Explaining the Future is a web site I haven’t encountered before, dedicated to discussing and predicting the direction technological developments might take over the next few years. Although the ideas on the site are clearly only predictions, many of the examples featured directly tie in with ITGS and are developments of existing cutting-edge technology such as augmented reality, 3D printing, and Big Data.
One of the ideas I find most interesting is “bio-printing” – the application of 3D printing technology to the healthcare sector, using human cells instead of plastic resin to produce tissue and even entire human organs. Combined with genetic data about individual patients, this technology could produce custom-made organs in a timely manner, with minimal rejection risk. The video below explains this and several other possible uses of the technology.
Other pages on the site deal with topics including “Future Trends” and “Mindsets”. These too link to ITGS – the trends page, for example, talks about the increased use of crowd-sourcing – which of course is enabled by the Internet and social media tools. Similarly, the “Mindsets” page discusses “transhumanism” – the idea of “upgrading” the human species using (among other things) technology (some of the ideas here are quite far-out and less relevant to ITGS).
There is a lot of room in ITGS for discussing future technology, particularly in terms of possible social impacts and ethical issues that may arise as a result of certain developments. The questions “How far is too far?” and “What developments would be unacceptable?” can be applied to many technologies – current and future.
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