I do like MIT’s Technology Review. It gives a glimpse of cool future uses of technology, while retaining a critical lens.

Every year since 2001 we’ve picked what we call the 10 Breakthrough Technologies. People often ask, what exactly do you mean by “breakthrough”? It’s a reasonable question—some of our picks haven’t yet reached widespread use, while others may be on the cusp of becoming commercially available. What we’re really looking for is a technology, or perhaps even a collection of technologies, that will have a profound effect on our lives.

Here’s the list of their ‘breakthrough technologies’ for 2018:

1. 3D metal printing
2. Artificial embryos
3. Sensing city
4. AI for everybody
5. Dueling neural networks
6. Babel-fish earbuds
7. Zero-carbon natural gas
8. Perfect online privacy
9. Genetic fortune-telling
10. Materials’ quantum leap

It’s a fascinating list, partly because of the names they’ve given (‘genetic fortune telling’!) to things which haven’t really been given a mainstream label yet. Worth exploring in more details, as they flesh out each on of these in what is a reasonably lengthy article.

Source: MIT Technology Review