Buzzwords for the Future
Here are a few...can you think of more?
Openness - Can mean several things, including net neutrality, source code access, transparency, and general willingness to consider new ideas. Attempts by corporate marketers and government spinmeisters to co-opt the meme likely will be common. Right now, there is a huge issue brewing in the reassignment of a big part of the radio spectrum. CRN considers these to be crucial issues that could either complicate or simplify the creation of an open molecular manufacturing infrastructure as we've advocated.
Trust - When you get an email, how do you know you can trust that it's safe to open? How do you know that it's from who it says it's from? How do you know that an offered product is legitimate and not a knockoff, or that an online "service" company is not fraudulent? Phishing is a huge problem, and it's almost certain to keep getting worse. So, how far away are we from the advent of 3D spam? Will we need a system of Molecular Rights Management? Look for startups in the future selling "trust" not as a slogan, but as a commodity, something like wuffies.
Sousveillance - 
A word coined by Steve Mann to describe the process of bottom-up ubiquitous observation and recording as opposed to top-down surveillance; similar to Jamais Cascio's participatory panopticon, except a little easier to say. Imagine what might be done with cheap miniature networked devices -- several generations beyond today's camera phones -- in the hands of millions of people. No matter what it eventually is called, this will be among the most explosive issues of the next decade.
Tags: nanotechnology nanotech nano science technology ethics weblog blog
A random list of stuff and things more or less relevant to the discussion:
A further definition of public versus private, to include communication, probably cognition as brain imaging increases in capability, etc.
Privacy of location - Do you need to know where I am? Do I agree? And who's got the authoritative reponse on that need to know?
Physical or Production Rights Management, to "compliment" Digital Rights Management when fabs become available
Identity/Reputation Markets/Repositories - Who ARE you? Who trusts you? Do I trust or distrust those who trust you?
Given DMCA, how long until someone claims ROT13 or equivalent is encryption that, if decrypted, breaks the law?
Solid Drive - a term for bulk storage without moving parts. Compare with 'hard drive'
Right to Recycle - Who decides what's garbage and hence recyclable? Assuming high degrees of recycling of nanofactured products, this could have fascinating ramifications - you walk someplace, grant someone else recycling rights, and curse as your treasured antique fill-in-the-blank gets turned to nanoblocks. (See also "PRM", above, for more on the same lines)
Etc. Nuff for now.
-John B
Posted by: John B | October 09, 2007 at 12:20 PM
Some possibilities (note: not "predictions" - some of these are mutually exclusive alternatives)
Depletion (oil, gas, aquifers)
Fusion boom - cheap fusion power saves the global economy from a peak oil crisis, expanding it to the point that even the poorest parts of Africa get a taste of success. The US continues to live a charmed life, staying "on top", and diminished money flowing to the middle-east ends Islamic terror as the US and others pull out and let them go their own way. Israel leads the way into a new high-energy-future with fusion powered lasers guarding its airspace and borders.
Wealth surge - globalization spreads the wealth, internet and cheap PCs bring in informal and often accidental education (e.g. learning to read in order to play online games), and a new generation of entrepreneurs grows up in unexpected places - causing worriers in wealthy countries to be concerned that this trend will be bad for some reason, somehow. Peak Oil turns out to be an ever-receding issue, as conservation and alternative energy sources keep ahead of it AND stimulate the economy.
Global warming rush (for far-north resources made more accessible by GW)
Climatic Chaos - replacing "global warming" as it becomes obvious that the changes are not uni-directional or uniform or even uniformly bad. Climate is complex.
Bio-diversity - attempts to scare people into stopping global warming (threats of flooding, super-storms, drought, famine) fail as humans adapt too easily (moving out of harms way, patching over problems, and ignoring deaths in distant impoverished places) - leaving biodiversity losses as the main focus of concern.
Alifeforms - Artificial life doesn't get suppressed, and turns out to be usefully "engineerable".
Self-organization and Random Assembly and nano-printing.
Making - hobbyists making cool stuff as a way to re-connect with reality after working with information all day.
Suddentech - enablers like internet and fabbing allow new "open" technologies to proliferate extremely rapidly, sometimes over-laying on existing infrastructure (e.g. broadband internet), sometimes by-passing the need for centrally organized infrastructure. E.g. a peer-to-peer-wireless network for free texting, based on a tiny add-on for cellphones and home networks takes over may suburban areas and forces cell phone companies to integrate and support it.
Teleporting - a step beyond tele-commuting, merging a variety of technologies and trends - video VR conferencing, strip mall rent-a-ffices and desk condos, etc. (3D VR conferencing needs lightweight 3D glasses that don't cause motion sickness, zero lag, and avatar animation via live motion capture. Until then, a flat screen TV on your office wall, dedicated to behaving like a window that others can pop into for a quick chat, will be far superior.)
RoboSpace - recognition that we can best slash costs of colonizing MoonandMars by sending robots to pre-colonize. NASA gets re-tasked away from human space programs to creating technologies and some in-space infrastructure to get robots working on the Moon.
Posted by: Tom Craver | October 10, 2007 at 08:27 PM