Last weekend I became an uncle for the second time in three months. My brother and his wife welcomed little Ned Volkering into the world.
Ned will grow up in a world vastly different to the one my brother and I grew up in. We were both early 80s babies; Ned is a 10s baby. And when a new little life comes into the family it makes you look at things a little different.
I look at the technologies we take for granted today. HDTV, video calling, smartphones, cars we have to drive ourselves, keyboards, internet under 100Mbps — these will all be antiques to Ned by the time he reaches high school. Imagining the world when he’s my age is even more of a mind-bash.
Self-driving cars are a prime example. Ned will turn 18 in 2032. My guess is he won’t even know what a driver’s licence is, because won’t need one. If he wants to drive like we did in the ‘old days’, he’ll probably just jump onto his simulator. He’ll then be able to see, hear, smell and feel what it was like to drive a car in any period of time before him.
A working life for Ned will be vastly different to what we consider ‘work’ these days. Before my time, one steady career job for life was the great aspiration. Now people work several jobs during their lifetimes and possibly even pursue several different careers.
Free Reports:
Ned’s generation will most likely have several jobs all at once. ‘Micro-working’ will be the norm. He might have a few different contracts on the go, where he can apply multiple skills to generate income.
And it’s unlikely he’ll be paid in ‘dollars’. Ned will earn a living in a cryptocurrency.
Consumer technology will be vastly different. I wrote earlier this week about the future of mobile phones. I think they will integrate into our physiology to become a part of us. It’s also likely Ned will never need to pick up and ‘use’ a phone. Instead, he will control it through voice and gesture recognition.
But perhaps the most significant difference between my generation and Ned’s will be in healthcare and medicine. These industries are on the cusp of breakthroughs that have confounded humanity for ages. The rate at which medical technology advances today means great things for Ned as he gets older.
Just this week, biotechnology company Genentech made a breakthrough in Alzheimer’s disease. The researchers have figured out how to carry an antibody across the blood-brain barrier in a monkey.
This might sound basic. But according to Phys.org the hardest part in treating Alzheimer’s disease is ‘figuring out how to get medication into the brain via the bloodstream.’
This is just the first step in possibly finding a cure for Alzheimer’s. There are no human tests scheduled just yet. However, I reckon there’s a pretty good shout little Ned will be around when they do.
Then there’s a program like Google’s ambitious project to use nanoparticles to detect major disease. Imagine a nanopill that works its way through your body checking for major health issues. Sound fanciful? Give it 18 years. It might be a big part of Ned’s annual check up.
This is the kind of tech we’ve been waiting for. Cures to major illnesses have always been ‘10 years away’. Now, they might actually be only 10 years away.
It’s really only been in the last few years that technology has stepped up a gear and the seemingly impossible become seemingly possible.
It’s leading to an exciting future. And it’s going to lead to technologies and technology companies that don’t even exist today. As a revolutionary tech investor, that’s what excites me the most about the future.
Companies like Google, Tesla, Genentech, HP and others are pushing the boundaries of technological possibility. They’re shaping the short term future. But there will be offshoots and start ups that take things further.
It’s the small risk-taking ‘wild cards’ that will take new technology and build on it to create the impossible.
It’s a rule of technology I call ‘Technological Compounding’. Over the next 10 to 20 years, it will deliver more mind-blowing technology than you could possibly imagine.
I saw a saying recently that said, ‘I’m grateful that I grew up before technology.’ I think that’s a load of rubbish. Technology exists in every era, though different generations define it differently.
The saying for me would be, ‘I’m grateful I’m living in an age full of technology and innovation.’ And I think by the time Ned is my age, he’ll likely think the same. Or at least that’s my goal as his uncle…
Regards,
Sam Volkering +
Editor, Tech Insider
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