Predicting the Growing Technology of 2018. What Will Become More Important and What Will Fade.

Recently, several popular tech blogs created some predictive pieces trying to determine what will become widespread and grow this year in the technology space. It’s written at the end of each year to talk about what they think is the most important aspects of computing, gadgets, and overall technology.

But really, it doesn’t explain much of anything. It would be more prudent to talk about events that have already transpired and what we can learn from them or how we can apply them to business or personal life.

Technology predictions are a useful weather predictions. Unless you NEED to know when the new robot suitcase is coming out so you can be the one cool person in the airport who has R2-D2 aimlessly following you with a head full of clothes, then you’ll be fine skipping the usual predictions. However, the ideas of computing and technology I will mention here will be used as a gateway for future blog discussions.

Here are some of the interesting ideas tech followers are predicting will grow in 2018.

Open source programming

“Open source” refers to a program in which the source code is available to the public to use its original design and modify it. It encourages collaboration and improvements to build upon the availability of prior work. Quite a while ago, companies like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft built their own proprietary tools because no other software existed before them to meet their needs. The shift to a more collaborative environment will continue to flourish more vigorously as it also changes the market by allowing companies to change who they invest in for cloud opportunities.

Data security

Data is becoming more important than ever. Consumer analytics, business analytics, machine learning systems all require valuable data to progress. Because of this, security will become a permanent fixture in code development and hardware architecture. With information becoming more valuable than ever for business, safeguarding that information will become equally significant.

An open and free internet

As information becomes more important to business and our daily life, the availability and freedom of that data will become an area of controversy.With positive amendments to net neutrality repealed, 2018 will certainly be a year of heated conversation about the open access and equality to all public information.

AI enhancements – AR indifference

Although tech products are depended upon for nearly everything, we can’t really describe them as “intelligent.” We still need to be the drivers and have full control over the technology. As everything continues to get faster in our daily lives, Newton’s Third Law must come into effect. An equal and opposite reaction of more reliable and faster thinking technology so we can keep up with everything else. AI (Artificial Intelligence) will become much more prominent this year. Not with actual robotics, but more with pieces of individual, daily tech. Don’t think Spielberg A.I., think smart-speakers, smart-homes, sensors, voice recognition, and machine-learning. Making the transition from “artificial” to “actual” by focusing more on human empathy and what we really want to hear.

Alternatively, AR or “augmented reality” was a recent interest, however, will likely fade due to its incompatibility with real social interaction. Why pretend to be in a world with A.I., when you can actually live in it?

5G connectivity

While we won’t have availability of the recent formalization of 5G NR (new radio) until at least 2019, we will be privileged to some 5G-like benefits this year.

Voice computing

Being the most popular holiday gift of 2017, it’s no discussion that the research of improving voice-computing devices and its inclusion in other industries will skyrocket this year. This is a highly growing technology that is just now becoming mainstreamed. There are plentiful applications in the consumer market and it’s only a matter of time it will develop into business applications. Look out for soon to come improvements on this technology and its possible application in business.