Emerging Technologies 2023

Welcome back. Four years ago, I reviewed the World Economic Forum’s Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2019 in a blog post Emerging Technologies. Covering 10 topics in one post was a new experience that I’ll try to repeat with the 2023 report.

Authored by the World Economic Forum in collaboration with Frontiers Media and over 90 experts in 20 countries, the new report identifies technologies poised to have the biggest positive impact on society over the next three to five years.

Though space limits this post to a glimpse of the technologies, the report has broadened its scope, adding a qualitative assessment of how each technology will impact people, the planet, prosperity, industry and equity. Also new, the report provides interactive transformation maps that connect each technology to other topics on the global agenda, in addition to highlighting articles on the topic.

The Top 10 Emerging Technologies

World Economic Forum’s Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2023 (from www.weforum.org/reports/top-10-emerging-technologies-of-2023/in-full).

Artificial Intelligence-Facilitated Healthcare
The COVID-19 pandemic exposed weaknesses of public health systems worldwide, hastening incorporation of artificial intelligence and machine learning. AI-based healthcare solutions are likely to become increasingly prevalent; however, data privacy concerns, public acceptance and patient compliance must be addressed with a carefully crafted ethical framework.

Designer Phages
Phages--viruses that can selectively attack specific types of bacteria--may be strategically deployed to engineer the human microbiome--microbes on and in the body that are crucial for human health. By reprogramming phages, biologists can target bacterial species, inducing them to produce therapeutic molecules or to become sensitive to specific drugs. Such “designer” phages have demonstrated the potential to improve human, animal and plant health.

Flexible Batteries
Flexible batteries now appear in everything from wearable medical devices to flexible displays, smartwatches and textile-based electronics. The market is expected to expand rapidly to meet increased demand for wearable devices, greater miniaturization and elasticity. Companies are developing and commercializing related technology, though there is room for innovation and advances.

Flexible Neural Electronics
Brain-machine interfaces (BMIs) capture electrical signals from the brain to control machines. While BMI-like systems are already used for treating epilepsy and some prosthetic devices, traditional probes can cause discomfort and lack signal accuracy. Recently developed flexible BMIs that conform to the brain could improve our understanding of brain diseases, provide greater control of prosthetics and boost development of brain-monitoring devices and brain stents. Future advances might lead to true human-artificial intelligence interfacing, though ethical issues must first be considered.

Generative Artificial Intelligence
Generative AI can produce new and original content by learning patterns in data through algorithms and methods inspired by the human brain. Used mostly for text, code, images and sound, it will likely be applied for other purposes, including drug design, architecture and engineering. It will also be deployed for educational materials and in the workplace, though ethical issues must be considered to ensure its responsible use. With controls in place, generative AI may have the potential to boost creativity and challenge conventional thinking.

Metaverse for Mental Health
Excessive screen time and social media use can decrease psychological well-being, yet the responsible use of virtual shared spaces in the metaverse may actually aid mental health. This immersive iteration of the internet (e.g., gaming platforms, electrode-containing headsets) has the potential to support multiple aspects of mental healthcare.

Spatial Omics
Spatial omics combines advanced imaging techniques with DNA sequencing to map biological processes at a molecular level. Visualization of previously unobservable cell architecture and biological events can be used to develop molecular-level “cell atlases” of different species and potentially aid therapeutic discovery, characterization of tumors and study of infectious diseases. Though technical challenges remain, spatial omics could ultimately revolutionize our understanding of biological systems.

Sustainable Aviation Fuel
Sustainable aviation fuel, produced from biological and non-biological resources, is one strategy the aviation industry is investigating to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Currently, aviation accounts for 2% to 3% of global carbon emissions, and sustainable aviation fuel accounts for less than 1% of global jet fuel demand. Airlines, manufacturers and fuel companies are working to create hundreds of new sustainable fuel production plants.

Sustainable Computing
Data centers contribute an estimated 1% of global electricity consumption and a worsening environmental crisis. Innovative computing solutions, aided by multiple energy-efficiency techniques, are being developed to promote sustainable energy use. Achieving net-zero-energy data centers will require even more creative approaches to integrate and co-design technologies for electricity generation, storage and management.

