Technologically-wise what do you think will emerge by year 2020?

Hopefully a complete and secure system for electronic medical records. The time and money saved will be amazing.

Dog collars which give those pooches the power of speech. Whaddya mean crazy? If Pixar did it then it must be true…....right? “You are my master & I wi….......point!” :¬)

That is not really so far away. Look at the 2000 world and compare that with today. Now leap frog to 2020. Cars will still be around. Fuel economy will be very important. Gas will be effectively $10 per gallon in today’s dollars. Houses will be smaller and better insulated.

Medicine will finally start using genetics to fix certain conditions.
Medical imaging will improve by 20x. and the cost of using the equipment will fall. A $50,000 ultrasonic imager will do the work of today’s $500,000 X-ray machines.

Sadly there will still be nutcases trying to bring bombs on planes, trains, and automobiles.

@ucme Squirrel!

Self-driving cars.

Everyone will be born with and live through the rest of their lives with 20/20 vision. There will be no need for glasses, contacts, or laser eye surgery at any point in one’s life.

Get it… 20/20, 2020?

@Dog Oh yeah, how rude of me. I forgot about you, how could I? I should wear the cone of shame :¬) I love that doggy!

Cheaper and more efficient photovoltaic cells.

http://www.futurity.org/science-technology/closing-in-on-a-carbon-based-solar-cell/

Right now, high-efficiency solar cells use silicon or ruthenium, which is a rare, expensive metal. Manufacturing costs are high. The article I linked describes using graphene, an allotrope of carbon that has proven elusive to manufacture. However, if techniques can be developed to make graphene on a large scale, the cost of solar cells could come down to the point where you will be able to shingle your roof with them.

Solar cells are already being used to supply electricity in remote regions, e.g., in India, that are far from the power grid. If you can make the technology cheaper and more available, many people will benefit.

The end of the internet and computers, shortly followed by the end of decent entertainment.

First there will be a few more big sites that show up, like twitter, youtube, google and facebook, then the big corporations and ISP’s will win the war on net neutrality and all the big sites will get favored treatement.

ISP’s will start to deman more information from its customers, and big sites will demand less annonymity.

Then big companies like microsoft and apple will set up super large servers so they can start selling cloud networking. If anyone wants a computer, all they will need to do is buy a monitor mouse and keyboard, the monitor will connect directly to a server, where you will log in, and access all your files.

Eventually, all these companies will do deals with each other, until all you are left with is a monitor that can connect to files you dont have control over, and you can pay $19.99 to access a internet package, that will let you connect to 100 to 150 big sites and nothing else.

They will take computers and internet, and turn it in to TV 2.0

@poisonedantidote Are you from the future??

On the consumer product side of things, I envision keyboards that are “projected” onto surfaces (like table tops in restaurants), where one can type/order by tapping the table.

Like advances in corrective vision, I think the world of hearing devices is on the verge of major changes. Hearing aids powered by a heartbeat rather than a battery—the device so small it is completely invisible (the current Lyric device and similar aids are approaching that now).

And I think medical technology will continue to make advances far ahead of our ethics and laws (especially reproductive technologies).

Can we finally bid farewell to fax machines? I sincerely hope so.

Wifi will be universal.

Facebook and Twitter will have crumbled under the weight of their collective noise, and a new paradigm in virtual social interaction will have emerged—is Fluther leading the paradigm shift?

We can cast our votes via the Internet (please, oh please).

Thus spake Picante.

@erichw1504 No, another planet. check my profile :P

I predict that advertisers will market directly to us as individuals, ala “Minority Report”. We may not have eye scanners watching everyone; but our cell phones, internet usage, and credit card purchases can be followed now. As smart phones become more ingrained into our lives, we may no longer use debit or credit cards… it’ll all be stored in our phones. It’s the next logical step to have some sort of local device scan the phone while still in our purse/pocket and direct advertising to us/it.

Clothing that can more or less render you invisible

Finally, someone will work out how to harness living plants for computing. A new ‘green revolution’ will begin. The whole science of pheromones, colour signalling, chemical change through seasonal fluctuation in light and heat at various points on the planet will take on a new fascination. At the same time, investment will dwindle, as more people find themselves perfectly willing to grow a small plant of their own, to power their new photosynthetic computers. It won’t all happen by 2020, but it will be at a point where exponential growth and development takes over. Gaia willing of course.

Yet another version of Windows.

Just as unattractive, clunky, virus prone, soulless and pathetic as every one before.

Bear hugs over the Internet by using affordable haptic full-body suits.