It was Monday afternoon, day one of the World War D conference, and Sam Volkering took over the stage.
To kick it off, he announced he was very unhappy to be there. A couple of laughs were heard in the crowd. ‘I initially wanted to appear on the stage as a hologram, and do the presentation back from my base in London. But the technology hasn’t progressed enough yet, so I had to fly over instead.’
However, after overcoming his disappointment he accepted that the stage was where he had to be.
And the first thing he launched into — sans hologram — was the third certainty…
You see, at the start of the presentation, Sam used a well-known quote from Benjamin Franklin,‘“Only two things in life are certain. Death and taxes,” wrote Franklin. But I think there’s a third certainty in life,’ Sam told the audience.
‘In fact, the one certainty is technological advancement. Death and taxes might not even exist in a future world. But technology will.’
As Sam said, he’s not into doom and gloom reports about the global economy. It’s not that he doesn’t take economic information seriously. It’s just simply that he has a positive outlook on where technology is taking the world.
He listed six key areas that are going to be the main future tech areas to watch, starting with immersive technology. This industry is drastically altering the way we communicate with each other. As Sam said, we’ve gone from hieroglyphics, to letter writing, to phone calls and then the internet.
And thanks to the internet, you can phone someone, text, email, WhatsApp them or Viber a mate to chat.
According to Sam all of this tech will merge into immersive tech.
Enter the ‘surroundweb’
Right now, he explains, we all have our heads down in our smartphones while we’re talking. But as immersive tech becomes more common, and we adopt products like Google Glass, our posture will change back to how it should be.
Soon, we will be more connected than ever before.
The internet has been a major disruption to how we do things, but in a good way.
Following on from this, Sam pointed to the super computer he carries in his pocket — his smartphone. Demonstrating how the size has changed over the years to the crowd, he said at some point ‘you’re not even going to see the technology, it will be that small. But it will surround you.’
Then he started talking about the surroundweb. This means everywhere we go, we are connected to the web. But not just an internet connection. All of our devices are talking to one another.
He used the example of being able to buy a shirt without even having to talk to a sales assistant.
It’s a simple concept, he reasoned. When you walk into a store, it registers on the phone that you’ve entered. And when by picking up a shirt off the rack, it tells your phone what you’ve done. From here, you simply just make a transfer using your e-wallet. And that’s it. Simple.
In fact, Sam said the technology is already available to do this.
However what seemed to excite Sam the most is the concept of regenerative and personalised medicine.
Technology has always been a part of medicine. ‘Remember when bloodletting and shock treatment was the latest thing in technology advancement?’ Sam asked the crowd.
How fast things have changed. Thanks to advances in technology, we are one step closer to being able to live to 150 or even 160 years old. Only those ages won’t be how you imagine them now. A 150-year old person would be the equivalent of a 50 or 60 year old today.
As Sam said, ‘Imagine, looking back and saying, “wow my eighties were fun.”’
It’s possible too.
Almost a living robot
To prove how much biological technology has changed, Sam introduced this guy:
The only thing missing from this ‘cyborg’ is a brain, a digestive system and a liver.
His Achilles moves the ways ours do. His wrist almost has full rotation, like a human. The knees bend and the joints wiggle the way a humans’ would.
This is all part of the progression of bionics and personalised medicine. It’s enabling doctors to replace damaged organs or joints so people can lead a full life. Does this mean we’ll live forever? Sam doesn’t claim that, but it will enable us to prolong our lives.
As Sam wrapped up, he told the audience it was an exciting time to be an investor in tech and biotech. And while it’s always nice to invest in the ‘big’ projects like robots or smartphones, those aren’t always the best opportunities.
As Sam pointed out on Monday, he’s far more interested in investing in what makes the technology work: sensors, microchips, CPUs and GPUs. The ‘billions of devices’ needed to get this sort of ground-breaking tech off the ground.
Shae Smith+
For Money Morning
Editor’s Note: Next week Sam Volkering’s Tech Insider will have exclusive coverage of digital expert and author of Brave New War John Robb’s speech at WWD — where he revealed how to decrease your ‘wealth burn rate’ by tapping into a new online asset trend…you can sign up to Tech Insider here.
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