The Wired World in 2022 predicted the technological advances and technology-driven changes that will make headlines next year.
I read them and made notes so you don’t have to.
Here they are.
Technology
- “We’ll build safe social networks.”
By safe, they mean more welcoming to marginalised groups. How? She doesn’t say.
2. “Tech will get a global outlook.”
Companies doing product development will take into consideration countries that are not the US or the UK or Germany or France.
3. “Automation will be led by workers.”
Companies are going to convince their employees to build their own automated processes (robots) that will, eventually take their jobs. Really. Daniel Dines says “These employees will be an organisation’s secret weapon for unlocking the power of robot assistants at scale.” This is not a joke. I think.
4. “Computers will find new ways to match human intelligence.”
Artificial Intelligence (AI)is going to be big. Kai-Fu Lee, CEO of Sinovation Ventures, boasts that the Chinese AI is better than Elon Musk’s AI.
5. “Tech will heal post-COVID inequalities.”
A silver-lining piece, the author writes that because Covid-19 forced everyone online, there was great innovation in tech. The result is that tech will become more accessible to all, because our Covid Dystopia is not going to end anytime soon.
6. “Quantum Will Leave NISQ Behind.”
Something about quantum computing and how there are two types and, well, you kind of have to be into that sort of thing to appreciate it.
7. “We’ll choose both privacy and security.”
We will have safety from cyber threats at the same time that we have greater data privacy. How? He is not clear on the matter.
Science
8. “Universities will become more diverse.”
Students will be able to access learning materials in more than one format, freeing their time and enabling greater access to knowledge. Prices for college will not necessarily come down, though.
9. “Dark matter will step into the light.”
Much of the universe is dark matter and scientists don’t know what it is. But, with new technology they will look more deeply into the sky than ever before.
10. “Molecular simulation will be a reality.”
You’ll get the feels by unexpected things from chemicals and quantum computing. I’m not sure I understood it.
11. “Batteries will get greener.”
Something about the “circular economy” and “right to repair.” Look at #28 for a more interesting story about batteries.
12. “Brain organoids will develop ‘consciousness.’”
They are growing brains in a lab and those brains might start to think and if they start to think, they might become conscious, but then they might also suffer — because life is suffering — and then scientists will feel bad about the brains they grew in that lab. We should think about it.
13. “Proprioception will be the next big experiential trend.”
Let’s start with a definition. “Proprioception is the imperceptible and invisible sense, often referred to as the unconscious sixth sense.” Let’s end there.
Health
14. “Stem-cell science will raise questions.”
There will be advances in stem-cell research, but there will also be the usual moral questions.
15. “People will take control of their healthcare.”
Tests, or health screening, will become more accurate and more widely available so there will be even more of it. Healthcare will be more about prediction.
16. “We will custom-build antibodies.”
This will revolutionize treatment for cancer.
17. “We will get ahead of diseases.”
MRI scans will get better. Again, healthcare will focus more on predictions.
18. “Embryologist robots will transform IVF.”
Robots will be improve In-Vitro Fertilization, writes the guy who has a business in exactly that.
Environment
19. “We will at last take action.”
This was written by Bill Gates who has billions of dollars.
20. “Tech CEOs will lead the way in supercharging carbon removal.”
The tech CEOs will find a way to monetize carbon removal. CEOs will do so because they are slowly realizing that we will run out of breathable air.
21. “Inclusive, livable cities will thrive.”
Cities will build markets and schools closer to where people live and make the whole city less like a concrete hellscape and more like a nice city park. It will also be more inclusive. How? More affordable housing for “essential workers.”
22. “We will finally fight plastic pollution.”
How? Through international agreements.
23. “The electric heat pump market will really warm up.”
Instead of a machine generating hot air (a “heater”), you pump in heated air from the outside. “Even when outside temperature are well below o degrees C, there is plenty of heat — remember that absolute zero is -273 degrees C — so there’s a lot of energy to be extracted.” So writes the CEO of a company that does exactly that.
24. “We will start using insects in pig and poultry feed.”
They won’t know the difference.
25. “Physics will drive an energy shift.”
Science to the rescue. The physicists will develop new clean energy tech.
26. “Africa gets a climate plan.”
Africa will be in the spotlight next year.
Transport
27. “EV charging will get heavy.”
Electric car drivers will finally find a place to charge their car. This is much needed good news for Elon Musk, who must have been feeling bad about the Sinovation guy disrespecting his AI.
28. “Old batteries get new life.”
We will be able to recycle batteries, instead of throwing them away in special bins. Do you know where they take those special bins? Neither do I.
29. “Hydrogen moves into high gear.”
Hydrogen will begin to replace fossil-fuels. Why? Because we are running out of fossils.
30. “Edge will be everywhere.”
To drive safe, robot cars need better inputs. The city will install roadside “edge-based computing.” The result? Big Brother will monitor you more closely.
Politics
31. “Digital allies will unite.”
Technology allows us to be in multiple places at once. We are here and we are on the internet whose servers are elsewhere. You will gain allies not where you live, but where other people who think like you lives. You will connect over the internet. This is what was promised in 1994. But in 2022, I guess this will somehow finally come to fruition.
32. “States will again become central to solving problems.”
“In 2022, we will see that it is states, not private entities, that are best placed to tackle these urgent challenges.” She foresees more public-private partnerships, initiated by states.
