10 Technologies That Will Transform Your Life

Predictions are risky, especially when they concern the future. That
said, there are technologies being tinkered with right now that could
transform your life – if and when they are brought to full expression.

NUMBER 10

Digital Libraries



Having total connectivity is pointless if all you get is the latest gossip about Paris Hilton. But the digitization
of mankind's accumulated works proceeds apace. All of MIT's courses are now online, for instance, and, if you haven't done so, check out Google
Book Search. The time will come when any straightforward factual question
can be answered immediately, online. But, alas, those are always the easy
questions.


Number 9

Gene Therapy and/or Stem Cells


A lot of maladies actually involve inherited conditions–they're in your genes, in other words. But scientists are working to change those
genes and trick defective cells into growing correctly. Perhaps, someday,
birth defects will be as treatable as pneumonia.


Number 8

Pervasive Wireless Internet


WiMAX, 3G,
4G, etc., all point to a pervasive
wireless Internet, where being on-line everywhere, all the time, will be
routine. That implies the possibility of full
connectivity between any two random devices. Want to check your burglar
alarm from your cell phone? It'll be easy. Unjacking to get away and relax,
however, may not be so easy.


Number 7

Mobile Robots


The recent DARPA
challenge (where robot cars navigated through suburban traffic) hints at
what might come. Why drive to the deli to pick up your order when you can just
send your car? We may see convoys of robot trucks on the highways. Admittedly,
they'll probably have more initial acceptance in warehouses, handling
pick-and-pull chores.


Number 6

Better, cheaper solar cells


The cost of
photovoltaic cells (that turn sunlight into electricity) are coming down. In
less than ten years the cost of solar
energy could be at parity with the cost of electricity from the grid, and
solar cells could be standard features in new
residential construction. Your house could power itself about a third of
the time. (Science can't do much about night and bad weather.)


Numer 5

Location Based Computing


Instead of
clicking an icon on a browser screen, you can walk outside, point your cell
phone at an actual three-dimensional thing (presumably, a building that houses
a business), click the phone, and get information about (or jump to the Web
site of) whatever you
were pointing at. As well as servers with Internet address, there will be
servers with geographic coordinates.


Number 4

Desktop 3D-Printing


Instead of going to the store for your next gadget, you
might download a design of your choosing and generate it in
your desktop 3-D printer. The next step will be to design your own gadgets,
post the designs, and sell them, etc. Toys, kitchenware, and decorative
household items should be fair game, at least. Cottage industry, here we come!


Number 3

Moore's law upheld


The law, stated by Intel cofounder Gordon Moore in 1965,
implies that available computer power can be expected to double every other
year. For at least two decades pundits have been pointing
out barriers to the law's fulfillment, and the chip industry has been smashing
those barriers. Currently they can't agree if the law has a couple of more
decades of life left, or 600 years. Either way, in terms of available computing
power, it's clear that we ain't seen nothing yet.

MORE INFO ABOUT MOORE'S LAW --> HERE



Number 2

Therapeutic Cloning


Forget the stories about generating identical copies of a particular
sheep or person. The whole idea behind cloning all along has been to grow replacement
organs or tissue in a vat, which the body would see no reason to reject.
Cancerous or damaged organs could be replaced by new, disease-free clones of
themselves.


Number 1

The Hydrogen Economy


Instead of guzzling imported oil (and being at the mercy of
oil suppliers) we could turn water into hydrogen and burn that (or use to
charge fuel
cells.) Meanwhile, the only byproduct of the combustion of hydrogen is ... more
water! However, hydrogen storage remains a
thorny issue, due to its low density, and hydrogen may end up being only
one of many interlocking components that replace
the current oil economy.

source : live science



{edit} added the source.