10 Futuristic Breakthrough Technologies
Living in an era, enveloped by violence, environmental mishaps, economic depression & disease, are there any redeeming circumstances that lift up your spirits. Bill Gates spoke to MIT Review, & identified
10 new technologies that will revolutionize the world. Let's take a look at some of them.
The fact that health is the single most factor of concern to humanity on planet earth, it's inevitable that 70% of the ideas will fall or rise, in the health sector.
Swallowable pills are an invention that will not only detect diseases like malnutrition & slow growth but also expected to prevent such eventualities in children. Advanced research is on & the reality is not very far in the future. Imagine its impact in the underdeveloped & developing countries of the universe.
Today, cancer is the most dreaded disease as few antidotes help survive the healthy cells in the body. Gates talks of "customized cancer vaccines" that will hit only the cancerous cells, eliminating the risks attached with acute side effects of current medication & treatment. This will open up affordable & significant improvements in patients suffering from cancer, across the globe.
From the days of Alexa, Artificial intelligence assistants are going to perform a range of functions in the future, with clear value addition of measurable benefits. As this technology spreads, its use is limited only by our imagination. Its widespread range & scope includes quick learning, fast enough to predict your needs & satisfy them in seconds.
The underdeveloped world has acute sanitation issues to grapple. Gates promises sanitation "without sewers " with the added attraction of converting such waste to fertilizer. Millions of children in Africa & Asia will then avoid such critical exposure.
Heart disease prevention depends on detection, which today involves, minimally, an ECG, with 12 nodes. What if technology reduces this to single node amenable to be attached to your wrist, to monitor your heartbeat & the changes therein. It will go a long way in heart treatment with its simplistic warning signals.
Robots are facilitating repetitive industrial jobs today, saving millions. But Gates predicts that as you improve the "natural dexterity range " of the robots, you can enable them to look after those who can't help themselves...the old, sick & infirm. Imagine the turnaround in social security that this can bring about, world wide.
Carbon dioxide emissions are a big impediment in the urban world. What if technology enables CO2 to be captured by its tail, so to speak, & use it where it's required in loads.....for synthetic fuel, for greenhouses that nurture plants, for soft drink manufacture. Give the devil it's due..
Finally, nuclear power today is expensive, risky & comes in huge sizes only. What if disaggregated production in tens of MW is feasible to power inaccessible areas, remote terrains, & geographically challenging locales like islands & mountains. Gates believes that such innovations are possible that make nuclear energy safer, stable & financially feasible, a huge add on to multiplying economic activity anywhere, on mother earth.
Necessity they say is the mother of invention. Need Bill Gates to say more.
