BusinessWeek Online put out last month an article talking about innovations of the future. In one of President Obama’s speeches, he encouraged everyone by focusing on the theme: Times of economic difficulty can inspire extraordinary innovation.
Thus, in the US at least, innovative ideas are being encouraged in the fields of energy and healthcare. On the energy part, big advances on biofuels and renewable resources will be undertaken.
Giant turbines will harness the power of ocean currents. Biofuels that won’t drive up global food prices are being made. Technology will repurpose the energy from the human body to recharge our cell phones and music players. Super-charged batteries that hold more juice and require fewer charges will power electric cars and laptops.
On the healthcare part, the following are seen to be the trend:
- self-diagnostic technologies that can be used at home
- unwieldy medical equipment will be transformed into portable machinery that can be used at home or in some village
- new nanotech and biotech drugs will cure decimating diseases
- the health-care system itself will be overhauled, with digitization of patient records cutting costs and increasing transparency and reliability of care
These innovations sound good. I only hope that we in the developing countries can also avail ourselves of them. Overall, I hope these will all happen.
