Which technology do you think will die out, and which one will probably change our lives?
Over the past one, 2, or even 3 decades, technological development has accelerated dramatically thanks to the digital revolution.
– But some technologies generate a lot of hype and still don’t seem to have reached mass adoption or shown enough long-term potential. For example, that’s how I currently see wearable glasses.
– On the other hand, technologies and concepts like the internet, social media, artificial intelligence, and perhaps even Bitcoin have already had a profound impact on society.
Which technological inventions do you think have little chance of succeeding and will eventually fade away?
And then, is there any emerging technology that you believe will have a major impact on the future?
1. Personally, I think the current concept of wearables may eventually lose momentum.
2. And I believe AI-powered robots have enormous potential, especially in areas such as logistics and the military.
Replies
I’m also watching AI-powered robots closely. Especially the boring useful part: warehouses, hospitals, elderly care, cleaning, delivery, dangerous jobs. That’s where I think the real adoption will happen first.
Wearable glasses, on the other hand, still feel unclear to me. Unless they solve a daily pain better than a phone, I’m not sure people will keep using them.
I believe the winners will be technologies that remove work from people’s lives, not just add another device to manage.
Dies out: the standalone smartwatch as its own thing. It won't vanish, just turns into a sensor feeding something else instead of a device you tap on. Hard to justify a screen on your wrist when the phone does more.
Changes our lives: AI agents. Not the chatbot you type into, the kind that goes off and does multi-step work on its own, booking, buying, researching, without you starting each step.
The part more interesting than robots: once agents use the internet themselves, they become users of it. In a few years a business will have more agents touching digital services than employees. The web was built for people, and the main users are about to be machines, with almost none of the plumbing built for it.
That gap's where the real building happens this decade.
On robots, agree on logistics. Military I'd be slower on, less the tech, more how slow procurement is.
What made you call out glasses?
Agreed — tech comes and goes. And some of it looks more influential than it really is, inflated more by finance and media than by the tech itself. (Personally that's how I see the "metaverse" 😄)
For B2C, I think the tech that survives is the kind that makes us more human. We want to connect and to be healthy. So I'd bet on more services built around connecting across different circles — close friends, acquaintances, anonymous strangers — and capturing the moments we share. On the health side, I think wearables like watches and rings will keep spreading. (Glasses, though, I see exactly like you do.)
In logistics and military, AI-driven tech like drones will create an asymmetric edge for a while — which is exactly why I expect the competition there to get fierce.
1) I think Mobile Apps will be fade away as they occupy unnecessary space, most of them are not used daily and browser based webapps are mobile friendly - so no need to have mobile apps. The only mobile apps we will use will be the once we use extremely daily - such as WhatsApp, Stock Market Trading (for daily traders), Linkedin etc.
2) Emerging Tech to have major impact on future : AI in Medical Diagnosis will be of tremendous help.
Closed source AI. I can see the ivory castles crumbling already. I remember back in the day when they said ASP would continue to rule into the future, and I looked at, what was janky at the time, PHP and said "I don't think so". Then PHP 4 and Facebook came along, and the game changed forever. I don't see .asp extensions on those urls anymore.. just saying.