Future Tech: How Emerging Innovations Are Shaping Tomorrow's World

Shaping the Future: Emerging innovations like AI and 3D printing are transforming industries and the global economy

Future Tech: How Emerging Innovations Are Shaping Tomorrow's World

1. Introduction to Future Technologies

Efforts to predict the future are as old as civilization itself. We all tend to wonder: what will the future be like? Even as children and young adults, our curious natures compel us to pose that question, despite disheartening answers from overworked or dispirited adults. Young people, in particular, bring energy and creativity to the table. They are eager to make their mark on the world, often with better tools than have been given to them. In this fundamentally human endeavor, we aspire to be more creative and imaginative, with science fiction serving as a guide, while maintaining reason and remaining within the boundaries of reality. Yes, these musings and wonderings are as old as time, and for as long as we have been human, we have sought to master nature rather than exist at her whims.

The ultimate aim of successful futurists and visionaries is that their ideas, theories, concepts, and predictions become so much a part of society's culture that it is impossible to imagine the world or future without them. Great works of science fiction and prescient worldviews clearly make a great impact on our general, active pursuit of the science and technology necessary to empower or safeguard these longstanding hopes and dreams. Over time, these nascent ideas morph into cutting-edge topics at universities, which were once predicted many decades earlier in the pages of fiction. Trying to predict the future of technology can be interesting, surprising, and sometimes deeply humbling. That in itself is part of the fun! We can develop future technology by enlarging the maturing seeds of today's innovations, but it is even wiser to be knowledgeable, thoughtful, and cultivate our own unique garden with great care and attention.

1.1. Defining Future Technologies

Future technologies are predicted to be as exciting as they are innovative. Not only will they alter the way we live and work, but they will typically drive the way human beings interact with each other, impacting the nature of war and society. These technologies are in a continual state of development, ranging from technologies which, for elements or compounds, have only been dreamed of by imaginative writers, to those that are almost within reach at a commercial level. Benefit is a key motivation for investment in future technology. Despite problems caused by the cost and potential uncertainty of military deployments, defense remains a major driver of research and development activity, alongside the likely rewards of technology application in non-military sectors, such as medicine. Societal well-being is thus a major driver of technological change.

Future technologies will be rapidly disseminated and are likely to know few national boundaries. As such, they will present both challenges and opportunities for organizations in every sector and for national governments. Good military technologies are preceded by good ideas. However, an idea, even a good one, is not enough, given the numerous technical and production problems which cause costly research and development programs to fall by the wayside. At the other end of the scale, proving advances in research and development successfully does not always automatically meet military requirements or indeed, truly breakthrough changes, which might not even be seen as essential. Only future technologies that are successfully proven can be realized, and then only after the design, development, and production problems have been resolved. This leads the final realization stage of future technology to be a costly and high-risk affair.

1.2. Importance and Impact

You're just about to discover the latest advances in technology, yet you may already be more aware of them than you think. For example, you possibly have a personal computer or mobile phone on your desk, or in your pocket or bag. The impact that such technologies have already had on your lifestyle is undoubtedly significant. If the trends are anything to go by, then the effect is set to grow and grow. Innovative technologies that we are just beginning to see the fruits of will have much greater implications. You'll possibly live longer, receive better healthcare, travel in driverless vehicles, reduce what you eat, get computing tasks done more easily and cheaply, use a new form of technology, including new brain and eye interfaces, and welcome the greatest influx of wealth ever known. In addition, your family, friends, and indeed everyone else in the world will also benefit greatly from the new technological innovation.

If your eyes are open, then increased awareness of these trends in technology can benefit you in other significant ways. Awareness of technology growth or reduction can be helpful to you in your professional career, both in doing work better and in learning what, where, when, and how it might be done for you. You could also learn of social and governmental structures fast being developed around these trends, too. Being early aware of the societal innovations that this more mature technology is stimulating can also give you the edge in your career development or lifestyle. Although much care has been taken to provide probable examples, what can be said for sure is that many new ways of doing things will be needed. These curves can stimulate entire new industries. Being informed sooner can lead you, your family, and your business to benefit more from them.

2. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Global industry is on the cusp of a new phase of digital transformation, driven by the mass adoption of emerging technologies. Many of the technologies responsible for the current wave of change were also developed by the industry. But as they continue to evolve, they enable a wider, more significant role for digital technology in shaping the future. Tomorrow, Industry 4.0 will be defined by more than physical assets; indeed, it is poised to become the primary force behind the ongoing transformation of the global industry. It is estimated that the digitization of Industry 4.0 has the potential to secure cost savings of up to $3.7 trillion by 2025 and to move the global economy by the same order, with China, the United States, and Germany at the forefront.

