EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES AND TECHNOLOGICAL TRENDS
Meaning of Emerging Technologies and Trends
Emerging technology is defined as new technologies that advance the interaction between computers and humans. Emerging technology results from advancing collective knowledge and application related to methods, techniques, skills, and procedures that address current and future industry challenges and opportunities.
Emerging technology has applications in many industries such as agriculture, health, education, transport, tourism, entertainment, communication, media, and energy. In most cases, technology continues to evolve due to further improvements necessitated by inventions and developments.
The world is changing quickly, resulting in emerging modern data inputs, processing, storage, and output technologies. In the IT industry, technological advancements are happening at light’s speed, from stand-alone computer applications to web and mobile applications. Also, it advances from centralised applications to distributed systems to cloud-based applications.
In terms of emerging technologies, the trend is changing from various spheres, including artificial intelligence and machine learning, to the Blockchain, autonomous vehicles, virtual reality, augmented reality, unmanned aerial vehicles, big data, and the Internet of things. Technological trends can also be viewed in generations such as the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th.
Typically, emerging technologies have a trend. The trend is a general shift or change in the direction of something new or different. In the context of digital advancements, a trend refers to a general direction of digital technologies, including an impact they currently make or expect to make in the future.
Examples of Emerging Digital Technologies That Drive 4IR
Emerging digital technologies are cropping up in various industries and individual life. These technologies are artificial intelligence, machine learning, Blockchain, autonomous cars, and virtual and augmented reality.
The following outlines give a quick overview of some of the emerging digital technologies:
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Enables computers to mimic the thinking and actions of human beings. For example, map-based location services can guide you along a route to your destination.
Machine Learning
Computers learn from existing data and can perform new tasks based on experience gained already. For example, machine learning allows police to discover criminals and determine their true identities by scanning fingerprints. It is also used by Immigration officials to track people crossing the border.
Blockchain
Emphasises building distributed and decentralised databases whose records are hard to change. For example, achieving unchallengeable records in a land registry guarantees the impossibility of illegally transferring title deed.
Autonomous Vehicles
Autonomous vehicles are self-driving vehicles operating independently without a human driver. For instance, the use of autonomous vehicles which promises to reduce accidents.
Virtual Reality (VR)
This is an entirely immersive experience created in a computer-simulated environment to replace a real-life environment. It is applied in entertainment to provide near feelings simulated by computers.
Augmented Reality (AR)
AR is a technologically enhanced representation of the actual world created by supplying additional digital information.
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)
This is an aircraft that does not have a human pilot or passengers on board and is operated entirely or partially remotely by a human. For example, some small drones are used to take aerial pictures in a city or crowded areas.
Importance of Emerging Digital Technologies
Emerging digital technologies play a crucial role in the modern world by making it a better place to live. Their significance is invaluable to count, but fewer of them may be highlighted. Emerging technologies help us to do the following:
Automate Jobs That Humans Previously Performed
Automated devices nowadays perform various jobs both with high risk and with a risk free to humans. Robots, for example, carry out various repetitive tasks in advanced manufacturing industries, such as painting a car or welding metals.
Relieve Humans from Dangerous Environments
For example, excessively hot temperatures, dangerous rays, and toxic environments.
Increase Efficiency in Productivity
Once programmed, machines may accomplish tasks faster and more accurately than humans. For example, extensive data taken from social media messages (posts) may be analysed in less than an hour using machine learning algorithms to identify subjects and the main issues mentioned. This task might take many days for humans to complete.
Improve Safety in Vehicles
Vehicle-to-vehicle communication is expected to improve safety by allowing almost colliding automobiles to detect each other and take prompt action before colliding.
Features of Emerging Technologies
The following are some of the features of emerging technologies:
1. High processing power compared to traditional technologies
2. Capability to store and analyse a large volume of data within a short time
3. Advanced analytics model to generate useful information
4. Radical novelty leads to disruptive transformation
5. Automated decision-making
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTIONS
The modern world has changed an agrarian and handicraft economy to one dominated by industry and machine manufacturing. These technological changes introduced novel ways of working and living and transformed societies on how they interact.
The world has experienced four industrial revolutions. These revolutions are the first industrial revolution, second industrial revolution, third industrial revolution and fourth industrial revolution.
First Industrial Revolution
Before the first industrial revolution, hardworking people used their hands to power machines (muscle power). Production took place in people’s homes.
From the end of the 18th century, a new trend emerged: hardworking individuals were replaced by steam engines that use heat as a crucial technology. Remember, steam is created when water is heated.
Following the invention of the steam engine, the first industrial revolution began with this shift, whereby steam was used to power everything from agriculture to the textile industry.
This revolution was characterised by mechanisation, where mechanical machines replaced handcraft activities in production. Examples of machines invented in the first industrial revolution powered by steam include the mechanised spinning jenny, the power loom, the steam locomotive, and the steamship in the transport industry.
Also, steam power was used to pump water out of coal mines, and that steam pump was known as the “atmospheric engine”. It was generally the age of mechanical production.
Second Industrial Revolution
The second industrial revolution was sparked by discovering new energy sources in about 1870, mainly electricity and oil. Internal combustion engines made this discovery possible, which eventually succeeded steam engines.
During this time, telephones and vehicles were also invented. Steel supplanted iron in construction because it was more durable and less costly, allowing train lines to be built for less money.
With the invention of the telegraph and the telephone, communication techniques changed considerably, and transportation systems evolved dramatically from using steam to petroleum oil as crucial fuel.
Before electricity, people used wood, candles and gas lamps for lighthouses and factories. Therefore, the invention of electricity brought a new era of high-voltage alternating current. Besides the telephone invention, electricity led to other inventions such as light bulbs.
Early automobiles built on combustion engines started to be sold to the public in this period. Also, this period witnessed the creation of the first aeroplane flight. Furthermore, the typewriter that computers have now replaced constituted the inventions of the second industrial revolution.
Third Industrial Revolution
In the 1970s, the third industrial revolution began. The widespread use of electronics and computers and the introduction of the Internet characterised this revolution. Such a revolution is also known as the digital revolution.
Semiconductors, mainframe computers, personal computers, mobile phones and the Internet were all part of the digital revolution. It was a period when world-wide-web and the use of email featured.
Some manufacturing industries started to use computers to manage and control production. Many administrative tasks were now handled using electronic management information systems for organisations. These systems are still used today, although they have been improved.
Fourth Industrial Revolution
The fourth industrial revolution (4IR) appears to have started in 2010. The 4IR is characterised by Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS). The CPS are systems in which computer components are tightly linked to physical world processes while offering and using internet-based data services.
It is composed of real and cyber-space, characterised by increased connectedness and a high degree of coupling between the two spaces. The high connectedness and coupling of real space (physical) and cyber-space (computation) in CPS are facilitated by the sophisticated process of gathering, sending and actuation of information between the two spaces.