Visualizing "Things To Come" - A Timeline Of Future Technology

Making predictions about future technology is both fun and notoriously difficult.

However, as Visual Capitalist's Jeff Desjardins explains, such predictions also serve a very practical purpose for investors and business leaders, since failing to adapt to changing industry paradigms can completely decimate a business venture, turning it into the next Blockbuster, Kodak, or Sears.

Today’s infographic from Futurism rounds up some of the most interesting predictions about the future, from trusted sources such as Scientific American and The National Academy of Sciences.

MACHINES, BIG AND SMALL

The confluence of robotics, artificial intelligence, and increasing levels of automation is a prevailing trend throughout the projected timeline of future technology.

In less than 10 years, we will be able to control machines based on eye movements, while ingesting nano-sized robots to repair injuries from within our bodies. Later on, it’s also expected that the next wave of AI will be a reality: by 2036, predictive AI will be able to predict the near-future with impressive precision. Elections, weather, geopolitical events, and other dynamic systems will be analyzed in real-time using thousands or millions of data streams.

Even further down the line, human brains and machines will be continue to become closer to interfacing directly, creating all kinds of possibilities.

THE ENERGY REVOLUTION CONTINUES

If you think the current progress in clean energy is exciting – wait until you see the technologies in the queue.

The future of battery technology will include carbon-breathing batteries that turn CO2 into generate electricity, as well as diamond-based “nuclear batteries” that run off of nuclear waste.

Meanwhile, solar power will be even cheaper as cells operate at near 100% efficiency, and commercial fusion power will be available by 2044. Climate change will also be tackled by interesting techniques, such as geoengineering with calcite aerosols, and carbon sequestration.

MORE ON FUTURE TECHNOLOGY

Want to see more bold predictions about the future of technology?

Check out the future of alternative energy, the military, or the futuristic tech that could be inside your home.

Lastly, check out some very speculative predictions about what the world could look like, 100 years from now.