Prompted somewhat by my technology prediction time capsule, Noah Read takes a stab at what he thinks we’ll see (or, won’t see) in 2018.
He has some interesting takes. Most of which I agree with.
I do not think I agree with this take, though:
AR will be a passing craze, while at the same time making certain niche use cases much better than they’ve ever been. I just hope those use cases are more useful than funny animated masks on social networks.
AR may indeed be a passing craze but I don’t think that will be determined within 2018. It will take much longer to know that. And I don’t think the use cases for AR will be niche. For instance, I do believe my future workspace will be "in AR" rather than VR. (Or, perhaps this is my own wishful thinking). And I think there are enough people like me that would want this to say it is larger than just a niche use.
Of course, maybe I’m wrong and Ready Player One will be the reality.
Regarding self-driving technology, though, Read says:
Problems of infrastructure, distance, regulation, public opinion, and human nature will infuriate utopians who would like a Jetson’s future today, but these are real issues that will slow adoption in the real world. It’s coming, but current estimates seem optimistic.
This I agree with. Obviously.
Many of us underestimate how long change happens. The change we want we want immediately. Personally, I want self-driving to become mainstream yesterday. But I feel we’ve still got nearly a decade of manual cars and drivers to deal with before things take off.
More people should write down their predictions. And not just for 2018 but for the next 20 years. It is a fun mental exercise and I’m certain it will be fun to look back upon every few years.
To that end I randomly challenge Colin Walker, Matt Mullenweg, Manton Reece, and Mike Haynes to jot down at least 5 predictions for the next 20 years.