So here’s a speed summary of Wired magazine’s latest need-to-know tech trends for 2014: The Wired World in 2014 – just published in their must-read end-of-year special edition (in digital and dead-tree media versions).
Okay so it’s a little heavy on tech utopianism, but essential reading nonetheless for keeping up with the Zeitgeist and for future-proofing your business and marketing in 2014.
Each of the 52 headline trends is accompanied by a short essay, but for busy folks here’s a speed summary synopsis of the 52 headline themes and trends that you’ll need to know about in 2014.
Media
1. TV ads that know you intimately – Smart set-top boxes and next-gen games-consoles are bursting with data on their users’ preferences. 2014 will be the year when advertisers harness this information
2. Wearable Tech – The most interesting devices of 2014 won’t come in a box, they’ll be wearable, connectable, and maybe even fashionable (Up, WristQue, Glass, Jet, Muse, Valencell, even remote-groping Fundaware from Durex)
3. Content Sites Become the New Big Media – Online publishing has mostly been a loss leader but that will change with the arrival of targeted ads
4. Your Phone will Know What you Want before you do – Push messaging (Google Now, MindMeld, Urban Airship) will employ your past behaviour to predict your next move
Business
5. The Rise of Made and Marketed in China – As Asian consumer power rises, we will start to see technology products reflecting the needs of other territories
6. Virtual Showrooming – Discovery shopping and pre-production purchasing will change the way we buy goods – and how retailers set our their stalls.
7. Bitcoin becomes more than money – The world’s popular crypto-currency is evolving – expect Bitcoin charity donations, crowd funding and trace payments
8. The Rise of the Fluid Workplace – Office life moves towards a mixture of on-site employees and off-the-peg, remotely accessible workers
9. Bitcoin Fraud gets connected – botnets will profit from the expanded internet of things with more processing power to solve bitcoin-generating algorithms
10. Living within ‘the Doughnut‘ layers – The future of human well-being – inclusive and sustainable economic development – will hinge on a set of social and geographical markers
11. Robotic manufacturing – (Apple’s) unibody machining will mean the end of human help (and sweatshop claims)
12. The World Signs up to Subscriptions – A generational shift in ownership will bring a continuation of the Spotify/Netflix model into other more disparate sectors
Lifestyle
13. Doing Stuff will overtake Owning Stuff – experiential economy will further dent competitive consumption; it’s not what you buy, it’s what you do (and who you tell)
14. Multisensory Meals and Digital Dining – Using your phone at the dinner table (for soundtrack, video, info) will be the height of good taste in 2014
15. Hands-free Neurogaming – EEG driven tech will provide an intimate interface between humans and machines
16. Digital detox – Anti digital addiction apps (Pause, StayOnTask, Human Mode) will help digital detoxes and users kick their social media habit and nomophobia (no mobile phone phobia)
17. Learning to Love Living with Less – Urbanites will embrace the simple life from energy efficient micro-apartments to hire-by-the-minute cars
18. Men’s Lib – The next emancipation will be for stay-at-work dads
19. Profit-led Education – Private enterprise will tackle developing world illiteracy – while tapping a potential £31bn market
20. Smartphones go Huge in Africa – The next billion internet users will get online via low cost Android handsets
21. Tech-driven Consumerism – Consumer tech will drive consumerism ever further, from remote controlled flying (toy) cars, electric scooters (Scrooser), and Raspeberry Pi robots to the Scanadu Scout – a smart meter that measures heart and respiratory rates, runs an electrocardiogram and determines blood oxygen levels.
Technology
22. Android becomes the new Linux – in just five years Google’s open source OS has come from nowhere to dominance – Gaming and the internet of things are next in its sights
23. New Dimensions in 3D printing – self-assembling structures, adaptive car tyres and responsive sportswear will reshape our future
24. Messaging Apps undermine Social Network giants – there are four times as many images shared on Snapchat than Facebook’s Instagram – Viber and Tango are taking on voice and video native messaging fns
25. Big Data Visualisation – a picture speaks a billion bytes; new apps will enable companies to manipulate and interpret reams of usable data in a flash
26. EmDrive make or break – propellant free propulsion from radiation; truth or fiction – we’ll find out in 2014
27. Drone Helpers – crop-spraying, graffiti-clearing and food-dropping drones show the humane side to remote piloted craft
28. Quantum Cryptography – ultra-secure communication using photons that scramble messages when eavesdropped
29. Smart 3D Printing – sensors embedded into 3D printed materials open possibilities for a new generation of smart objects
Science
30. Augmented Reality boost – Google Glass, contextual computing and machine-vision learning open new frontiers in augmented reality
31. Earth Twin discovery – Kepler scientists hunting Earth’s twin think their research will enter “the Goldilocks Zone” (planets not too hot, not too cold)
32. Rhythmic Genes – Unlocking DNA-RNA transcription flow to better understand cancer
33. Gaming and Sociology – Behavioural scientists will be using online gaming communities to study offline society
34. Dark matter supersensors – Mysterious dark matter that makes up 80% of the universe will begin to reveal secrets with new super sensors
35. Trash transformed – Beginning to build a new relationship with waste to see the value in recycling, upcycling, and reusing
36. Hadron Insights – Beyond the Higgs Boson, the 25 petabytes of data from the Large Hadron Collider will reveal new secrets
Environment
37. Transportation Makeover – 2014 is the year when engineers will start making big ideas happen, from nano-tech, electrified roads, elevated buses that run above car traffic to the SF-LA 30 minute Hyperloop and Boeing’s 5.1 Mach WaveRider.