Digital technologies can transform industry in a variety of ways. AI, now integral to many Industry 4.0-enabled productivity plays, is expected to be the primary driver of global revenues related to IT and business services in the coming decade, while automation will spur the development of new machines and tools. More broadly, the power of data and analytics can drive frictionless and adaptive production lines. This broader impact will allow every business process to be monitored, optimized, and largely self-controlled, with machine learning becoming in the future the supporting concept that emphasizes far-reaching automation and a management system driven by machine insight. This, in turn, will enable a focused technology transformation that continually increases production efficiency and opens new monetizing businesses.

2.1. Fundamentals of AI and ML

To understand AI and ML, it is crucial to comprehend that ML is different from traditional programming and its core is autonomous learning. ML systems have three components: the model of the world, the objective, and the model of the model. The model of the world represents all the possible types of processes that could have generated the observed data, such as decision trees, probability distributions, or metric distances in high-dimensional spaces. A given AI/ML model, therefore, makes certain decisions and then mistakes for certain types of processes, the model of the world. As no physical process behaves exactly like these simplified models, adapting the model of the world to the data itself is the crux of training for all AI/ML systems. One standard way is to define an objective, such as minimizing the average error with respect to the data.

The autonomy of ML comes from the feedback loop between the model and the model of the model. In traditional programming, the programmer writes a program that defines the outcome for each possible input. In ML, however, getting the program to perform the right functions can be achieved by training algorithms on the data, with the model of the model determining the mapping of the model to the objective, such that errors induce feedback that self-modifies the model.

2.2. Applications in Various Sectors

Various technology domains can benefit from flexible electronics. The next paragraphs give an overview of some of these technological domains. Healthcare is a major field requiring flexible electronics, given that most parts of the human body are flexible. There is an increasing need for portable and wearable biomedical devices. Consumer electronics require more robust devices as today consumers touch their devices tens or hundreds of times per day. Furthermore, designing electronics on and in existing products may provide extended functionality to such products. Flexible electronics may benefit industries, construction firms, and automobile manufacturers by reducing the cost of the manufactured product. This may be achieved by utilizing new materials such as flexible glass in order to replace existing commodity materials, such as metals that may corrode and are not lightweight. In the area of entertainment, flexible electronics already have a high impact. E-ink electronic readers have functioned as a kickstarter for flexible electronic displays. With flexible electronics, companies will be able to design unique, flexible interactively changed promotional material. Furthermore, game and multimedia accessories will be lighter and more robust, which is of benefit to the consumer. With brands already incorporating flexible portable sensors in their products, the industry of flexible sports and portable sensors is also on the verge of taking flight.

3. Internet of Things (IoT)

Connected devices that communicate over the Internet represent a new and rapidly accelerating era of greater and more sophisticated forms of communication and coordination both within and between technologies and people, creating new possibilities and confirming and enhancing older opportunities. To illustrate these innovation challenges, this chapter in particular focuses on the current state of progress in the development of two foundational technologies: edge computing and the sapient web, and discusses both general and specific challenges for bringing these elements to technological fruition. Creating these technologies requires new domain-independent architectural principles, extensive new AI infrastructure, many kinds of specialized intelligent-component functions with corresponding effective alignment, and the collaborations to create many new conceptual, computational, and experimental technological innovations. The Internet of Things changes the paradigm of computing and networking, just like the Internet did: it extends the role of all the computers that are part of this Internet so that they support both communication and observation as natural starting behaviors. For many computers, though not all, support for natural language processing and human-computer interfaces is a third essential behavior. All these ingredients are required to enable an ambitious collaborative project framework that can advance human research in vetting, monitoring, and improving natural language processing and human-computer interfaces. To succeed, the philosophical and physical frameworks must first offer convincing models of effective cooperation and alignment, and then practical tools that can help researchers train, validate, and recycle large advanced neural networks to apply their skills at an equally large and advanced research scale.

