IBM unveils its sixth annual “Next 5 in 5” — a list of innovations with the potential to change the way people work, live and play over the next five years. The Next 5 in 5 is based on market and societal trends expected to transform our lives, as well as emerging technologies from IBM’s Labs around the world that can make these innovations possible. Over the next 5 years IBM predicts:
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You will be able to power your home with the energy you create yourself.
You will never need a password again.
Mind reading is no longer science fiction.
The digital divide will cease to exist.
Junk mail will become priority mail.
Energy
You will be able to power your home with the energy you create yourself. Advances in renewable energy technology will allow individuals and scientists to collect this created energy and use it to help power our homes, workplaces and cities.
Security
You will never need a password again. Your biological makeup is the key to your individual identity, and soon, it will become the key to safeguarding it.
Mind Reading
Mind reading is no longer science fiction. IBM scientists are researching how to link your brain to your devices, such as a computer or a smartphone, so you just need to think about calling someone and it happens.
Mobile
The digital divide will cease to exist. In our global society, growth and wealth of economies are decided by the level of access to information. And in five years, the gap between information haves and have-nots will cease to exist due to the advent of mobile technology.
Computers that know us
Presently, in the emails and other information updates we receive, we have to sift through a lot of stuff that doesn’t apply to us. Within five years, however, analytics and sensemaking technologies will allow our computers to “know” us, and filter out information that we don’t need.
It is even suggested that by combining our personal preferences and calendars, computers could proactively reserve tickets to a concert by our favorite rock band, if we were free on the date of the performance.
As you can see by the links, all the technologies on IBM’s latest list are already in development, so it’s not a huge stretch to state that they will gain prominence in years to come. Perhaps, however, there’s something that should have been on the “top five” list, but wasn’t. Do you think IBM missed anything?
