We live in changing times. Let’s hope the power brokers work out how to manage them.
It’s okay in science fiction but not in real life: A robot (Robin Williams, left) who dreams of becoming human in the movie Bicentennial Man.
AAP/Touchstone Pictures
The movie got some predictions right on what Doc and Marty would find when the arrive in the “future” today. But what could they find if they took another 30 year leap into the future?
Broadband is one of the technologies that will feature heavily in Australia’s future.
Throughout history, whenever new technologies have emerged that change our means of production and ability to communicate they have tended to transform society. The rapid technological development of the…
High-emission brown coal power generators including Hazelwood are set to be among the short-term winners from the carbon tax repeal.
AAP Image/David Crosling
When the carbon tax was introduced, there was a lot of discussion about winners and losers. The Labor government limited the number of businesses that had to pay the tax, while it also gave carbon tax…
As we hit our online quarter century it’s easy to get caught up in the idea that technology has been the making of us. But for innovation in tech entrepreneurship it might just be our undoing. Many experts…
If only it were this easy.
Alessandra Tarantino/AP
I’ve just asked Siri about Her. Two screens of text appear in answer to my query. “Is that all you can find for Her?” I ask. “Let me check on that,” comes the response. More screens of text appear with…
Getting older people into tech is good for them and good for business.
ArkanGL
Britons have been warned that they must save six times more for their pension or face poverty. The message is that it’s time to embrace deferred gratification and start saving. The average pension pot…
An 85-inch bendable Ultra HD LED television, unveiled at the CES 2014, might be standard in living rooms one day.
EPA/Yonhap South Korea Out
The massive Consumer Electronics Show (CES), hosted annually in Las Vegas, showcases the latest discoveries and innovations, including audiovisual, gaming, smartphones, computing, household appliances…
The Oculus Rift headset, expected to be released in 2014, allows users to immerse themselves in 3D virtual reality gaming.
Flickr: Sergey Galyonkin
In 2014, we will see more intelligent, less expensive versions of autonomous vacuum cleaners, pool cleaners, lawnmowers and gutter cleaners. We will hear more about gadgets that track eyes, customers…
Some technologies are easy to predict, but it’s easy to get the detail wrong.
mcscrooge54/Flickr
Although I’m a futurist, I have absolutely no idea what information and communications technology will look like in 50 years time. I do know that some of it will be familiar because once we find a usable…
Sunrise at Sellafield: could thorium-powered reactors be a new dawn for nuclear energy?
Phil Noble/PA Archive/Press Association Images
The only source of energy that can meet global demand while avoiding greenhouse gas emissions is nuclear power. But our perception of nuclear power is coloured by issues of safety, radiotoxic waste, and…
No-one knows what the iWatch will look like … or if it even exists.
Yrving Torrealba
If rumours are true about its forthcoming product release - the iWatch - Apple is inadvertently paying homage to the comic strip legend Dick Tracy. The fictional 1940s police detective with the ridiculously…
We have the technology … but have we discussed its possible impacts?
fdecomite
Chances are you’ve heard about 3D printing – or additive manufacturing as it’s otherwise known: a process that turns computer-aided designs into three-dimensional, real-world objects with a range of uses…
Reaching a stage where humans become something other than human could be undesirable.
v i p e z
Inviting artificial intelligence into our bodies has appeal – but it also carries certain risks. I have often wondered what it would be like to rid myself of a keyboard for data entry, and a computer screen…
Samsung is a major player in technologies that will deliver future telecommunications services.
Robert Schlesinger/EPA
Sung-Young Kim, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau
In light of the much-publicised dispute over handset design patents between Apple and Samsung, many commentators have cast Samsung as the “fast-follower”, while Apple is pushing at the frontier of innovation…
Professor of Electrical and Electronic Engineering and Deputy Dean Research at Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, The University of Melbourne
Professor, School for the Future of Innovation in Society & School of Computing, Informatics and Decision Systems Engineering, Arizona State University
Senior Lecturer in International Relations, Discipline of Politics & International Relations, Macquarie School of Social Sciences, Macquarie University