10 new technologies that will
make a difference
(December 2, 2011) Revolutions often spring from the simplest of
ideas. When a young inventor named Steve Jobs wanted to provide computing power
to “people who have no computer experience and don’t particularly care to gain
any,” he ushered us from the cumbersome technology of mainframes and
command-line
prompts to the breezy advances of
the Macintosh and iPhone. His idea helped to forever change our relationship
with technology. What other simple but revolutionary ideas are out there in the
labs, waiting for the right moment to make it big? We have found 10, and in the
following pages we explain what they are and how they might shake things up:
Computers that work like minds. Batteries you can top off at the pump. A
crystal ball made from data (the focus of a feature on page 52). Consider
this collection our salute to the
power of a simple idea.