This slidedeck is about futuretech – technology
that changes our lives and everything else
on the planet.
Where do we come from
So our planet is approximately 4.5 billion
years old
Humans are a relatively young phenomenon
The first homo sapiens appeared only 200'000
year ago
The first civilizations we know of were established
around 6000 years ago
What we call technology today started with
the invention of the steam engine only approximately
250 years ago
And what we call high tech is not even 50
years old
The first commercial microprocessor – the
basis for our digital age –
was produced in 1971 by Intel
Everything interesting technology-wise has
only happened in the last few decades
We can put this on a timeline
We see the clear blue line indicating the
size of the human population on earth over
time
The darker blue line shows available computing
power
Both lines are on an exponential trajectory
today
Since the middle ages
our advances in sanitary and healthcare infrastructure
have allowed for a fast population growth
With a larger population labor division and
specialization was possible
So our smartest brains could invent things
instead of having to grow or hunt food
We eventually invented computing
And then we invented transistors
that allow to scale computing
We went from zero calculations per second
to roughly ten billion calculations per second
per a thousand USD invested today
We went from stone age to interplanetar age
within 5'000 years.
The world population is projected to reach
11 billion by 2100
That is in 80 years from now
Population growth then is expected to stall,
and eventually fall
But technology growth is not
If technology continues to scale at this rate
we will reach computing power equivalence
of one human in 2023
and we will reach computing power equivalence
of all humans by 2055
The singularity university - where this slide
is from - calls this the singularity
It's the point in time when technology is
more intelligent than we humans
meaning more intelligent than all humans together
There are a number of different predictions
for the singularity
the median of those predictions is the year
2045
I call this techtech –
because it is a positive feedback loop
The more technology we already have
the more new or faster technology we can create
And the more computing power we have
the more everything else also gets digitized
–
All sectors of our economies and societies
as we can observe today
Technology adoption rates nicely illustrate
this fact
It took 68 years for airlines to get to 50
million users
And it took certain services in recent years
only weeks to get to 50 million users
As technology drives acceleration and powers
everything –
Technology also outperforms every other sector
finance-wise
Today among the ten largest companies on the
planet
7 are tech companies and some of them are
not even 20 years old
Where are we going from here
We are on an exponential trajectory
Some changes are closer than they appear
Technology has a profound impact on our human
evolution
Today we talk about chip implants and brain
implants (for example to address certain diseases)
And there are already robot toys.
Like this one
We could soon have robot boyfriends or girlfriends
for that matter
Eventually we could transform ourselves into
cyborgs?
We already have prosthetic limbs and exoskeletons
today
Looking at spacetech and future inter-planetar
or even inter-stellar travel
it starts making sense to look at cyborgization
options
Travels in space will be long, and conditions
tend to be unfriendly to the human body
that is adapted to living on this planet,
but not in outer space
Our technology has one big weakness –
All of it runs on electricity
Longer blackouts can get us back into stone
age
Without electricity you can't withdraw cash,
you can't refuel, you can't make phone calls
Nothing is mechanical anymore nowadays
Nothing works without electricity to power
it
The ubiquitous digitization we have today
was made possible because computing power
costs almost nothing anymore
A similar development is happening to the
energy price
Not for oil & gas
But for renewable energy like wind and specifically
solar
The price for solar power is steadily decreasing
and will eventually go to almost zero until
2050
If we are able to produce energy at almost
zero cost
we can automate everything at almost no cost
We can automate all of our industrial and
agricultural production
with robotics, drones, artificial intelligence,
and 3D printing, in a decentralized way
Eventually we will be able to do nanofabrication
(that is 3D printing on a molecular scale)
If everything can be produced in an automated
way at almost no cost
why does anyone need to work for food
It will make us rethink how we organize our
societal and economic systems
when work is scarce and food is abundant
In order to make automation work, we need
to fix the resource consumption problem and
be-come circular
Our global resource consumption at the current
level of inefficiency is not sustainable
The next 30 years will determine
if we can secure our long term survival on
this planet
And I believe that technology, or specifically
what I call #futuretech will play the key
role in transforming humanity into a sustainable
life form on this planet
There are three main areas we need to fix
Industry and infrastructure must become circular,
at best waste-free, resource efficient, and
automated
The Biosphere must be cleaned up from the
pollution and the harm we have caused
We need to reforestate in large dimensions
We need to update our agricultural production
to sustainable, circular and automated
And we will need to rethink our societal and
economic structures to act in favor of us
humans and not at our cost
Here are the eight areas where most change
through technology is taking place
There is a "yet unsolved" space – things
that are practically unsolved, but not theoretically
im-possible
Advances in science will eventually get us
there
We need to solve the energy problem –
Everything we run consumes energy
And this energy needs to come from renewable
sources
In energy efficiency and storage one thing
to look at is Graphene – a nanomaterial
