P R E S E N T P R O B A B L E P O S S I B L E Notes and acknowledgements Innovation or event Legend Conceived and created by Richard Watson and Alex Ayad with input from Chris Haley and additional input from the ‘Smarties’ at Imperial College London. Note that whilst most entries on the timeline are deeply serious, a few are less so. High resolution files suitable for printing can be obtained free of charge from [email protected] or [email protected] A3 and A1 printed wall charts can also be ordered via these addresses although a charge is applied purely to cover print, packing and postage costs. BIO-TECH DIGITAL-TECH NANO-TECH NEURO-TECH GREEN-TECH www.nowandnext.com www.imperialtechforesight.com Defined as existing now or thereabouts with at least 1,000 examples existing where appropriate Defined as occurring between 2015-2030 Defined as potentially occurring after 2030 PRESENT PROBABLE POSSIBLE DIGITAL GREEN BIO NEURO NANO DNA dating agencies Gene therapy Synthetic organisms Genetic testing for inherited diseases Scaffolds for growing stem cell body parts 3D printed orthopaedic implants Body hacking for sensory augmentation Commercial pet cloning Plastics from crops Pre-emptive medical inteventions based on genome ‘Pharming’ humanised animals for medicines Vibration energy harvesting Cheap concentrator solar Aerogel building insulation LED street lighting Electric grid-scale storage Domestic powerplants (CCHP) Demand responsive domestic appliances Smart meters Algal biofuels Ultracapacitor vehicles Community grids Consumer spot-pricing of electricity Phase-out of incandescent light bulbs Artificial photosythesis of hydrogen Synthetic jet fuels Transparent (organic)solar cells on skyscrapers Biodegradable batteries Motorway lanes for autonomous vehicles In-road inductive charging for electric vehicles Synthetic meat in supermarkets Thorium reactors Wave disc engine for vehicles Insect-burger food vans Hyper-loop mass transit systems Tokomak nuclear fusion for power generation Iron-fertilisation of oceans Satellite-beamed space solar-power Micro-scale wind & water harvesting building facades High-speed pedestrian walkways 3D-printed soil for vertical agriculture Commercial ocean thermal energy conversion Travelling wave nuclear reactors Fuel-cell powered light passenger aircraft Large scale carbon capture & storage Beamed energy for ecological monitoring & military UAVs Ambient RF energy harvesting Animal-free leather Ubiquitous bio-sensing Analytical underwear Last antibiotic discovered Personalised microbiome therapy Prophylactic antibiotics banned in animals RFID implants for personal data storage Malaria eradicated by introduction of GM mosquitos Human genetic engineering legalised Tattooed circuits (video tattoos on the human body) Cloned human being Microbe-sensing food packaging Pandemic by synthetic organism Bioluminescent household lighting Over-the-counter genome test Stem cell treatment for Parkinson’s disease 3D printed bio-nano scaffolds Artificial muscles made from spun nanotubefibre DNA-based data storage Human organ cloning Brain-computer interfaces widely supplement keyboards Routine brain finger printing of air travellers Dream imaging and recording via fMRI Communications devices widely embedded inside the human body Artificial neuro-writing of basic thoughts Brain prostheses to enhance or erase memory End of dementia Eye-tracking in mobile phones Artifical retina implants Adaptive electronic assistant to prevent information-overload Intention decoding algorithms Thought controlled wheelchair Hangover-free alcohol substitute Mood-sensing machines Hacking of implanted neuro-devices Cochlear implants Brain fingerprinting used in court Prosthetic limbs controlled by thought Neuroimaging of active brain areas Nootropic drugs for medical & recreational use Quantum computers for crypto-cracking Realtime language translation Unassisted robotic surgery Insect-sized surveillance robots Holographic data storage AI in autonomous drone-drone combat Solar flare knocks out GPS network Smartdust sensor networks Recording of entire human life from birth to death Lifelong avatar assistants Internet of things exceeds 1 trillion devices Robots outnumber human beings Warfare merges with gaming Commercial airliner highjacked via smartphone War forecasting algorithms Graphene supercapacitors Cities ban human drivers Battery-free wireless communications Autonomous electric taxi fleets Physical creditcards become obsolete Haptic clothing Lip-reading CCTV Internet of things exceeds 50 billion devices Cyberattack causes city-wide powercut Domestic fridges sense use-by dates Optical computing Quantum computers used for material design Fully autonomous battlefield robots Mobile phones outnumber people Augmented reality glasses Basic brain computer interfaces for gaming Crypto currencies Life- logging Mobile traffic dominates internet QR scannable grave stones Intercontinental robotic surgery Facial recognition CCTV Avatar girlfriends NFC fingerprints AI in GP surgeries Internet connected toothbrushes Crime prevention algorithms Antibacterial nano particles for clothing Nano particles in cosmetics and sunscreens Nanotubes for synthetic neurons and neural implants Methanol fuel cells for consumer electronics IBM makes feature film from animated atoms Autonomous self-replication of crude non-biological systems Quantum dot night vision windows Room temperature superconductors Polaratronics enables computing near speed of light Fully plastic transistors Meta material