In a recent Facebook poll we asked the question: “Which part of future technology are you most looking forward to? A) Self-Driving Car B) Smart Home C) Space Tourism.” The answers showed our followers are most keen on the smart home lifestyle, followed by the self-driving car, but going on a holiday in space? Not so much.
“I think life on Earth must be about more than just solving problems… It’s got to be something inspiring…” – Elon Musk
#1 Self-driving car
There have been a few safety set-backs with self-driving cars but there’s no doubt that Elon Musk and his competitors will revolutionise how we drive very soon. Adoption of self-driving vehicles will not be gradual; the nature of disruptive technology is that it seems like nothing is changing – until everything is changing at once, as The Wall Street Journal reminds us. We can absolutely visualise our self-driving car transporting us to work (see a test with Uber here) guided by drones overhead so we take the quick route too.
“Anything that can be connected, will be connected” – Jason Morgan.
#2 Smart home
On our Facebook page someone said she was not only looking forward to living in a smart home – but to having an app which allows you to download food – we love forward thinking! But for now our dream home includes smart safety, TV, temperature, geyser and light integration. For which there is real tech available, right now. Oh, and we’d like a robot to feed the animals too.
“We’re building our own spaceships shaped as airplanes” – Richard Branson.
#3 Space tourism
In our Future Tech Facebook poll, out of the 2.3k “likes” only two people commented that they were looking forward to being a space tourist. Perhaps because we still see leaving the earth’s atmosphere as something beyond our reality? But ex-NASA astronaut Don Thomas predicts that space tourism will be affordable in ten years time. At the moment, a trip on a Virgin Galactic spacecraft costs about $250,000. So, for now, we’ll probably just be visiting from our smart home via our virtual reality headsets.
“No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars…” – Helen Keller.
#4 Outliers
Our final favourite thing about future technology is the amazing people behind the thinking that’s changing the world. Without their huge vision and sheer force of belief in the future we wouldn’t have self-driving cars, smart homes or new planets to explore.
Sheila McGillivray is tribe leader at advertising agency, One Lady & a Tribe.
