The technology giant IBM has been making very loud predictions about "our" technological future for several years now. And it should be noted that the percentage of correct predictions is surprisingly always higher than the percentage of incorrect ones. So this time, the company presented a list of five innovative technologies, methods and discoveries, which, in its opinion, will have the most serious impact on our lives over the next five years.
According to these predictions, within just a few years, we will see a significant increase in the development of artificial intelligence (AI), super-powerful telescopes, smart sensors and medical devices. At the same time, the benefits from these innovations will be noticeable in many areas, from the health care system and environmental protection to areas that deal with the issues of our understanding of the Earth and the entire surrounding Universe as a whole.
Of course, it should be immediately clarified that the predictions presented below are based only on those technologies and innovations that we have already arrived at. Therefore, it should be understood that other discoveries may occur during the time interval taken in these predictions. Nevertheless, we suggest taking a look at what may await us in the near future. Stock up on notebooks so that you can return to this entry in 2022 and just make sure whether the predictions described below came true or not.
Thanks to AI, we will be able to diagnose human psychological health
Already now you can tell a lot about a person, just by watching how he talks. Fatigue, excitement, confusion, inattention, or sadness are clearly felt in the voice.
In the process of their evolution, people themselves have learned to understand the signs indicating these features of the state, however, the current boom in the development of computer computing may, among other things, lead to the fact that technologies used in speech analysis can become even more advanced and, if I may say so more discerning than us.
“The way we speak and how we write will be used as indicators of our psychological state and physical health,” IBM predicts.
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How would this happen? For example, psychological disorders and diseases, such as Parkinson's disease, can be identified using a regular mobile application for your smartphone, which will be synchronized with an AI system in the cloud. Thanks to the earlier detection of signs of disease, we will have more time to develop remedies for their treatment.
At first glance, the relationship between speech patterns and disease symptoms may seem too tense, but experimental systems capable of performing this function are beginning to emerge now. For example, last year, a team of scientists at the University of Southern California created a program that can measure variability in normal speech and compare it with signs of depression.
Thanks to new technologies and AI, people will be able to gain supervision
Our eyes are a great example of the amazing power of nature and biology, but according to IBM, powerful yet tiny cameras working in tandem with super-fast AI-powered systems will literally make people see in 2022 more than is usually available to the human eye.
Along with visible light, humans will begin to see microwaves, millimeter-wave waves, and even infrared images. And all thanks to compact enough devices that can fit in the pockets of ordinary clothes. In fact, we will get personal introscopes (devices used to clear luggage at the same airports), but the size of your phone.
Using such devices, we can accurately determine, for example, whether this or that food is safe for us; self-driving cars equipped with such systems will be much more effective in "looking through" fog or heavy rain. And this is just the smallest part of the examples.
And surprisingly, some of the first such devices are already appearing. Take, for example, EnChroma glasses, which paint not only in the correct colors, but in general in the colors of the surrounding world for people suffering from color blindness and achromatopsia. For the latter, the world is literally represented in black and white. Now such technologies are very expensive and experimental, but in 2022 absolutely anyone can afford them.
Macroscopes help us understand the complexity of the Earth in unprecedented detail
Satellite technologies, thanks to which we are able to look into the bore of a door lock, are no longer surprising to anyone. However, services like Google Earth are just the beginning.
IBM predicts that "macroscopic systems" - working like microscopes, only in reverse - will bring together "all complex data about the Earth" and give us the opportunity to look at all this information from completely different points of view.
This technology will not only expand the possibilities of collecting information using satellites, but will also provide us with smarter sensors, weather stations, and will also allow us to choose much more optimal and structured ways of processing information.
This technology will be useful not only in the study of natural processes occurring on Earth and beyond, but also in our everyday life. Absolutely all kinds of devices, including our lighting systems and even refrigerators, can be studied using the macroscopic systems of the future, so that in the end we can combine and apply this knowledge to predict and predict everything - from climate change to finding solutions to distribution issues. food on the planet.
From remotely controlled lamps to smart devices that can record the shopping list you read, order food for you on their own, go to Wikipedia and search for the information you need … In short, in a world where more and more devices, houses and even cities becomes part of a common smart infrastructure connected to the Web - just imagine what potential will open up the possession of technology that can literally collect absolutely all information about this world and direct it to solving specific problems.
Laboratories on a Chip will lead to a revolution in medicine
With the advancement and increase in productivity of computer technology, medicine is one of the areas that will benefit the most from this progress, according to IBM. Just imagine that you can inexpensively and independently make accurate medical diagnoses at home or predict the approach of an illness much earlier than now.
"New" laboratories on a chip "(they are also microsystems of complete analysis) will play the role of nanotechnological doctors-detectives, tracking down the traces of upcoming diseases in our bodies and fluids and letting us immediately know that it is time to visit our doctor," IBM.
In other words, full-fledged biochemical laboratories of the future will be able to fit in the palms of your hands.
Early detection of diseases such as cancer or Parkinson's disease can make a big difference in the success of treatment. That is why scientists are working to improve and at the same time simplify the methods of analyzing the products of our excretory systems: our tears, blood, urine and sweat.
By 2022, our sleep monitoring systems and fitness bracelets will be able to send data to cloud-based AI servers, where it will be processed efficiently and quickly. Then the same information will come back to us in the form of detailed advice on how we can improve our well-being and health. And all this will be accompanied by the simultaneous automatic notification of your doctor in case of any signs of an impending illness.
"Smart" sensors will detect environmental pollution much faster
The combination of smart hardware and AI analysis systems could also provide more accurate and timely predictions of environmental pollution threats, IBM said. Like smart trackers, which will one day be able to indicate early signs of disease, smart sensors placed, for example, on the ground or mounted on flying drones, will be able to detect emissions and pollution in real time without the need for preliminary analysis of samples and data in laboratories.
One example of such pollution is the rise in methane levels in the atmosphere - invisible to the naked eye, but considered the second largest cause of global warming, after carbon dioxide. Smart sensors installed along gas pipes, near warehouses and natural sources of these emissions will be able to almost instantly detect and alert about increases in the concentration of this dangerous gas in the atmosphere.
“Such leaks can be identified in a matter of minutes, not weeks, as is happening now. This will not only reduce the volume of leaks, but also avoid potential catastrophic consequences,”explains IBM.
As has been said more than once, predicting the future is not always a noble business, and it is not a very simple task. However, all the technologies described today are already in one way or another in the development of research and scientific teams around the world. In other words, when we get these technologies is only a matter of time.
NIKOLAY KHIZHNYAK