What Does Technology Hold In Store For The Future?

Africa Data School
5 min readNov 30, 2020

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“The more we think about how to harness the technology revolution, the more we will examine ourselves and the underlying social models that these technologies embody and enable, and the more we will have an opportunity to shape the revolution in a manner that improves the state of the world.”
― Klaus Schwab

Introduction

What do you think the future looks like? well, I have an idea Automation becomes part of our life, Advanced health care systems, Quantum computing, just to mention.

What should we expect in the future? Technology is a powerful tool and with it comes changes to the way we know life and society. To be able to answer this question we need to go back in time and look at the revolutions brought by technology.

In our article, we take a look at what is in store when it comes to technology.

What is Technology?

Technology is the practical application of knowledge in a given area. With every application of knowledge comes a change that is either positive or negative. As we try to get a peek at the future we are looking at the Fourth Industrial Revolution. In the past, we have had the first, second, and third industrial revolution.

Today we experience innovations that are impacting our day to day lifestyle. Here are technology innovations that are revolutionizing. With these innovations, we face the dawning of the Fourth industrial revolution.

Cognitive Computing

By Definition Cognitive computing (CC) describes technology platforms that, broadly speaking, are based on the scientific disciplines of artificial intelligence and signal processing. The platforms encompass machine learning, reasoning, natural language processing, speech recognition, and Computer vision (object recognition), human-computer interaction, dialog, and narrative generation, among other technologies.

Cognitive computing aims at solving solve complex problems that are characterized by uncertainty and ambiguity. These are problems that can only be solved by human cognitive thought.

Quantum Computing

Quantum computing is a discipline that uses quantum phenomena such as entanglement and superposition to perform computation. It performs calculations based on the probability of an object’s state before being measured instead of 1s and 0s. This enables the computer to process more data exponentially compared to the classical computer.

Quantum computers are in the first stages of development. It is a promising field that will solve real-world problems especially in the medical sector.

3d Printing

This is the process of making a physical object from a 3d digital model. 3D printing is additive manufacturing that involves the construction of a 3-dimensional object from a computer-aided design. Additive Manufacturing is the successive addition of thin layers between 16 to 180 microns to create an object.

The advantages of 3D printing are one can print numerous geometric structures, it is environmentally friendly, it simplifies product design and process, flexibility, and a reduced production cost.

Internet of Things

It is a network of physical devices, digital machines, and other objects that allows for a smooth transfer of data over a network without any real-time interaction. It includes a wide variety of “smart” devices, from industrial machines that transmit data about the production process to sensors that track information. With IoT transformation is inevitable in the fields of medicine, Education, logistic companies just to mention.

Machine Learning and Artificial intelligence

Artificial Intelligence is the intelligence that is showed by a machine. A computer system/robot that can display behavior that is associated with intelligent beings. These are systems powered by algorithms, using techniques such as machine learning, and deep learning. AI is an area that imitates human cognitive capabilities by identifying and sorting the patterns in data input.

Machine learning is the application of artificial intelligence that provides a system with the ability to automatically learn and improve from experience without necessarily being programmed. It is the development of computer systems that can access data and use it to learn.

Applications of Machine learning and Artificial intelligence are:

  • Speech recognition.
  • Making predictions.
  • Product recommendation.
  • Self-driving cars.
  • Medical diagnosis.
  • Virtual personal assistant.
  • Object recognition.
  • Stock market analysis and forecasting.
  • Chatbots
  • Google lens

BlockChain Technology

Blockchain technology is a decentralized, distributed ledger that records/ stores transactional records in several databases. This technology consists of a chain of blocks not necessarily the common kind of blocks rather it is digital pieces of information that are stored in the form of blocks.

This enables data to be stored in multiple servers across the world thereby fore giving access to everyone who needs to access the data in real-time. Blockchain limits one user from entirely controlling the data in the network.

Cyber-physical systems

These are systems of collaborating computational entities that are in intensive connection with the surrounding physical world and the ongoing processes Usually controlled or monitored by computer-based algorithms. This technology focuses on the interdependence and integration between cyberspace and the physical world.

Summary

Robert J. Shiller a Professor of Economics, Yale University “You cannot wait until a house burns down to buy fire insurance on it. We cannot wait until there are massive dislocations in our society to prepare for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.”

The 4IR is dawning and the best thing we can do is to prepare for it. The combination of the above technologies ushers in a new age an era where the computer gains awareness. With these innovations, we face the dawning of the Fourth industrial revolution.

Hope you liked our article leave a comment a like if you liked our article.

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@africadataschool

www.africadataschool.com

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Africa Data School

Intensive training for a career in artificial intelligence and machine learning. https://africadataschool.com/