The robots will rise
The clouds will condense
It will pay to unburden
Everything gets smart
Ownership dies
Although difficult, it remains easier to predict technological trends than their more social counterparts. This is because technology follows a greater degree of logical planning. To some degree the scope of the future edifice can be guessed from the foundations, tomorrows shape can be intuited from the blueprints, next year’s must-haves can be extrapolated from those of today.
It's not so easy to transfer this foresight to people. We're too unpredictable, prone to influence by trends and fashions, sometimes stubbornly blind to opportunities that stare us in the face. Take for example the 'paperless office' that we stubbornly refused to adopt for thirty years, or the phenomenal success of SMS Texting, which we stubbornly adopted, even though it was originally released as an add-on gimmick.
The robots will rise
Automation is a rising tide. We're currently splashing about in the shallows of Satnav, assisted driving and Smart homes with synthetic help from Alexa, Siri or Cortana - but soon we'll benefit from fully automated cars, firms with no employees and mechanised healthcare (for when preventative measures prove insufficient).
The rise of the robots heralds an era of job insecurity for the masses and a decoupling of remuneration from occupation. We won't get paid for just doing our job. We'll have several 'jobs' and several income streams. Households will earn their lifestyle based on variations of Universal Basic Income, Memberships and the degree to which they contribute to socially rewarding pursuits.
The clouds will condense
Three developments will bring cloud computing down to earth: AR, VR and Edge. Edge describes distributed solutions for systems that need immediate, reliable computation. When you can't wait for, or can't rely upon, an answer from the centralised cloud - it makes sense to perform calculations locally - at the Edge. Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) are the logical evolution of Oculus Rift, Pokémon Go and Magic Leap.
Some of us already struggle with fake news. Tomorrow all of us will struggle to disentangle the physical from the virtual world. Assistants like Siri will walk beside us. Our favourite pop artist will sofa surf our living room. Historical characters will explain their theories in (virtual) person. Banks, governments, supermarkets and museums will have avatars - or ambassadors - to meet and greet us.
It will pay to unburden
Privacy and anonymity are on the endangered species list. It's already too costly to maintain firewalls, patches, intruder detection systems and endless upgrades just to pretend privacy - when in fact - your shopping preferences, voting inclinations and health concerns have already been sold any number of times. The pretence will stop. Rights to privacy and anonymity will disappear for most of us but probably remain, in some form, as highly prized extravagances for the super-rich.
Universal Basic Income will be tweaked to exert social control. Better privileges will be available to those who contribute more - or to those who burden the system least. Healthy options in diet and fitness will be rewarded as will a proactive approach to birth and death. Parents who find themselves unable to fund additional children will be penalized. Terminal or decrepit patients who hog hospital beds will be penalizing their next of kin. The future will reward those who unburden it.
Everything gets smart
Especially money. Digital currency just represented physical money in a format better suited to computerised banking systems. Cryptocurrency just adds the necessary safeguards to prevent traditional currency-based crimes like counterfeit (and quantitative easing). Smart Money is tomorrows revolution.
When your wealth is a universally accepted digital encryption, hosted by computers that are recognised and trusted by banking institutions - it's a short and obvious leap to make that wealth 'Smart'. Instead of online funds increasing, depleting or relocating according to deposits, withdrawals, contract fulfilment or time elapse; why not encode the entire transaction into the equation? Give money intent. It doesn't have to be dumb, it can 'think'. Smart contracts can be enmeshed into digital currency code. It's the logical extrapolation of Blockchain, the end of single points of control, single points of taxation, single points of failure. There's no more need for escrow - when the money 'knows'.
Advances in Fintech (smart money) will be followed by Biotech developments (smart bodies) and all manner of drone, proxy and mechanized approaches to conflict / conflict resolution (Miltech).
Ownership dies
After the automated car takes you to work, send it home for your husband. In fact, why not club together with your neighbours and share an automated car? Wouldn't it be better if your city maintained a fleet of automated transport that anyone can summon with an App?
Mortgages will disappear shortly after careers expire. Rents will persist for a while, but they too will eventually be replaced with something smarter - like a ubiquitous Blockchain'ed subscription service that liberates homes, vacations, rooms, cabins, yachts, trains... A networked entity is a different thing. What Airbnb did to the spare room, will cascade to everything consumable.
In a world where you are the product, one of your few remaining economic decisions will be what you subscribe to. What you endorse. What you like. Don't worry about being a slave to the smart, automated, Cloud-Edge - slave labour has always been the gateway by which civilization advances. Welcome to the brave, new, augmented, virtual world.
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