Power to the Common Man
We've heard well enough about how technology is expanding exponentially, but what nobody's talking about is how we, as people... are not. The common man resents, fears and will rebel against a technocracy, so technology is at its best when it's available and accessible to the common man. Like Prometheus stealing fire from the gods to give to the masses (minus the daily eagle tearing your liver out thing) the top technologies of the day place power over runaway technology into the hands of regular people.
3D Printing: It's Like Netflix for Solid Objects
What could be better than your own, private Star Trek Replicator? Enter your selection, press a button, and the machine spits out a Salisbury steak dinner... Or, a distributor cap... We're not quite there yet, but 3D printing offers up a reasonable facsimile (no pun intended). All you need is 3D software, a 3D printer and the wherewithal to design your own computerized geometric renderings and, voila! Things on demand! Industry has been 3D printing things for years, now. Manufacturers have 3D printed components for everything from cars to buildings to jet planes. The medical community uses some of the same principles as3D printing to engineer human organs.
Rising printer sales over the last ten years have driven down prices and, on top of that, the Replication Rapid-Prototyper (RepRap) Project has advanced an open-source 3D printer technology upon which a plethora of companieslike BotMill and Bits From Bytes have built ultra-cheap 3D printers. What's more, 3D printing services have sprung up around the web, from consumer-friendly Shapeways to the higher-end industry-grade Redeye.
The confluence of these events has resulted in making 3D printing at home an affordable proposition. Hobbyists can fashion jewelry and knick-knacks in the comfort of your own home. Artists can sculpt statues without getting their hands dirty. As awareness of 3D printing grows, so too will demand and, with that, new services will surely follow. All this makes this one a technology to watch in 2012.
Space, the Private Frontier?
Even since we humans spent our nights huddled around campfires on the open savannah, we've ever looked at the moon and stars and wondered, dreamed up stories and formulated hypotheses about what's up there. It is for this reason that the moon landing in 1969 is the most momentous event in human history. Today, we're left wondering "what happened to all that?"
In 2010, President Obama scuttled the space shuttle and effectively drove the last nail into U.S. aspirations toward space. In hindsight, the space race was more about gaining the upper hand in the Cold War than it was about realizing our destiny in the stars. When the Berlin Wall came down, so did any hope of exploring our universe in earnest.
However, since the turn of the century, commercial availability of aerospace technology has broadened to the point that "going where no man has gone before" may pass from the purview of government to the hands of private enterprise.
Though we've been hearing about Virgin Galactic-brainchild of the ever-mercurial Richard Branson-since 2004, the privatized purveyor of suborbital spaceflights has yet to get off the ground. But this might just be the year they make it happen. The company plans to conduct powered test flights in 2012 in the hope of getting to space. So far, over 450 people have signed up to ride in Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo (which seats six) for their six minutes in the sun. Tickets to ride Virgin Galactic start at $200,000 per. Compare this with the $265 million-adjusted for inflation-it cost to put Alan Shepard in space on the Mercury-Redstone 3 mission. And what's 200 grand anyway? You could find that in your couch.
Speaking of Your Couch...
Our number three tech of the year is a little closer to home. I'm talking about the living room, in this case, the connected living room.
So much attention of late has been placed on mobile, but the real goings on are in the immobile. Increasingly, when at home, our principal connection with the outside world takes place through our televisions.
A number of companies are vying for the coveted spot of gatekeeper of that connection, but they're taking different approaches to that end. On the one hand, you've got Microsoft, who is busy proving that the Xbox 360 is more than just a games console. The company has formed media partnerships with broadcasters and content providers like Netflix and Pandora, and these initiatives position it to become the one-box stop in the connected living rooms around the world. The other side of that coin is smarter televisions. Connected TV platforms strive to combine the best of both TV and the internet. The interactive, open-standards-based HbbTV is right now gaining momentum in Europe and GoogleTV has been picking up steam in the States. Mirroring Microsoft's recent moves, GoogleTV has allied with cloud gaming provider OnLive and, clearly, they're positioning themselves to take on Microsoft head-on.
These are simply two different approaches to the same end: one device to rule all them living rooms. One area where Microsoft maintains an edge is its Kinect motion sensing input device. Recent Xbox initiatives already afford consumers gestural, even voice control over their viewing experience, and we can expect more out of Microsoft as the year progresses. Also, be on the lookout for television manufacturers equipping their new wares with these same features.
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