made from Carbon that has outstanding properties
Specifically in regard to electrical conductivity
– it could eventually provide us with high
tem-perature superconductivity
And Graphene allows for high capacity energy
storage - it could be the material for superior
batteries replacing lithium ion based products
Off grid boxes are now available – self
sufficient energy production units – that
allow to decentralize our energy systems and
make our digital world more robust
The energy out of thin air approach is looking
to turn CO2 directly back to fuel by way of
atmospheric energy harvesters, bioinspired
light-escalated chemistry, artificial pho-tosynthesis
or hydrothermal carbonization
A number of promising startups have emerged
in this field
It will eventually make us independent from
oil and gas
We need to implement circular economy solutions
– to stop polluting the planet further and
clean it up again
Specifically we need to address the plastic
pollution that is disastrous for the biosphere
Nanofabricators could make us incredibly resource
efficient
Imagine you could break down any material
into its atomic or molecular components, and
re-use those to "3d print" matter on a molecular
basis
Already in operation are technologies that
capitalize on biological organisms to break
down waste, specifically plastics
We have new waste-to-energy solutions to re-use
waste as fuels
And we now have nano-coatings that clean the
air
The other crucial measure in fighting the
plastic pollution is making plastics from
biodegradea-ble sources such as seaweed, hemp
or other organic origins
There are a lot of startups are active in
this field
And also established manufacturers like Lego
have started rolling out biodegradeables
Housing is becoming sustainable, recyclable,
and self-sufficient
Housing is becoming sustainable, recyclable,
and self-sufficient
The biggest changes ahead come from automation
–
Technology will manage our lives and do our
work.
Artificial intelligence, Internet of things,
digital assistants are now rolled out not
only for the au-tomation of transaction tasks
but also for the automation of interaction
tasks –
A domain previously thought of requiring unique
human capabilities
Industrial production is on the way to be
fully robotized, agricultural production is
being auto-mated with robots and drones
3D printing is now able to print metals, and
on the large scale print floors, walls and
roofs for buildings
Quantum computing may still be in its infancy
But Quantum computing is by way of its nature
closer to human information processing than
is classical computing
So we will eventually see the development
of general artificial intelligence running
on quantum computers
Coming in the next years are fully autonomous
cars
and autonomous transport and logistics
as extension to autonomous industrial production
We finally have flying cars – in the form
of autonomous passenger drones
With no flying skills required
Large automotive players are venturing in
the field
Another development to make air travel sustainable
is the concept of electric aircrafts, like
from eviation
NASA and specifically China are working on
a technology called the "warp drive"
It's an electromagnetic drive, based on electromagnetic
propulsion of ions or plasma
It allows to accelerate spacecrafts to higher
speeds and will make interplanetar travel
faster and interstellar travel possible
A number of companies are building reusable
rockets, and space drones
There are plans to harvest energy from stars,
and natural resources or rather space resources
from asteroids and planets
We will eventually build nations in space,
and settlements on other planets
Food and food production is one of the largest
causes for CO2 emissions on the planet
We have now the possibility to capture CO2
and turn it into proteins with microorganisms
Other approaches venture into clean and plant-based
foods – to avoid the emissions from classical
meat production
Biosphere restoration efforts make deserted
land green again, and reforestate large landscapes
Our cities become greener through vertical
farming
Water from thin air approaches make fresh
water abundant, and add to the rebuilding
and restoration of natural ecosystems
This may be the most controversial area – human
health and human upgrades – to counteract
natural selection failure
Genetic editing is not the domain of research
labs anymore
You can order a set online and hack your DNA
You can order a set online and hack your DNA
A direct interface to the mind is under development
– to extend human information processing
with direct access to technological information
processing –
and eventually provide our minds with a direct
interface to artificial intelligence
Cyborgization in the form of synthetic organs,
bionic limbs and chip implants provide solutions
for dysfunctional physics
and also extend the human body with new capabilities
Delayed aging sees a great number of entities
doing research with a large amount of funding
Once you are rich, you don't want to die
The most underused resource on the planet
is human talent
We need to fix access to education and implement
ways to make better use of talent
Education is becoming ubiquitous thanks to
high level online universities and institutes
Universal Basic Income is discussed and tested
Despite the common belief that it makes people
lazy, tests show that quite the opposite is
true
People who do not have to worry if there will
be food on the table, start taking care of
others and their environment – there is
more collaboration and more happiness
We will eventually see societal transaction
systems based on blockchain technologies
for the exchange of goods and services, without
the need for gatekeepers
Alternative systems and jurisdictions are
being built around the globe, to test new
forms of so-cietal and economic organization
for the planet, not at the cost of it
Today, for the first time in the known human
history on this planet
we have enough food, technology and resources
to feed, support and evolve everyone
yet it is not happening
we are just incredibly badly organized
we need to rethink the way we manage this
planet
and - it is possible.