33. “Ever more extremist cults will rise.”
The internet finds the smallest viable market for political ideologies. The atomization of extremism will continue to, well, atomize. Get ready for even weirder and more specific cults.
34. “Digital states will emerge.”
Like #31, except that people will seek to form their own virtual state with rules and laws and passports. Tired of your own country’s laggy tax website? Join Digitopia! Our websites are better and we make our own rules! [side note: the USSR’s ultimate goals were Communism and that the country would be decentralized into “soviets,” which are small, semi-anarchic communities that form voluntary and mutually-beneficial partnerships with other soviets. It never even got close, but perhaps today’s rich people on the internet will achieve the soviets that the USSR could not.]
35. “We will face low economic growth.”
So, get shopping.
36. “Autistic people will claim their human rights.”
Autistic people are denied the basic rights listed in the UN Declaration of Human Rights: dignity, education, equal access to public services, work & employment, discrimination, and protection of the law.
37. “Covid’s other pandemic hits.”
Indirect effects of Covid-19 negatively impact children, adolescents, and women. Delays in education and healthcare will take its toll. This was written by Kersti Kaljulaid, the president of Estonia.
38. “Governments will go (even more) digital.”
A smorgasbord: Blockchain, developing countries, data used to predict, and governments need to do better.
39. “London will lose the CBDC race.”
States are creating their own cryptocurrencies and London’s Britcoin will not win.
Business
40. “Our finances won’t be run by banks.”
Something about “embedded finance.”
41. “Regtech will start thinking for itself.”
Governments produce hundreds of thousands of pages of regulations. Businesses need to know these regulations. Who will read it all? Robots.
42. “Resale will be anything but a passing trend.”
Second-hand stores and adult hand-me-downs, even for luxury items, will continue to be a thing in 2022.
43. “Big banks will need to evolve.”
Because of all the stuff explained in the essays above.
44. “Tech firms will step up.”
So says the chief digital officer of Microsoft.
45. “Shopping will get truly personal.”
Microbrands will be an addition to the growing “creator economy.” That’s creator, not crater. A creator is someone who creates something. A crater is a big hole. Ever wonder why meteors always land in craters? I wonder about that, too.
46. “Lux brands will tell us stories.”
Because all physical manifestations of luxury look the same, the brands will have to convince you to buy them by telling you a story about it. The luxury brands will start to sponsor cultural events and pop-up flower shops and stuff.
47. “Business will save the planet by streamlining.”
Bigger, better data and bigger, better analyses will allow businesses to better run supply chains. I’m guessing quantum computing will play a role. You can bet your bottom dollar on that one.
48. “We will open up, not break up, big tech.”
The US will force big tech to be more transparent.
49. “We will move to digital HQs.”
While you are living in your digital country, and forcing your employees to build robots that will soon replace them, why not move your business to digital headquarters? This was written by an employee at Slack.
Culture
50. “NFTs will change the art world.”
While you are living in your digital country with robot employees who work at digital HQ, why not hang some digital art in that digital HQ? And when you are in the airport, far from “home,” you can gaze into your smartphone at the NFT and feel a sense of relief.
51. “Art will focus on our mental health.”
Instead of making us feel sad, art will help us to deal with our mental health issues. There will be special exhibits on healing. What about the artists? What about their mental health? The writer does not say.
52. “Patronage will go mainstream.”
Groups of people will pool their money and give you that money to do what you love to do. It sounds great. Why will this be more popular in 2022? Because there will be more tech to do it, that’s why. Feeling hopeful? Good.
53. “AI will help us to discover art to fall in love with.”
A robot AI will recommend art to you. It will sort of be like YouTube algorithms recommending cool, weird bands from the 1970s who put out, like, one album before they broke up, and that album was nice to listen to and you’ll wonder what happened to the band and then you’ll realize the 1970s was nearly 50 years ago and those artists are quite old by now, if they are still alive.
54. “Philanthropists will fund change.”
The super-rich realize that the museum they put their name on will soon crumble into the rising sea, so they will turn their tax-deductible riches into social change.
Security
55. “Ransomware criminals will be caught out.”
As more people in government and law enforcement know about cryptocurrency, they will finally catch-up to the criminals and catch them.
56. “Food security will rely on cyber security.”
Cyber-attacks on food production. Think about that. It’s fucking scary.
57. “An AI fighter pilot will be top gun.”
AI will fly jet planes and will out-fly humans. The war between the robots and the humans began when we gave the robots the jet planes. It was just a matter of time. Remember: Terminator starts in the future.
58. “UK Defence will become more digital.”
So says the Director of Military Digitalization, UK Strategic Command.
59. “Cyber criminals will cause physical harm.”
Thinking all that “edge-computing” is a good idea? How about #56? Freaked out, yet?
60. “We’ll learn new defences.”
In the ever-downward knowledge-spiral of criminal innovation vs. police innovation, in 2022, the police will again come out on top. Then comes 2023…
61. “Simulation will help us predict threats.”
Simulations are fake data used to test a wide range of assumptions. It’s great for theory building. But for the real world, fake data may not work out so well. But, in 2022, there will be a growth in simulations.
Most of these 61 essays in 128 pages were written by CEOs and entrepreneurs. This is an annual and it costs £9.99. If you want to spend that money on this, as of this writing, you still can. I did. It has pictures.
The Sociology Place 