The speed at which technology is progressing continues to increase.  What seemed impossible at one point in time becomes a reality in the space of a few months.  Artificial intelligence, virtual reality, machine learning – all terminology that, little by little, we have become familiar with.  In reviews of recent inventions that will change the world, Inc. and Time magazines also found space for design, sustainability, and genetics.

We’ve put together a condensed list of these developmentts that will give you a glimpse into the future.

The invasion of artificial intelligence   

AI is everywhere, and it’s looking more and more like something straight out of a science-fiction movie.  It has countless applications and its impact on our way of life is extraordinary.  We are already living alongside virtual assistants that know better than us what we want our houses to be like, and programs are being developed that allow us to identify the antibiotic required to treat a certain disease.  This will avoid the mass use of drugs and reduce antibiotic resistance, saving millions of lives over the coming years. This was the leitmotif of a joint project taken on by Doctors Without Borders and Google, using the latter’s open-source platform TensorFlow.

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Genetic code á la carte   

CRISPR/Cas9 is the most well-known technology in the world of gene editing, but it’s not the only one.  Essentially, it allows for modification of parts of the genetic code by replacing them with others that aren’t precursors to serious illnesses such as cancer.  It has already been tested on embryos and, unlike previous techniques, it has shown itself to be both stable and safe.

 

 

Surgery with virtual reality

Virtual reality’s precision when it comes to recreating scenes from daily life means that it has found it’s way to operating table in hospitals.  In the near future, it will be an indispensable tool for training surgeons all over the world.  Osso VR specialises in this field and has designed software which allows one to experience everything they would when entering an operating theatre for the first time or when working with a new technique.

 

Nature as a design solution

One of the big trends in the design world is closely related to sustainability and observing our surroundings.  When one is presented with a problem, nature often has the solution – we just have to find it.  It’s known as Biomimicry and is used by companies like ECOncrete.

 

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Storing data in drops of water

We are constantly generating and storing data, and this requires enormous quantities of devices, space, and energy.  Start-up Catalog has noticed how efficient DNA is when it comes to saving information and it has recreated pieces of DNA that contain all the information relating to a photo, for example, that are then stored in just a few drops of water. This type of storage does not require refrigeration, meaning that both energy consumption and the impact on the environment is reduced.

These are just five key examples of how computing, data analysis, and concern about sustainability will enlighten the world we live in over the coming years.