Up and Coming Technology:Forget about Google: Some Technology Trends that will Change our World

3:45 –   5:00 Sunday

Susan Hassler, Editor-in-Chief

IEEE Spectrum Magazine

s.hassler@ieee.org

IEEE Spectrum Magazine/ Fellows Institute for the Future (IFTF):

Identifying technologies that will have a significant impact over next 10-20 years 

Extending biology

• Augmenting our own biology-though chemistry, such as Prozac, steroids, etc in order to increase people’s attributes, as in bionic humans.   Examples: artificial eyes, ability to detect infrared, replacement limbs under neural control, subdural implants of RFIDs (radio frequency IDs) to take care of health, i.e. carry medical records.
• Synthetic biology (creating new lifeforms): “Biology is the nanotechnology that actually works.” Example: synthetic bacteria to eat up oil spills.

 

Information Technology

• Wireless communication and computation, distributed (decentralized) sensing, RFIDs (radio frequency IDs) in computers, cell phones, clothes, cars, etc.
• Projection: gigabit internet access available in 47% of homes in developed countries within 10 years
• 1980s= Era of personal computers
• 1990s=Era of Internet “Google is currently the epicenter of interconnected knowledge and applications on the web.”
• 2007-2027 = Era of sensor networks; imbedded chips & tracking devices to read them. 

Distributed information:

• From centralized grids to decentralized & customized for smaller groups of users.
• WIFI cities
• Ad hoc mesh wireless networks
• Voice-over IP
• Global networks of science and innovation

Power & Utilities:

• Home fuel cells, reverse-flowing grids, storage technologies.
• “Things don’t need to be in one place anymore.” 

Things mentioned:

CA Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology

OptiPuter: optical networking=couples computational resources over parallel optical networks in real time

SAGE

Blue Marble dataset

Falco Kuester

 iGrid2005: 4k digital video=very high resolution video.  YouTube is the tip of the iceberg

Ian Jukes and Anita Dosaj: The Infosavvy Group

How will these innovations change the way we live?

Connected and available 24/7 =not true until 10 years ago

Networks dictate how we learn and how our children learn. It is NEW that ALL networks are interconnected.

Roy Amara, ”We tend to overestimate technology in the short term and underestimate impact in the long term.”

Information once it’s digitized will travel from format to format.

Literacy will no longer mean “the ability to read and write,” but will mean “the ability to understand and work with many forms of media.”

Libraries will have to curate these many forms of media.

Libraries will have to deal with far-flung membership, instead of geographically-based membership.

Physical libraries will remain valued sources of social networking.