Tech experts have used their prophetic powers to look forward in time to the year 2022 and reveal what life could be like five years from now.
Experts at the tech giant IBM have come up with the ‘5 in 5’ list, which details the next five revolutionary technologies that are apparently only five years away and will transform our world forever.
The first, and potentially the most frightening, is true AI. Right now we can build relatively dumb AI, more than capable of playing chess or working through complex logic trees but compared to the human brain they’re comparable in intelligence to your average Internet troll.
IBM believe though that in the coming years we’ll be able to build a truly intelligent AI that will be indistinguishable from a human being, comprehending emotion and holding conversations.
It’s hoped that AIs will be integrated into our homes and phones to check on our general health and hopefully pick up on degenerative cognitive diseases early.
From AIs to normal eyes, the researchers also think we’ll integrate them into Google glass style devices which’ll give us the ability to see beyond the normal visual spectrum of light.
The third revolution will supposedly come in the form of macroscopes which are sort of like the opposite of microscopes, allowing us to look at a phenomenon on a grand scale as opposed to a small one.
By 2022 IBM believe that by analysing data gathered by satellites, it will allow them to create better models of interconnected phenomena, like climate change, and could become predictive allowing us to map weather phenomena in far more accurate ways and saving lives.
Speaking of saving lives, new micro labs could potentially save thousands of people. These small devices, currently about the size of your palm, will detect a whole host of nasty health problems and could allow you to check your health with the flick of a switch.
By connecting these chips to GPS local GPs could be alerted if anything untoward is detected, saving lives from undetected illnesses.
Finally, IBM hope that smart sensors, devices that detect poison gas or other toxic substances similar to a smoke detector, could be connected to the web allowing them to contact emergency services in an a emergency.
Let’s not get to excited though, scientists have been promising things like this for years and I’m seriously starting to doubt we’ll ever get flying cars.
More of a concept than a journalist, Tom Percival was forged in the bowels of Salford University from which he emerged grasping a Masters in journalism.
Since then his rise has been described by himself as ‘meteoric’ rising to the esteemed rank of Social Editor at UNILAD as well as working at the BBC, Manchester Evening News, and ITV.
He credits his success to three core techniques, name repetition, personality mirroring, and never breaking off a handshake.