3.1. Concept and Components

The term "future tech" in the context of this paper comprises all emerging scientific breakthrough technologies generating new and additional functions for technical systems. These include the so-called "Key Enabling Technologies" of information and communication technology, nanotechnology, biotechnology, advanced materials, and photonics. Other terms used are "megatrends," "seeds of innovation," and "paradigm shifts." Examples of future tech include personalized medicine and diagnostics, bioinformatics, robotics, cyber-physical systems, ambient and assisted living, photonics, advanced materials, flexible and organic electronics, and the Internet of Things, creating new virtual structures by 3D printing. Future tech and its innovations have a steep trajectory; they promise to reconfigure the social, economic, and political rules and playing field. The innovations mentioned above raise public, policy, and business expectations all over the globe. Stimulated by these expectations, but also constrained by them, engineers, researchers, policymakers, and users increasingly see the world of socio-technical systems with a functional and technological eye. They see a world full of opportunities for optimization and improvements through extensive research and development on marrying future tech and its innovations into functionally sound systems. They aim to marry the innovations to high-performance devices, products, services, tools, and supply chains. The goal is not modest; it is to create systems that think, decide, and judge for themselves, that are sufficiently intelligent that they do not need direct human oversight to function in the world of humans, animals, objects, and equipment, but that safely function in all environments.

3.2. IoT in Smart Cities

Smart city projects are becoming more popular, and they are increasingly attracting a lot of attention from researchers and entrepreneurs aiming to make these smart cities work. Many smart services with high potential impact are being proposed, and their implementable acceptance is very high. Viable proposals are focusing on future services towards the cities' real infrastructure, making traffic management more efficient and improving the quality of life for the citizens. The use of the Internet of Things (IoT) in smart cities, by inserting systems everywhere in the city infrastructures—alarming systems, environmental sensors, and inter- or intra-urban vehicles' communication systems among others—is one of the most extended current research lines improved by the coming 5G, which is providing low latency and making methods available for IoT solutions, allowing the environment to function more efficiently with autonomous machines and automatic device solutions usually driven in fully virtualized and software-defined operational environments.

4. Blockchain Technology

Blockchain technology, which is best known for powering Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, is gaining steam among finance professionals. But the technology also has implications for a range of other industries. Here's some insight on what the technology is all about. While a traditional ledger records the transfers of actual assets, a blockchain records the transfer of the digital asset. In the case of Bitcoin, the digital asset is the limited number of the cryptocurrency. In a traditional financial network, intermediaries like banks create trust and certainty. In exchange for being that intermediary, they get a commission. Blockchain eliminates the need for intermediaries. It does this by storing the information in a chain of blocks, each of which is linked to its neighbor in a way that all the data is easily retrievable and accessible.

Each transaction authenticated in the blockchain is a single block. Those blocks are linked in a chronological chain that everyone can easily see. Once completed, a block goes into the blockchain as a permanent database. In the case of the Bitcoin network, the block is created each time a new batch of Bitcoin transactions is created, such as when a person transfers Bitcoins. A copy of the blockchain is stored by all the computers in the network, which makes altering the blockchain virtually impossible. The digital absence of intermediaries allows the fees for transactions to be kept much lower compared to traditional financial systems. Also, because the blockchain is permanent and decentralized, some organizations see it as a great medium to build smart contracts and systems that offer the possibility of creating self-enforcing financial agreements.

4.1. Understanding Blockchain

A blockchain is data that is stored in a chain of blocks, each connected to the previous block in the chain. The type of data held on a blockchain depends on where the blockchain is being used — for example, it can be a ledger of money, a record of a contract, or even have rules for computer programs. Blockchains are secure because they are stored using something called 'cryptography'. By using complex mathematics, blockchains make it very hard to change any block or move content around without someone noticing. Blockchains are also special because they are 'decentralized'. This means the blockchain is not stored in one place — it is held on thousands of computers all over the world — and is public so anyone is free to join and view it. Crucially, no single person or company controls the blockchain – as long as a blockchain's users follow its rules, then whatever is stored in its blocks can be trusted.

Blockchain technology is set to change the way in which we view the world. It is a digital ledger that is shared across the internet. Taking the example of bitcoin, details of transactions of all bitcoin users are encrypted on the blockchain. Users can view these transactions, but their details are private. It is important to know the basic properties of blockchain technology. First, a group of transactions is stored in a block. After a group of transactions is encrypted, they are added to the existing chain of transactions. Blockchain is the technology that has the potential to alter the way in which the world works. Its decentralized system is the basis for cryptocurrencies, ruling out the need for physical currency. Blockchain can also record every digital transaction, irrespective of its size. This would allow banking transactions to be verified, user consent established, and prevent any error or fraudulent activity. Data manipulation would be difficult since it is shared and continuously reconciled.

