Digital Utopia | Digital Dystopia: Envisioning our Tech Future

By 2020, several key building blocks of the future tech universe have been firmly established. Significant progress in areas such as quantum computing, big data, artificial intelligence, robotics and immersive reality have been made, enabling a clearer understanding of how tech will develop in the next 10-20 years.

By 2030, emerging robotics and AI will have made remarkable progress in changing the face of current industries and processes. Most fast food outlets will be able to run mainly on robotic labour, with human labour representing only a small fraction of total spend. AI will be able to support, and eventually supplant, at least 90% of current effort implemented by service professionals such as accounting, consulting, or law.

And by 2040, we will feel comfortable enough with this technology that it will be widely adapted. Our cities, homes and workplaces will be transformed through technology and predictive analytics. Self-driving vehicles will reduce congestion and pollution. Robots will remove the need for widespread human labour. Most processes, such as financial management, will be fully automated and managed by intelligent agents, removing the need for mundane tasks like queuing at a bank or going to a supermarket for groceries.

Advances in gene therapies and biological – mechatronic interfaces will rapidly transform medical technology and health outcomes. These have the potential to not only significantly expand human lifespan, but also improve human health.

At the same time, it is clear that as a society and as a government / economic polity, we are far behind the curve in understanding how these will affect our educational systems, employment and the very idea of human potential.

Comparatively few citizens will be able to adapt successfully to gainful employment (or entrepreneurship) in the future tech society. This means that families and citizens today need to start making decisions for how they will live 20 years from now. These decisions affect their own educational and investment choices, as well as the very nature of our society.

In this seminar, Philip Ammerman will discuss the future trends in tech and how these will affect companies, families and governments in 2030 and 2040.