38. Farming Drones – Automated robotic flying machines will tend crops and deliver data
39. Economy Trumps Parks – In the UK, national parks and parklands will be be developed in the interests of boosting the economy
40. Silicon Garage – After a turbulent decade the Motor City declared itself bankrupt, but an influx of entrepreneurs will get Detroit’s economic engine revving again
41. HD Surveillance – 29 mega pixel HD CCTVs, with stream management software will mean we’ll be watched closer than ever
42. Changing Landscapes – Signature engineering feats will transform skylines and landscapes from Dubai’s 516m Pentominium (tallest residential building in the world), to the new Panama Canal, and glow-in-the-dark roads
Medicine
43. Post-antibiotic – Drug resistant superbugs will cause a rethink in antibiotic dependence with hospital redesign, hygiene and early detection
44. Geocaching vaccinations – Using the principles of GPS global treasure hunts (geocaching) to improve vaccine deployment
45. Gamification of medical training – Simulators will transform surgical instruction – while helping students retain competitive edge
46. POPArt for Aids – ‘Treatment as prevention’ program of prophylactic anti retroviral therapy (POPArt) will help manage AIDS
47. Bioprinting Vaccinations – Portable bioprinters will be able to synthesise vaccinations en-route and in the field.
48. Human Organs, Cloned and Grown – In 2014, breakthroughs in cloning technology will lead to the farming and harvesting of human organs
Politics
49. Drone PR – with a bad rap in 2013, military robots will try to lose their war mongering reputation
50. Altruism – the insight that doing good deeds maybe encoded into the human genetic condition will lead to research and insights into cooperative and helping behaviour
51. Start-ups will take on the government – Public private partnerships are doomed, to be eclipsed by innovative marketplace solutions for vital service provision from startups. think Uber, Lyft or Cabify for public services
52. From arms-race to knowledge race – peaceful protestors will use inside information and creativity to combat oppressive regimes
Thanks for this! As a micropreneur consultant the big opportunities I see are:
1. Content sites (like scoop.it) becomes the new big media so this is an excellent opportunity to build topic authority, thus increase website traffic an marketing funnel prospects
2. virtual show rooming – even if you’re a hobbyist, throw a proposal together, grab your camera and make a pitch
3. setup a big data visualization review site(s)
4. move to detroit and join the influx of entrepreneurs. you’re sure to find like-minded people and possibly a ride-or-die partner
5. startups will take on the government – if you think you can do it better… just do it — sounds like you’ll have company
–lorrinda
“micropreneur consultant”
Do you say this with a straight face?
And how dear people any of this will help to become more sincere and forthcoming and better person? How on earth? Competition, tons of ego, business, business money, money. It is just to see that we as people haven’t developed at all in our reason. Where is our reason? Is this is all so important? For what aim we actually doing this? And more sad next generation is injected with this stuff. And we watch them selfishly so they do not make our mistakes. We are so selfish creatures. We live a rat race today. Who is happy honestly today? Religion and any community belief absolutely does not matter. The true divine is in everyones heart and reason helps to open it. Too much shit today around.
We may dream of beautiful garden, where everything is home grown and you are grateful for anything. We do not need much actually for happiness…
I had to chuckle at most of the above, obviously some things will be happening as some of the above are already here. However the big brother media invasion of peoples privacy is something which many people are against, I personally would sooner do something because i wanted to rather than because a website told me to. The NSA wanting to harness information on everybody in this world is not something we should relish and look forward to at all. The military Drones becoming trendy one was the funniest, I’m certain man and his evil needs will be certain to find someone who we can invade and spy on with drones. Looking forward to having military drones peering in your windows? I like the idea of buses that hover above traffic but seriously do you think so in 12 months when we can’t even get our trains sorted out with wifi? I had to check the date was not april fools day, seriously you guys have got a grim view of our digital future which you are wrapping up in a candy coating which nobody will wish to taste. Yuk
good information thanks
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