everywhere else can become fluent in English.  And that could happen within half a year.


Are you ready for all this ? ! ? ! ?

 

  • Like 4

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Best way to teach Third World kids English is by providing them the lyrics of most recent songs of Justin Bieber!

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Well I would think teaching Third World kids English would be yucky Justin Bieber music - How about Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, The Who, CCR, and more Rock music ;) 

  • Like 3

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Well I would think teaching Third World kids English would be yucky Justin Bieber music - How about Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, The Who, CCR, and more Rock music ;)

 

I'm afraid that current teen generation WORLDWIDE really doesn't care about Classic Rock and not even for the 80s and 90s.. If you browse '10s and even the '00s decade's top listings you find less and less rock and  get mostly pop and hip-hop. 20th Century music is for the Contermporary Adult or even the Oldie category. Do you follow "Pawn Stars"? Corey and Chumlee show a total lack of minimal knowledge abour classic rock and even make fun about Rick when theme arises. This is real, not just a catch. I'm sure those two guys really don't have the least interest about rock music..

 

By the way, my answer is not a "joke". Actually I have some pesonal experience with youngsters learning good English understanding by following the songs with the lyrics.

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this  

×