Wearable Plant Sensors
Sensor-equipped tractors and satellite data have helped farmers boost efficiency. The next frontier is attaching small devices to crops to continuously monitor temperature, humidity, moisture and nutrients. Though challenges remain, wearable plant sensors may revolutionize crop production and management.

Thanks for stopping by.

P.S.
World Economic Forum Top 10 Emergency Technologies of 2023 report: www.weforum.org/reports/top-10-emerging-technologies-of-2023/in-full
Article on report on EurekAlert! website: www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/993827

Farm Equipment Disposal

Welcome back. Do you need any farm equipment? I mean old, used farm equipment. Last summer, Vicki, Cam and Muns started wondering why they were keeping equipment, pipes, posts and, well, stuff that hasn’t been used for years, which they couldn’t envision using. Thus began their disposal process.

Recap 

The farmhouse and adjacent
garage apartment.

Seconds after my wife, Vicki, retired in 2012, an incredibly powerful tractor beam, emanating from her family’s farm in Wisconsin, locked in on her. Resistance, of course, was futile, and we now live in an apartment over a garage in a former barn, adjacent to the farmhouse where Vicki’s father, Muns, resides. The two buildings have stood for perhaps 150 years, and Muns has lived here all his life. 

Lower level of barn where
contented cows once lined up
for milking twice a day.

The farm was once dairy with some 160 cows kept content by Muns, my late mother-in-law Shirley, a helper and a series of proud bulls, replaced by artificial insemination. In the 1980s, they sold off the herd and switched entirely to field crops. When Shirley passed away in 1997, Muns retired from active farming, sold much of the larger equipment and began renting out land with grain bins for others to farm with their own equipment.

Vicki and Muns needed the lift
to replace the windsock for the
farm’s grass airstrip.

Although some equipment is kept at the ready for farm maintenance, the unused equipment and sundries were stowed pretty much everywhere.

Taking Inventory and Craigslist

Vicki and her sister, Cam, hauled multiple pickup-truck loads of scrap metal to the local salvage yard. But the heavy lifting began when conversation with knowledgeable friends suggested that functioning or interesting equipment could possibly be sold on Craigslist. That would at least save trips to the salvage yard, which would be no mean feat with the bigger equipment.

They began a systematic inventory, making lists, reading name plates, taking photos, consulting Muns if they had no idea what they were looking at or what it was called, and collecting information about each item’s value and price. Muns’s approval was sought before adding any major item to the dispose-of list.

Given my vast experience with Craigslist (Selling the Car), Vicki knew better than to seek my assistance, though she did allow me to tweak the first round of photos. Since equipment in many of those photos was subsequently re-photographed after being spruced up or moved to a less cluttered setting, most of the photos I tweaked didn’t make it to Craigslist. I was shattered.

Enough chit-chat. Let me show you examples of the 20 or so items that are or were for sale, even if the photos never made it to Craigslist.

Items on Dispose-of List

A motor scooter sold as soon as it was spotted by the Saturday coffee klatch attendees (Saturday Coffee Hour). Two Yamaha 100s motorcycles remain.

It’s a long story, but Muns had acquired pieces of a Farmall-C tractor. That sold quickly.

An old plow also went quickly.

You’re too late if you’re after a double-screen grain cleaner.

Someone expressed interest in the 4-ton fertilizer spreader, but he wasn’t prepared to patch a hole.

How about an 8-foot Hansen snow blower? (Not the tractor in back.)

Maybe you’d like a gravity box hay mower.

This John Deere flight elevator is still available.

Wrap Up

Since Muns won’t be flying again, they also decided to start selling the aircraft. It didn’t take long for the homebuilt RV-8 to find a new home. And making everyone happy, the fellow who worked long and hard to complete the Wittman Buttercup (Building a Buttercup (Airplane), Wittman Buttercup Addendum) took ownership of the plane and got it approved by the FAA.

The Pitts Special aircraft, in front, and the Cessna 182, in back on right, are still in the hangar, but the RV-8, whose tail is visible in back on the left is gone.

Wittman Buttercup taking off from the grass airstrip (From youtu.be/GEYorWQOp1M)

Vicki and Cam continue to remove and add items and may take a whack at the farmhouse attic treasures. If you’re interested in the current list, email me and I’ll pass it to Vicki. (I won’t vouch for any photos she might send you.) Thanks for stopping by.