After being involved in technology for 20 years professionally, I've come to understand the disruptive nature of advanced technologies and how they can literally change the landscape of our reality.
A good historical example of this is when Henry Ford invented the first petrol-powered horseless carriage and then went on to create the first motor car - the 'Model T' Ford in 1908. Imagine the impact for humans who were used to travelling on horse and carriages and also using Steam Engine trains as the primary mode of transport? People could now purchase cars and could drive much faster and further than ever before - this could be seen as a huge leap forward in transportation technology.
One of the things I would like to highlight about this is that all the spin-offs that were created from the invention of motorised vehicles was being able to stretch human interactions further than ever before and people could now bring in products and people to geographically distant areas and create new products and services by being able to source materials and specialisations from previously distant regions. This also allowed for the creation of new products like aeroplane engines and automated mechanical devices of all kinds. Interestingly when Ford built the first factory to produce these vehicles, he also brought in the very first assembly lines, and pioneered the first standardised interchangeable parts - which could be produced and used on any of his cars when needed, something that we take for granted today.
So without any further delay let me introduce you to the top three disruptive technologies which will change the face of the planet as we know it. We are now standing in the midst of another technological revolution right now - we're going to see the massive impact of these technologies will have on the future of life on planet Earth.
The 3 most important technologies to keep your eyes on and be aware of are:
- 3D Printing Machines
- Web Applications
- Drones or Unmanned Arial Vehicles
I'm going to briefly cover each category and explain how and why these technologies are so revolutionary starting with:
3D Printing Machines
One way to think about the impact 3D printing will have is to just take a look at a busy highway and notice all the trucks hauling goods around the country. It's been estimated that about half or roughly 50% of the goods on those trucks consist of water. So if we were to haul the actual raw ingredients around, without the added water, we would be able to half the traffic and the cargo loads by half almost without any radical interventions.We as consumers would then be able to add our own water to our products and reduce our carbon footprint and amount of goods that we have to transport around and therefor radically reduce the costs of the products. So moving heavy water around our road network is extremely inefficient. One solutions to this problem could be to add the products as sort of like we add cartridges to our printers when the ink runs out, similarly we can use low cost 3D printing machines to print the final products that we need and we use. So once the cartridge technology is perfected we could literally print anything we need in the comfort and privacy of our own homes. This will also allow consumers to modify the products slightly or add other ingredients or extra features to our products. As an example a diabetic could print a product without the sugar or replace the sugar with something else and the possibilities are endless as to how we can reduce the cost, weight and alter features of products we normally use. Or we could just plug in a cartridge and press a button and viola a fresh product ready for consumers to use.
It would also be possible to 'print' products that are not available in our region by downloading the blueprints for a particular product and then just printing it. An example is a company called Defense Distributed which was founded by Cody Wilson and released 3D printable files for a gun on the web in 2013 - this got many people thinking about the possibilities of what 3D printing could offer.
Web Applications
The web (software) is an application of the internet (hardware) and one of the most obvious applications of this amazing technology are things like social networking and cryptocurrency. But there are many, many more applications for using web applications for things like operating theatres being operated remotely by surgeons and many other applications that have not been realised yet.Web applications operate over the internet using a client-server technology where clients or browsers can connect to remote and physically distributed server computers and consume data and services. Indeed you are now reading this very article now using the Steemit web application! There are many different types and uses of web applications and this will continue to be a most important and relevant technology for a long time into the future. The web is revolutionising many industries with new and better business models and paradigms which allow companies and consumers to be more efficient and operate in geographically remote areas with up to date information and offerings and also cut the costs of doing business the old traditional way.
Some examples of web applications are online shopping from companies like Amazon, instant messaging applications from products like WhatsApp or Skype which send real-time messages between people and many others like online Auctions. Another example of web apps, something that's going to be very big in the future, is Online Education and Training. The possibilities are literally endless as to how traditional companies can re-create themselves using the internet to reach larger audiences, cut their costs and provide a higher quality content. I believe that any traditional company which is not looking at appropriate ways of using the web to provide better services and be more productive will fade away into the background and just become irrelevant in the future. The main reason for this logic is because even if customers are just managing their accounts online then they will surpass traditional companies which still require you to contact them to make any updates to your account information which is very inconvenient and time consuming.
Drones or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) or what is colloquially known as drones are another disruptive and paradigm shifting technology which will change the way many things are done today. You could think of it as bringing the power of flight to the masses. Aircraft which are still today prohibitively expensive for the vast majority of companies and consumers will now bring a scaled down and practical uses for air travel technologies brought to everyone. Many services like crop spraying which would normally need to be outsourced can now be done in house and managed by normal people and at a very cost effective price.People are now able to monitor their properties, look at things which are difficult to travel to by foot and a host of other uses. One application of drones that caught my eye was when Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced that Amazon will be delivering packages to their customers using drones. This is all possible now that the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) has since 2016 released a series of guidelines which has been codified into law and allows for the commercial development of drones to be used in the public arena and allows for companies to build out infrastructure which will make drones delivery a new exciting technology and provide opportunities for service and efficiency.
Imagine ordering your products from your local e-commerce retailer and as soon as you've clicked the submit and pay button, a drone takes off and delivers your good to you right away or with a very short waiting period - wouldn't that be awesome?
Conclusion
In my humble opinion these are the three most important technologies which will in the near term have a dramatic and unexpected impact on our everyday lives. We could take this a step further and mix all these technologies together and use a web application to purchase 3D printing cartridge, then have the cartridge delivered to us by a drone. If these technologies are carefully researched and nurtured this could all be done in the most efficient and cost-effective way possible and literally reduce the time taken to do certain tasks and free up humans to spend their time doing things that they want to do and reduce the overhead and burden of doing business the old traditional way.Please let me know what you think and I'd appreciate any comments about emerging future technologies which are starting to have a big disruptive impact on traditional businesses.
References
3D Printing Computer Attached image , Web Application Graphic , 3d Printer Image , Drone Uses Graphic
