What the future holds: predictions of IBM about technologies after 2022. Part 2

Once again, we propose you to have a look on what could be waiting for us in five years. Read the second part of our last post and find out three more technologies of the future.

“Macroscopes” will help us to understand all of the complexity of the Earth in unique detail

Due to satellite technologies, we are able to look through every borehole on Earth. However, such services as Google Earth are just the beginning of something great. “Macroscope systems” work on the same principle as the microscopes, but in reverse. According to IBM, macroscope systems will allow to bring together “all complex data about the Earth” and give us the opportunity to look at all of this information from a completely different point of view. This technology will not only expand the possibilities for information gathering with the help of satellites and provide us with “smart” sensors, but will also allow us to select more optimal and structured ways of processing the information.

Macroscope system will benefit not only in exploring nature processes on Earth and beyond, but also in our everyday life. Absolutely all types of devices, including lighting systems and refrigerators, could be studied with future macroscope systems. We would be able to use these systems and knowledge in predicting anything—from climate change to problems of food distribution on the planet, remotely managed lamps to smart gadgets, which are able to record a shopping list while you are reading it, able to order your favorite food, find necessary information for you on Wikipedia, etc. Imagine a world in which more and more devices, homes, and even cities become a part of a common infrastructure, connected to a network; what potential will be opened with such powerful technology that could gather absolutely all information in the world and direct it to specific tasks!

“Lab on a chip” will guide the revolution in medicine

IBM experts rate that medicine will be one of the domains, which will benefit from this progress the most with the development of computer technologies. Imagine making accurate medical diagnosis by yourself at home or predicting the disease earlier than ever.

IBM specialists explain: “New ‘Lab on chip’ (same as micro total analysis systems) will play the role of nano technological robots-detectives. They will track down the traces of future illnesses in our organisms and fluids letting us know immediately that it is time to visit your doctor.” In other words, fully functional biochemical laboratories could lie on a palm. Diagnostics in the early stages of such diseases as cancer and Parkinson disease could be very important in successful treatment. That is why scientists are working on how to improve and simplify methods of analyzing the products of our excretory systems: our tears, blood, urine, and sweat. By 2022 our sleep monitoring system and fitness trackers will track data in cloud AI servers, where it will be carried out efficiently and fast. Then this information will return to us as detailed advice about how one can improve one’s well-being and health. All of this process will be accompanied by automatic notification to your doctor at any signs of an approaching illness.

Smart sensors will define pollution of the environment much faster

According to IBM, a combination of smart equipment and systems of AI analysis could provide more precise and timely predictions concerning environmental pollution. Like smart trackers that one day will point to early signs of disease, smart sensors placed in the ground or installed on flying drones, will be able to detect emissions and pollution in real time without the need of prior analysis of samples in laboratories.

One of such examples of such pollutions is the rise of methane in the atmosphere that is visible to the naked eye, and this is the second main cause of global warming after carbon dioxide. Smart-sensors, installed along gas pipes, near storage facilities and sources of these emissions will be able to detect and report almost instantly about the increase in the concentration of this dangerous gas in the atmosphere.

“Such leaks can be determined within a few minutes, not weeks, as it is now. This will not only reduce leakage, but also avoid potential catastrophic consequences,” IBM explains.

As has been said many times, the prediction of the future is neither always a noble business, nor is it a very simple task. However, all of the technologies described here today are already in the research stages of development by scientific teams around the world. In other words, when we get these technologies is only a matter of time.