Technological advances have always been key agents of change in how we work, interact and live. During the last two decades, the world has witnessed an unprecedent pace of technological innovation in all fields, from computing and artificial intelligence to biotechnology and nanotechnology. These technologies come with a potential to help us solve some of our most pressing global challenges, but also pose significant risks, if misused and mismanaged.
Every year, this publication brings together some of the world’s experts to inform decision-makers and the wider public about emerging technologies that have the potential to disrupt industry and society. This gives us chance to position ourselves to best capitalize on their promises and safeguard against potential risks.
There are a lot of important global challenges, but none more pressing in 2020 than those of global health and climate change. It should come as no surprise to the reader that the majority of the technologies identified this year by the experts offer solutions to these two challenges.
In healthcare, we are seeing significant advances in areas that can help with diagnosing and treating diseases more accurately and efficiently, from using our smart devices to diagnose Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s early, and creating virtual organs instead of real ones for diagnosis, to digitizing large amounts of genetic material – like a virus – and then being able to physically reproduce it and manipulate it. Advances in medical devices called microneedles also promise to increase the global reach of vaccines and decrease risks of disease transmission.
As for climate change, we have witnessed significant technological advances that can help us reduce our global carbon footprint, from using the sun’s energy to convert waste carbon dioxide into valuable materials, and manufacturing cement with reduced carbon emissions, to being able to produce hydrogen without using fossil fuel energy, but instead using excess electricity. Moreover, the aviation sector has been making important steps that will allow the industry to use electric engines, which massively reduce carbon emissions and fuel costs.
Finally, there have been some exciting developments in digital technologies that promise to change many industries, as well as our day-to-day lives. Augmented and virtual reality are already starting to find their space in the workplace and our daily lives, but spatial computing will take these capabilities a step further, allowing us to digitize physical objects that connect via the cloud, and then affect the physical world through our smart devices.