4.2. Applications beyond Cryptocurrency

Although creating digital currency requires consensus, the primary power to release it can also be applied to other systems, data, and entities. Information from patients' electronic health records lies dormant because individuals, clinicians, information technology vendors, researchers, and institutional review boards are all concerned with the privacy, security, and potential future sales of the data. Data are encrypted to protect individual confidential information, but the encryption makes the data unavailable for other uses, and no one knows who the buyers or users might be, nor are most current subject protection systems enforceable. Blockchain, in which patients could hold proprietary control of that data while allowing it to remain accessible and potentially beneficial through special access without concern for privacy or security, solves these tension concerns. By applying technology that supports cryptocurrencies to the dilemma of giving patients proprietary control of encrypted health data while still enabling it to be used, albeit in specially controlled fashions, efficacy, ethics, equity, and protection costs are addressed by advocates and skeptics. Critical infrastructure design (utilities, roads, parks, ports, security, garbage, recycling, etc.) is a complex process that involves multiple private and public sector inputs and coordination, as well as consumer considerations. Utility services are often referred to as "natural monopolies" because of the costs of duplicating them. With its inherent cost-saving consensus, blockchain would seem to be the perfect technology to accelerate the development and deployment of expanding service opportunities, and its token system is ideal for universal service pricing. The game changer would be a creative design using the consensus-building cost and confirmation systems of the blockchain; instead of discounting usage fees for the lowest-income citizens, blockchain would advance quality and value for all residents and businesses. Each covered resident could have equal "basic needs" access (generated or consumed within the residence) valued at the maximum charge to the lowest percentile resident. Residents would then buy, sell, or trade connections to any energy, water, telecommunications, or digital facility to a larger area, based on the technology used to exchange services, and each resident would support quality sustainability—not for someone else at their expense, but for themselves and their neighbors as best for the area.

5. Augmented and Virtual Reality

Augmented and virtual reality experiences have been with us for many years, but as the processing power of the hardware continues to improve, and with streaming capabilities on the horizon, these realities will begin to shape our lives in new ways. Extended reality, or the ability to have AR and VR experiences, will begin to touch every aspect of our lives, including commerce, dating, learning, and even training for first responders and pilots. As the world self-develops through augmented and virtual reality, the perception of what 'real' is may be shifted, nearly or even completely eradicating the line between what we see physically and what we perceive as reality. 5G technology will provide the ability to live under augmented and virtual reality. 5G connectivity will enable near-instant streaming of external group activities like sports events, concerts, or even hobbies that will provide interactive experiences. The end users will be able to control their reality in a way that may be foreign at this time. They may decide how they want to experience a movie, making every movie an interactive experience. The possibilities to experience and shape our lives through virtual and augmented reality experiences are nearly unquantifiable and should be expected to continue to rapidly develop, for better or worse.

5.1. Exploring AR and VR Technologies

Some thought that 3D cinema was just a taster. There were some forlorn attempts at 3D TV. Some even talked about 3D newspapers. I haven't seen a 3D newspaper in a long while. But a new generation of technology goes beyond 3D. It's called augmented reality (AR). It works by merging the reality we're seeing with virtual add-ons. By using lightweight, transparent glasses, or waving around a special smartphone or tablet app, we can meld reality with computer graphics. To understand what a good game is, you must delve into AR technology and its potential - against the background of virtual reality (VR) - two technologies that could offer us more than we ever imagined before.

Augmented reality has been around for some time, but it's only in the last couple of years that it has made the commercial big time. Companies have all heavily invested in the technology. The AR systems we now have aren't quite there yet. The graphics can be a bit poor, and as for the headsets needed? Comfortable throughout the day? Relatively duds. But both head-mounted displays (HMDs) and augmented reality environments themselves are works in progress. We already know they're going to affect what and how we buy, as well as how we work and learn. Indeed, AR interfaces might eventually shape the environment in which we all live, especially in cities. This is a topic students might want to explore in a learning diary, prompted to think about how these technologies are evolving in their uses, as well as their future potentials and constraints.

5.2. Use Cases in Entertainment and Education

AR has delivered that first sense of wonder in our industry that I can remember since the launch of the online gaming section of the business. It has that magic about it that stops you in your tracks and makes everyone watch, smile, and get excited. AR has huge potential in our business, from changing the way we interact with our favorite characters from pop culture to blending our virtual worlds with our real ones. Then we have the advent of AI. The potential here is so unlimited, and when a company really manages to harness all the potential of AI, I think it will be an exponential change in our business.

