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.