Five Technology Predictions for the Next 20 Years
John Mancini

By: John Mancini on February 9th, 2015

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Five Technology Predictions for the Next 20 Years

Digital Transformation

The five predictions below are by Tom Koulopoulos from the Delphi Group.

From Tom: -- "As a child, I couldn’t grasp the concept of gravity. If you drop an object from twice as high, it doesn’t take twice as long to reach the ground. It only takes 1.4 times as long. The reason is that the higher the object the more time it has to accelerate. (Yes, for those of you who did pay attention in physics class, I’m leaving out air resistance, distance from sea level, and terminal velocity.) The simplest analogy is to think of pulling onto a highway. When you accelerate from 0-105 KPH in ten seconds, you are actually covering more ground with each passing second."

So what does this have to do with the future? Well, the future has its own form of gravity that pulls us to it faster and faster, it’s called technology, and we simply cannot project technology change at the same rate going forward as it has occurred in the past.

Here are 5 examples of trends that will shape the future of business:

  1. Open sourcing patents. The days of winning through protecting IP are numbered.

  2. The Death of Retirement. 50% of all Millenials and Gen Zers plan to be self-employed. Retirement is history. Every Knowledge worker will need to build their own brand to sustain themselves for life.

  3. Higher Education will crumble under its own weight. Trillion-dollar debt load on students and their parents. Open classrooms for anyone with a mobile device anywhere on the planet. Research funded by the crowd.

  4. We will no longer understand how computers work. The promise of artificial intelligence has always been measured against how well a computer can think like a human. The real shift will occur when computers think in ways we can’t even begin to understand.

  5. Half of all new cars will be self-driving. We fear them and chuckle at them as a curiosity today. But, self-driving cars are like dishwashers or washing machines; once you get another month of your life handed over to you, you’ll never, ever think of giving it back.

 

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About John Mancini

John Mancini is the President of Content Results, LLC and the Past President of AIIM. He is a well-known author, speaker, and advisor on information management, digital transformation and intelligent automation. John is a frequent keynote speaker and author of more than 30 eBooks on a variety of topics. He can be found on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook as jmancini77. Recent keynote topics include: The Stairway to Digital Transformation Navigating Disruptive Waters — 4 Things You Need to Know to Build Your Digital Transformation Strategy Getting Ahead of the Digital Transformation Curve Viewing Information Management Through a New Lens Digital Disruption: 6 Strategies to Avoid Being “Blockbustered” Specialties: Keynote speaker and writer on AI, RPA, intelligent Information Management, Intelligent Automation and Digital Transformation. Consensus-building with Boards to create strategic focus, action, and accountability. Extensive public speaking and public relations work Conversant and experienced in major technology issues and trends. Expert on inbound and content marketing, particularly in an association environment and on the Hubspot platform. John is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the College of William and Mary, and holds an M.A. in Public Policy from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University.