The effectiveness of new technologies in all areas of the business is really dependent on how well they work together and the creative alchemy that it produces when you mix and match different technologies for the best desired outcome. We tried to demonstrate cross-platform creative opportunities and how we're pushing the boundaries of different technology mixes with a series of standalone interactive demos for a handful of our legendary original content titles. We then had a couple of AR experiences built to showcase our work. AR is the most accessible of the next-gen platforms, and it's here now. It will show significant growth in the next year when it is supported in live events, in the music business, and when people can use AR glasses and get everyday immersive experiences.

6. Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering

Performed by altering the genetic structure of an organism, genetic engineering is a fast-developing and incredibly exciting field. The potential for improved species, disease cures, selective breeding, and saving endangered species has attracted a great deal of interest – and perhaps not just from the scientists and researchers concerned! It is probably very difficult to overstate the potential for genetic engineering – and definitely unwise to underestimate the enormous risks and moral, ethical, and political dilemmas it raises. From DNA mapping, gene therapy, pharming and the modification of animals and plants, the scope for genetic engineering is both interesting and frightening. While genetic engineering has made great strides and may soon be able to tackle many genetic diseases and birth defects, alter specific species and breeding, and make many of our foods taste that much better, such breakthroughs, combined with shared, cheap, and accessible knowledge of how to go about it, may lead to theft and sabotage by unscrupulous organizations. There are many ethical and social dilemmas to be resolved before everyone will feel comfortable about this subject!

6.1. Overview of Biotechnology

Biotechnology has already provided a growing range of pharmacological products, such as synthetic insulin and human growth hormone, recombinant DNA-produced vaccines, monoclonal antibodies for the treatment of some cancers, blood clotting factors, and inhibitors of tissue rejection following organ transplantation. Recombinant DNA techniques are also being used to develop monoclonal antibodies, monoclonal T-cell receptors, antigens, and altered viruses for use in gene therapy. Monoclonal antibodies are now used primarily as tools for diagnosis, and they are likely to continue to play that role. Knowledge that has been gained in the course of producing human monoclonal antibodies has provided essentially all the insights currently available about the generation of protective disease antibody responses. Furthermore, because these agents are foreign to the body, a significant portion of them is recognized as antigens, and the immune system is stimulated to produce antibodies against them. Biotechnology is commonly associated with bloodstream agents, but considerable prospects exist for the use of biotechnology to generate diagnostic and therapeutic agents as well. The number of agents being developed in vitro for the treatment of cancer is growing rapidly, with several approval applications already before the FDA. Because the agents are very specific, they are likely to have significantly fewer side effects than conventional chemotherapy agents. This field is similar to biopharmaceuticals, although many inspired by drugs already exist, which are used both for diagnostic and therapeutic applications. For example, radioactive isotopes are used for diagnosis, tumor location, imaging, and treatment. But traditionally, radioactive binding agents flow in and out of a target organ and are difficult to control. These new agents and techniques are likely to be better defined; potential agents include growth factors that react underwater, modified cells to carry chemical agents, or plastic particles bearing specific receptor ligands.

6.2. Ethical Considerations in Genetic Engineering

When we discuss genetic engineering, the focus is often on the potential to improve human health and combat disease. Yet the ethical questions surrounding these possibilities are also complex and far-reaching. They range from more abstract debates that connect with humanity's struggle to comprehend its own existence to very practical concerns about access to these new technologies. One key area we have looked at before is how we use genetic engineering responsibly in the many broad and interconnected fields of human health, the environment, and biology. Exciting innovations in genetic engineering allow for cutting-edge medical treatments and the creation of genetic solutions to new challenges, such as the growing threat of antibiotic resistance. But these developments can also raise complex sets of ethical questions and decisions. This is where work on the advancement of ethical narratives and the development of effective communication becomes critical. The importance of pluralism and understanding a range of ethical values is also crucial.

If we open up discussions about broader principles concerning life, science, and society, then many more perspectives come into play. Work in this area can incorporate ideas about theology, philosophy, literature, and the arts, providing a rich and diverse context in which to consider these moral and ethical questions. At a more practical level, modern biotechnology strategies such as genome editing have both therapeutic and enhancement applications. Yet it turns out that what separates the treatment from the enhancement is not always clear-cut and that therapeutic uses of new biotechnologies themselves raise ethical issues. Moreover, if not managed effectively, the benefits of many new biotechnology applications might not be available or accessible to those who need them most. It is crucial to secure the public's trust if they are to be embraced, and possible tensions between national and regional interests must be carefully managed. Increasing diversity in the human genome may be beneficial from a health point of view, but it also exposes the inherent problem of the under-representation of non-Caucasian populations in existing genomic and biomedical databases. This under-representation is limiting our potential to create genuinely global biomedical applications that could benefit us all. The expanding field of human biology and genome editing brings an ever-greater need for public dialogue.