antennae Self-healing paints & surfaces Templates for protein crystallisation Quantum dot televisions Printed plastic electronic circuits Scrunchable screens and devices 100 atoms per bit data density Lab demo of optical meta material cloaking Next generation super lightweight composites Graphene supercapacitors Periodic hypertable Nanotubes for synthetic neurons & neural implants Nanoparticles for cancer imaging & treatment Drone delivery pizza :) DNA dating agencies Gene therapy Synthetic organisms Genetic testing for inherited diseases Scaffolds for growing stem cell body parts 3D printed orthopaedic implants Body hacking for sensory augmentation Commercial pet cloning Plastics from crops Pre-emptive medical inteventions based on genome ‘Pharming’ humanised animals for medicines Vibration energy harvesting Cheap concentrator solar Aerogel building insulation LED street lighting Electric grid-scale storage Domestic powerplants (CCHP) Demand responsive domestic appliances Smart meters Algal biofuels Ultracapacitor vehicles Community grids Consumer spot-pricing of electricity Phase-out of incandescent light bulbs Artificial photosythesis of hydrogen Synthetic jet fuels Transparent (organic)solar cells on skyscrapers Biodegradable batteries Motorway lanes for autonomous vehicles In-road inductive charging for electric vehicles Synthetic meat in supermarkets Thorium reactors Wave disc engine for vehicles Insect-burger food vans Hyper-loop mass transit systems Tokomak nuclear fusion for power generation Iron-fertilisation of oceans Satellite-beamed space solar-power Micro-scale wind & water harvesting building facades High-speed pedestrian walkways 3D-printed soil for vertical agriculture Commercial ocean thermal energy conversion Travelling wave nuclear reactors Fuel-cell powered light passenger aircraft Large scale carbon capture & storage Beamed energy for ecological monitoring & military UAVs Ambient RF energy harvesting Animal-free leather Ubiquitous bio-sensing Analytical underwear Last antibiotic discovered Personalised microbiome therapy Prophylactic antibiotics banned in animals RFID implants for personal data storage Malaria eradicated by introduction of GM mosquitos Human genetic engineering legalised Tattooed circuits (video tattoos on the human body) Cloned human being Microbe-sensing food packaging Pandemic by synthetic organism Bioluminescent household lighting Over-the-counter genome test Stem cell treatment for Parkinson’s disease 3D printed bio-nano scaffolds Artificial muscles made from spun nanotubefibre DNA-based data storage Human organ cloning Brain-computer interfaces widely supplement keyboards Routine brain finger printing of air travellers Dream imaging and recording via fMRI Communications devices widely embedded inside the human body Artificial neuro-writing of basic thoughts Brain prostheses to enhance or erase memory End of dementia Eye-tracking in mobile phones Artifical retina implants Adaptive electronic assistant to prevent information-overload Intention decoding algorithms Thought controlled wheelchair Hangover-free alcohol substitute Mood-sensing machines Hacking of implanted neuro-devices Cochlear implants Brain fingerprinting used in court Prosthetic limbs controlled by thought Neuroimaging of active brain areas Nootropic drugs for medical & recreational use Quantum computers for crypto-cracking Realtime language translation Unassisted robotic surgery Insect-sized surveillance robots Holographic data storage AI in autonomous drone-drone combat Solar flare knocks out GPS network Smartdust sensor networks Recording of entire human life from birth to death Lifelong avatar assistants Internet of things exceeds 1 trillion devices Robots outnumber human beings Warfare merges with gaming Commercial airliner highjacked via smartphone War forecasting algorithms Graphene supercapacitors Cities ban human drivers Battery-free wireless communications Autonomous electric taxi fleets Physical creditcards become obsolete Haptic clothing Lip-reading CCTV Internet of things exceeds 50 billion devices Cyberattack causes city-wide powercut Domestic fridges sense use-by dates Optical computing Quantum computers used for material design Fully autonomous battlefield robots Mobile phones outnumber people Augmented reality glasses Basic brain computer interfaces for gaming Crypto currencies Life- logging Mobile traffic dominates internet QR scannable grave stones Intercontinental robotic surgery Facial recognition CCTV Avatar girlfriends NFC fingerprints AI in GP surgeries Internet connected toothbrushes Crime prevention algorithms Antibacterial nano particles for clothing Nano particles in cosmetics and sunscreens Nanotubes for synthetic neurons and neural implants Methanol fuel cells for consumer electronics IBM makes feature film from animated atoms Autonomous self-replication of crude non-biological systems Quantum dot night vision windows Room temperature superconductors Polaratronics enables computing near speed of light Fully plastic transistors Meta material antennae Self-healing paints & surfaces Templates for protein crystallisation Quantum dot televisions Printed plastic electronic circuits Scrunchable screens and devices 100 atoms per bit data density Lab demo of optical meta material cloaking Next generation super lightweight composites Graphene supercapacitors Periodic hypertable Nanotubes for synthetic neurons & neural implants Nanoparticles for cancer imaging & treatment Drone delivery pizza :) Timeline of Emerging Science and Technology