The world will see more changes over the next ten years than it has in the past century. Augmented and virtual reality technologies, wearable devices, brain-computer interfaces, artificial intelligence and the Internet of things will veer everyone's life upside down.
AUGMENTED REALITY AND WEARABLE DEVICES
Earlier this year Mark Zuckerberg revealed the direction in which he believes IT technologies will move until 2030. Reminding that the 90s of the last century were the era of PCs, followed by the time of smartphones, the head of Facebook declared: the next step forward is a step into augmented and virtual reality, and devices with support for these functions are anticipating the principle development.
Obviously, Zuckerberg sees this future through his rose-colored glasses – his company, which six years ago purchased the developer of virtual reality headsets Oculus, such development for him is simply profitable. Nevertheless, many people concur with such assessments. Thus, according to IDC analysts, by the end of 2023, the market for wearable devices (including those with VR capabilities) will reach 279 million units with an average annual growth rate of 8.9%.
Incidentally, the head of Facebook sees the good in it not only for himself but for the entire humanity: if modern gadgets separate people from each other, replacing live communication with messages, at that point VR will allow us to become closer again, creating a feeling of being close.
BIOHACKING AND NEURAL INTERFACES
Biohackers that embed microchips under their skin have been around for quite a while. The manufacturer of electronic implants Dangerous Things three years ago reported that their sales exceeded 10 thousand chips. RFID and NFC implants of the size of rice grains supplant their owners with bank and smart cards, house and car keys, store passwords, contacts, and addresses of bitcoin wallets. In any case, the technologies of the near future will take the potential of implants to a completely different level.
At the latest Consumer Electronics Show, a startup from France, NextMind, demonstrated a device that reads electrical impulses from the brain, decodes them and theoretically allows to use the power of thought to control any device, from drones to computers. Elon Musk also relies on such solutions: his company Neuralink develops technologies for direct interaction between the human brain and the computer.
It is expected that by the end of the decade we will see serial devices, although their creators must be prepared for ethical problems: opponents of direct "invasion" of the cerebrum proclaim war on these innovations in advance.
BANKING SERVICES AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Ten years prior, the mark of one million online customers passed by Alfa-Bank seemed like a real breakthrough, however by 2018, according to the Central Bank, more than half of the country's adult population had remote access to their accounts.
Today, there is almost no reason for an ordinary customer to visit bank branches in person: most operations can be performed remotely, and online payments allow you to get by without ATMs.
Further implementation of a new generation of platforms based on artificial intelligence by banks will diminish such visits to zero and simultaneously decrease staff and rental expenses. Chatbots will replace live consultants, financial risk modeling systems will allow you to make decisions on loans remotely, and all financial mechanisms will survive the update. It is believed that by 2030, the AI revolution will allow banks to earn at least an extra $300 billion.
INTERNET IS EVERYWHERE
Gartner analysts in 2014 called the Internet of things one of the top ten technology trends of the current decade. However, their forecasts were too optimistic – fast development was restrained by the relatively low bandwidth of cellular networks. This obstacle will crumble in the 2020s.
The introduction of 5G pulls out these technological barriers. Ericsson forecasts that one year from now the number of devices connected to the network will reach a figure that recently seemed fantastic — 28 billion.
We will confront a new reality, when any person or device can exchange information without misrepresentation with anything, no later than five years from now. It won't be long.