7. Renewable Energy Innovations

What could be better than sustainable power that prevents rising temperatures and offers endless power that lets businesses run without a break? The technologies behind solar panels and wind, tidal, and wave turbines are being improved all the time. Scientists are working on more efficient ways to manufacture solar panels and cheaper ways to store energy in batteries, so it's more likely to be used at night or in less sunny places too. Over 6,000 oil and gas platforms around the world are reaching the end of their natural lives over the next 30 years. If the equipment is removed and the wells are plugged up, this could lead to the single biggest downturn in renewable installations we will ever witness. However, it is hoped that some of these might be repurposed, with the platforms transformed into floating wind farms. Large turbines mounted on platforms could drive electricity to shore. Each platform could produce enough power to eliminate seven million tons of greenhouse gases compared to using gas and diesel power stations.

7.1. Solar, Wind, and Hydro Power

To meet the future energy demand and crucially limit dangerous climate change, the world is going to have to rapidly adopt a portfolio of low- and zero-carbon technologies. The deployment of renewables has been decreasing energy-related CO2 emissions very effectively. Renewable energy offers the potential to expand access to energy, a key factor in reducing poverty. Solar photovoltaics is by far the most common approach to capturing solar energy, and it has shown rapidly decreasing costs. The falling price of PV has opened the door for large-scale implementation of PV.

With a relaxation of traditional community engagement and adaptation of the mining industry business model, together with the screening of damage to the natural environment, the implementation of critical subsurface infrastructure offers a range of novel opportunities that promise to open up space in this era of imminent dangers associated with large-scale solar parks. The rapid decrease in costs induced both in concentrated solar power and PV solar technologies, as well as in onshore wind power generation, has outstripped expectations, competing very favorably with other interesting renewable sources such as small hydropower plants.

7.2. Advancements in Energy Storage

World demand for energy continues to increase as our population grows and developing countries advance. This trend will only intensify over the next few decades with the increasing use of electronics and the appearance of new energy-intensive technologies and services. This will create tremendous strain on the planet's natural resources, particularly the depletable reserves of fossil fuels. Even the most aggressive conservation and renewable energy scenarios make clear that significant increases in alternative energy sources and massive upgrading of the worldwide electrical distribution network are needed to avoid severe economic and environmental consequences.

Improvements in the efficiency of solar panels and better wind turbine designs will continue to contribute to the world's renewable energy mix, but the most dramatic advances will emerge through the development of modern smart grids, which integrate and optimize the delivery and use of electrical energy. Integral to the smart grid will be smart buildings, with sensors and actuators that deliver proactive responses for energy conservation and load shedding, and pervasive battery and supercapacitor energy storage options. The pluggable hybrid electric vehicle could also become a valuable distributed element oscillating between being a sink or a source of stored electrical power. Millions of these small energy storage sources can flatten the load curve and prevent brownouts and blackouts. A similar role can be filled by transmitting DC power over the network, but is that truly practical, safe, and cost-effective? Commercialization of smart grid concepts is still in its infancy, but the potential savings and benefits have captured the attention of the most influential corporations and government agencies around the world.

8. Space Exploration Technologies

Colonization of our Solar System may be the next great human endeavor. There are many visions for the future. Some of them are optimistic, some are pessimistic, and many are uncertain. However, no one can know for sure what will happen. Today, how human activities in space have been carried out has changed greatly with the advances and knowledge of space technologies, and how humans will eventually explore and attempt to claim and colonize new worlds. Space exploration is closely linked with the science and technology of astronautics.

Since the sudden and traumatic start of the space age in 1957, many developments have occurred in the space world. The first human steps on the Moon depended on a complex, single-use spaceship that could not lead to routine interplanetary exploration. However, as the U.S. Congress had forbidden the sale of Apollo hardware, the Nixon administration soon quietly allowed it all to decay. On the other hand, a lot of the recent space technology developments are more appropriate for the routine collection and use of space resources. They also have given promise that humans may possess the right tools and strategies for sending simplified robotic equipment to explore and exploit space profitably; develop depopulation and support modules by planting cell-growing and Earth ecosystem mating beds; and seed planets like Mars with Earth life.

