In his book Industries of the Future: How the Next 10 Years of Innovation will Transform Our Lives at Work and Home (2016), innovation expert Alec Ross provides a future vision not just of the industries but of the entire digital age.
Ross takes a look at the industries which will dominate a decade from now - robotics, advanced life sciences, the "code-fication of money", cybersecurity and big data. He believes that all these data-driven industries will play a major role in the evolving Information Revolution.
I have already discussed the coming onslaught of robots in the review of Martin Ford's The Rise of the Robots (2015). Ross explains how future families will adopt robots as caretakers and home-helps and future workers will learn to work alongside robots in industries. Japan, he shows, is leading the way in caretaker robots. Africa might leapfrog the industrial revolution entirely and enter the robotics age. For instance, the African Robotics Network (AFRON) hosts events and projects to boost robotics-related education, research and industry and has awarded several frugal innovation projects in Africa. Even in China, as demonstrated by Foxconn's purchase of a million robots, labour is being advantageously replaced by robots.
Ross writes: "Robots will produce clear benefits to society. There will be fewer work-related injuries; fewer traffic accidents; safer, less invasive surgical procedures; and myriad new capabilities, from sick, homebound children being able to attend school to giving the power of speech to those who are deaf and mute. It is a net good for the world." This is in dire contradiction to the pessimistic future depicted by Martin Ford in his book The Rise of the Robots.
As regards advanced health sciences, Ross gives several examples. He talks, for instance, of genomics pioneer Craig Venter. Venter has started two new companies. One is Synthetic Genomics that aims to genetically engineer pigs with organs that can be safely transplanted into human beings (xenotransplantation). Another is Human Longevity Inc (HLI) which aspires to use genetic data to prolong lives. According to Ross, these two companies are "making rapid and impressive progress". In genomics. while most scientists still prefer working in the US, China has emerged as a leader in genomics research - especially the Beijing Genomic Institute (now renamed BGI) with more sequencing machines than the entire US.
Another aspect of advanced health sciences is the use of mobile phones to set up a medical infrastructure in rural areas of developing countries. Ross writes: "Delivery of medical services will never be equal, but pioneering initiatives to expand access to care across socioeconomic lines are beginning to take hold and improve lives on a huge scale."
Next Ross talks about the "code-ification of money" and the evolution of digital money. He talks about how this has impacted not only developed countries but also developing countries in Africa - an example being the M-Pesa revolution in Kenya where most people do not have bank accounts. As Ross states: "In Kenya, M-Pesa has become wildly successful. By 2012, 19 million M-Pesa accounts had been created in a country of 43 million people, and approximately 25 percent of Kenya's GNP flows through the network. While estimates vary, the adoption of M-Pesa has increased rural households' incomes anywhere from 5 to 30 percent."
Ross also discusses digital cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and the "blockchain technology" which is at its base. This is something I am not familiar with. But blockchain seems to be a revolution in the making with ramifications in various other sectors.
My favorite chapter was titled "The Weaponization of Code" which deals with cyberwarfare and cybersecurity. Ross provides various anecdotes about how governments are indulging in cyberwarfare and why cybersecurity will be a flourishing business for the next 50 years. "Cybercombat," writes Ross, "is a distinctly 21st-century form of conflict, and the norms and laws that were developed in prior centuries simply do not apply. The weaponization of code is the most significant development in warfare since the development of nuclear weapons, and its rapid rise has created a domain of conflict with no widely accepted norms or rules. Some nations are working to find a way of creating rules ... but there are vast distances between stakeholder groups and therefore little hope of even a modest agreement of any sort."
The last industry Ross discusses is big data, a topic I have already written a review on.
Ross concludes his book by saying that, in the near future, our most important job is not in our offices but our homes - raising our children to recognize the opportunities they have ahead of them. Wise words indeed.
Ross takes a look at the industries which will dominate a decade from now - robotics, advanced life sciences, the "code-fication of money", cybersecurity and big data. He believes that all these data-driven industries will play a major role in the evolving Information Revolution.
I have already discussed the coming onslaught of robots in the review of Martin Ford's The Rise of the Robots (2015). Ross explains how future families will adopt robots as caretakers and home-helps and future workers will learn to work alongside robots in industries. Japan, he shows, is leading the way in caretaker robots. Africa might leapfrog the industrial revolution entirely and enter the robotics age. For instance, the African Robotics Network (AFRON) hosts events and projects to boost robotics-related education, research and industry and has awarded several frugal innovation projects in Africa. Even in China, as demonstrated by Foxconn's purchase of a million robots, labour is being advantageously replaced by robots.
Ross writes: "Robots will produce clear benefits to society. There will be fewer work-related injuries; fewer traffic accidents; safer, less invasive surgical procedures; and myriad new capabilities, from sick, homebound children being able to attend school to giving the power of speech to those who are deaf and mute. It is a net good for the world." This is in dire contradiction to the pessimistic future depicted by Martin Ford in his book The Rise of the Robots.
As regards advanced health sciences, Ross gives several examples. He talks, for instance, of genomics pioneer Craig Venter. Venter has started two new companies. One is Synthetic Genomics that aims to genetically engineer pigs with organs that can be safely transplanted into human beings (xenotransplantation). Another is Human Longevity Inc (HLI) which aspires to use genetic data to prolong lives. According to Ross, these two companies are "making rapid and impressive progress". In genomics. while most scientists still prefer working in the US, China has emerged as a leader in genomics research - especially the Beijing Genomic Institute (now renamed BGI) with more sequencing machines than the entire US.
Another aspect of advanced health sciences is the use of mobile phones to set up a medical infrastructure in rural areas of developing countries. Ross writes: "Delivery of medical services will never be equal, but pioneering initiatives to expand access to care across socioeconomic lines are beginning to take hold and improve lives on a huge scale."
Next Ross talks about the "code-ification of money" and the evolution of digital money. He talks about how this has impacted not only developed countries but also developing countries in Africa - an example being the M-Pesa revolution in Kenya where most people do not have bank accounts. As Ross states: "In Kenya, M-Pesa has become wildly successful. By 2012, 19 million M-Pesa accounts had been created in a country of 43 million people, and approximately 25 percent of Kenya's GNP flows through the network. While estimates vary, the adoption of M-Pesa has increased rural households' incomes anywhere from 5 to 30 percent."
Ross also discusses digital cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and the "blockchain technology" which is at its base. This is something I am not familiar with. But blockchain seems to be a revolution in the making with ramifications in various other sectors.
My favorite chapter was titled "The Weaponization of Code" which deals with cyberwarfare and cybersecurity. Ross provides various anecdotes about how governments are indulging in cyberwarfare and why cybersecurity will be a flourishing business for the next 50 years. "Cybercombat," writes Ross, "is a distinctly 21st-century form of conflict, and the norms and laws that were developed in prior centuries simply do not apply. The weaponization of code is the most significant development in warfare since the development of nuclear weapons, and its rapid rise has created a domain of conflict with no widely accepted norms or rules. Some nations are working to find a way of creating rules ... but there are vast distances between stakeholder groups and therefore little hope of even a modest agreement of any sort."
The last industry Ross discusses is big data, a topic I have already written a review on.
Ross concludes his book by saying that, in the near future, our most important job is not in our offices but our homes - raising our children to recognize the opportunities they have ahead of them. Wise words indeed.
No comments:
Post a Comment