8.1. Current Trends in Space Tech

Several technologies are coming into operation. To date, an estimated 8,000 communication satellites have been launched. While technology has made them smaller and cheaper to produce and therefore easier to launch, it also means that past satellites are quickly becoming outdated. They are intended to stay in orbit for only about 10 years, although changing the regulations so that they stay in orbit for 15 and even more years is being discussed. The production of nanosatellites has seen the beginning of a revolution for scientific studies, notably regarding Earth.

Research also means that more and more satellites are being launched, almost every month. This more substantial volume presents many questions, but potentially also provides a new type of image, from which scientific conclusions may be more readily drawn. The rapid growth in this sector could allow for other more innovative technological leapfrogging as well as sharing the high cost, long development, and high complexity in the near future. Technology, in particular AI, could open up new scientific areas, especially for time series. The next decade will see the advent of heliophysics, made possible by a flotilla of satellites, some of which will have capacities to provide images of the external boundary of the Sun every 10 to 15 minutes. Data processing, and notably automation and the use of AI, will be key to extracting new classes of information from this data, whose volume will be too huge to be handled without such technology. With electron imaging, heliophysics will finally see inside the Sun for the first time.

Both human and robotic exploration of the solar system are set to increase the urgency attached to several questions that require rigorous scientific answers, such as mapping cosmic radiation. The European Space Agency has started looking at the possible scenarios for a Moon village. Major drivers are whether energy-efficient launches can be achieved with the use of the lunar surface as radiation cover and with mineral mining, or whether other compelling reasons will sooner or later be discovered. These include perspectives of great scientific innovation. For instance, a Moon base could be established in the optimal position to map signals from the Cosmic Dawn, the first few hundred million years following the Big Bang, when the first stars in the universe were formed. Launched in the sixties, which was a very inefficient use of technology, the first space telescope was Hubble. It was equipped with now very old technologies, and the resolution has never been surpassed. Technology has been widely used in future telescopes and will continue to be widely used. Yet, the main expectation is to just exploit the instruments in the next ten years to explore new areas that can be made more and more innovative by the common availability of large databases and the era of astroinformatics.

8.2. Mars Colonization and Beyond

With Moon colonization creating the foundational knowledge and establishing the industrial infrastructure, it is only obvious that the next logical step is Mars colonization. While the Moon has some intriguing upsides due to its close proximity to Earth, there is an equally long list of problems associated with it, mostly zoning around the extremely long period of darkness spawned by the 28-day lunar rotation. Mars' gravity also offers a near-Earth level of normal gravity, while the Moon’s weak gravity requires perhaps prohibitive resources for overcoming its negative health effects. Another problem is that the much better expected terraforming potential of Mars correlates perfectly with its much more seductive mineral contents, strongly suggesting that Mars will rather be a paradise than a workhouse. While such imbalances might stem from colonizing these bodies, for example, Mars sends its deorbiting station and it will catch the attention of the media. The happy effect of an interstellar beamer pointing to Mars as the computation base, Mars long-haul transportation systems, and Mars extractive industries is strictly speaking just as much of a well-guarded secret.

Loop cities are especially useful structures for building colonies as they are relatively cheap to build in volume with well-established commercialization paths and provide a comfortable living environment, down to beautiful natural views. These benefits can be achieved without imposing the lack of visibility and the really continent-scale mitigation risks posed by glass dome projects or their in-space equivalents. Using a combination of several kilos of aluminum, carbon fiber, and several hundreds of microns of coating materials per square meter of living space, it is possible to get the same recycled and controlled living volume, a kind of plebeian version of the same thing. While these volumes are part of the living spaces, you can clearly see the next street light or skyscraper or, in space, the bright light of the next colony, which felt like a serious psychological improvement.

9. Ethical and Social Implications of Future Technologies

In all the enthusiasm about future technologies, their ethical and social implications have been much neglected. But as these technologies develop and mature, and their use becomes widespread, the people involved at the frontiers of application will increasingly be faced with difficult questions concerning their ethical and social implications. On what grounds can research that produces technologies be opposed? How desirable is the introduction and enhancement of these technologies if they inhibit the natural development of individual potential? Are presently legal activities and organizations inevitably threatened by the unauthorized use of such technologies? How can we most effectively plan their development to meet our needs without sacrificing basic ethical principles? Spurred by the emergence of applications in these fields, however, the questions are beginning to come. The purpose of this chapter is to put forward some of these questions and to indicate the directions being taken by those who are beginning to think about them. We are still very much at the early stages of constructing the agenda for society's concerns with these issues. Their resolution will require not only the application of moral principles, but also a creative intellectual effort to anticipate what society would like boundaries and guidelines to be. Essential to such an undertaking is an attitude of intellectual humility and an openness to points of view different from one's own. What follows is a contribution to that beginning.

9.1. Privacy and Data Security Concerns

Privacy is a broad societal issue. The explosion of data technologies gives us powerful electronic tools that can be used to observe, record, and analyze human behavior directly, challenging us with some of the most difficult privacy problems we have encountered. As in other areas where new technology has greatly expanded our capabilities, we need to think carefully about the impact of these technologies and develop methods for managing these new powers. We must ensure the fair and proper use of this information. We are now experiencing an explosion in electronic technology. New devices for storing, transmitting, and displaying vision and audio information, such as television and microwaves including satellites, optical fibers, and cable; and in the home, video recorders, camcorders, video games, and video disc technological advances in video are too numerous to mention.

Concern is growing over the slow pace of developing laws and privacy codes of conduct to protect identifying confidential personal data, along with rapidly increasing computer processing capabilities. Individuals leave trails of data when they use credit cards, make phone calls, or receive medical care. These records, along with other items such as birth certificates, which contain Social Security numbers, as well as email and Internet addresses, are traded like cigarettes in a prison, put on auction blocks, and sold worldwide for uncountable profits. The potential for misuse of this data is greatly underestimated. Measures to protect personal information and reduce the growing divide between the haves and the have-nots are a necessary part of the new era of net-based commerce.

9.2. Impact on Job Market

The job market is set to undergo a huge evolution that will require politicians, business leaders, and individuals to adapt their ideas on education and investment. In the simplest form, many basic tasks currently performed by humans in both white-collar and blue-collar jobs will be taken over by machines, with humans moving into more demanding and rewarding roles. Prime candidates for replacement include many manufacturing jobs that are easily automatable. Many service jobs such as fast food delivery, filing, accountancy, and filing clerk posts are also at risk, while industries such as law and freelance writing may be harder to penetrate.

Education will have to equip individuals with the intellectual flexibility and skills to adapt to a rapidly changing work environment. It will be impossible to teach specific vocational trades because within a few decades the skills of a fresh graduate would be obsolete. Instead, students need to focus on developing critical thinking and communication. Careers in technology, science, and law, which need logic and judgment, as well as those that require originality or human interaction, are forecast to replace basic, easily performed jobs in the forefront of the future economy and job satisfaction. Online libraries may offer a substitute for libraries in some cases, but these facilities will need to be universally available if the risk of creating a two-tier class of educated and literate technology winners and uneducated and unread technology losers is to be avoided.

10. Conclusion and Future Prospects

This chapter provides a brief summary along with a future perspective of what has been covered in the textbook. We explore many technological fields in air transportation that are being applied today but continue to change and shape tomorrow's world. First, we emphasize modern air transportation, which has a completely different concept from that of the past, and the number of passengers has increased at an unexpected speed. We present the importance of air transport in contemporary society. After that, we dwell on the two main aims of aviation technology: speed and environmental compatibility. We have emphasized sonic booms and high levels of noise during take-off and landing as disturbing and polluting agents capable of ecological destruction to both animal and plant life, as well as human well-being. Consequently, we discuss a topic of great interest regarding the environmental impact of air transport from both the aeronautical design and aerodrome planning and management perspectives. We have also particularly underlined some pollution aspects that compromise human health as a contribution to current and future environmental challenges.

Finally, we tried to outline some technological and operational future perspectives based on possible aircraft modifications and criteria for new scenarios in aerodrome planning. These are feasible working addresses at different levels and sectors: technical, ecological, cost-related, overcoming barriers, and choices to be made. Future technological innovations in aviation are closely related to other fields of application, have a high level of transferability of know-how, and involve other fields of application. As a consequence, aerospace systems have significant public support. The involvement of private and public sectors, along with international cooperation, should be jointly promoted and encouraged to pursue technological breakthroughs. Therefore, we can be confident in the great expectations that ongoing aviation research activities will bring significant economic benefits to modern society, create jobs, and finally make air transport a growing, sustainable, and environmentally friendly commercial enterprise.