I feel like technology hasn't really changed much the past couple of years. At this rate the 20s will barely be technologically different than the 10s.

I don't think I can agree. Since the beginning of this decade we got things like Netflix, Uber, Spotify, AirBnB, 4G LTE, NFC, virtual reality, ultrabooks, 4K TV, Internet of Things, home assistants (Amazon Echo etc.), Nintendo Switch, digital payments etc. and a lot of others.

I just think back to the beginning of this decade, when I got my iPod Touch 3rd Generation in 2010 (the late 2009 model), and I tried to edit an Excel file with it, it heated up, froze for 10 minutes, and then reset. It was too much work for that little 256MB RAM thing. Now we get phones with 8GB RAM and you can edit your Excel files on the cloud with live collaboration, with a Netflix movie streaming in the corner of the screen thanks to your 4G LTE. ;D

Or how in 2010 I had to make a trip to the library every week to get my bus tickets. I don't think Toronto Transit was on Google Maps until 2011 either. If remember getting lost for hours in that maze. And you never knew when the next bus was coming, I stood in that -30C/-20F weather waiting for the bus freezing my toes off.  :\'(

Now in 2017 I pay with my phone, all the bus directions are on Google Maps, and all the buses are equipped with GPS so I get live bus schedules. I don't need to worry about the bus driving past me, I can duck into somewhere warm if I know it's going to take a while.

Theoretically, in 2017, you can wake up to your Google Home device playing your favourite Spotify playlist at the optimal time you should have woken up (at the REM phase of your sleep, as detected by the Fitbit on your wrist which was measuring your heart rate) and also turns on your Phillips HUE lights to a blue (the optimal colour to wake up to).

The snooze button is so 2010, you're definitely wide awake now. You hop into the shower, and your Bluetooth enabled shower head (they exist, srs) starts playing some loud music so no one else has to hear your shower singing. After getting carried away taking shower selfies with your waterproof phone, you realize you're running late for work! "Hey, Google," you say to your Google Home device, "when's the bus coming?" It's 8 minutes late? Toronto transit still disorganized... some things never change. "Get me an Uber to work!" She's here in 5 minutes.

While you're commuting, you do your grocery shopping online (to arrive by the time you get home), and you also order your breakfast and pay online, so it's ready by the time you get there. You arrive at your destination, and you don't tip your Uber driver–it's the future, honey. You pick up your ready-made warm breakfast, and promptly vomit it all out once you read the latest Trump news on you phone. You go to the NFC-enabled vending machine and you get a Pepto Bismol from there. That's all before the start of your morning shift. Anyway, you catch my drift.

I think all the changes happened so gradually and under our nose, we don't notice the little ways our lives have completely changed since then. I'd say the difference between 2017 and 2010 is bigger than the difference between 2007 and 2000.

I don't think I can agree. Since the beginning of this decade we got things like Netflix, Uber, Spotify, AirBnB, 4G LTE, NFC, virtual reality, ultrabooks, 4K TV, Internet of Things, home assistants (Amazon Echo etc.), Nintendo Switch, digital payments etc. and a lot of others.

I just think back to the beginning of this decade, when I got my iPod Touch 3rd Generation in 2010 (the late 2009 model), and I tried to edit an Excel file with it, it heated up, froze for 10 minutes, and then reset. It was too much work for that little 256MB RAM thing. Now we get phones with 8GB RAM and you can edit your Excel files on the cloud with live collaboration, with a Netflix movie streaming in the corner of the screen thanks to your 4G LTE. ;D

Or how in 2010 I had to make a trip to the library every week to get my bus tickets. I don't think Toronto Transit was on Google Maps until 2011 either. If remember getting lost for hours in that maze. And you never knew when the next bus was coming, I stood in that -30C/-20F weather waiting for the bus freezing my toes off.  :\'(

Now in 2017 I pay with my phone, all the bus directions are on Google Maps, and all the buses are equipped with GPS so I get live bus schedules. I don't need to worry about the bus driving past me, I can duck into somewhere warm if I know it's going to take a while.

Theoretically, in 2017, you can wake up to your Google Home device playing your favourite Spotify playlist at the optimal time you should have woken up (at the REM phase of your sleep, as detected by the Fitbit on your wrist which was measuring your heart rate) and also turns on your Phillips HUE lights to a blue (the optimal colour to wake up to).

The snooze button is so 2010, you're definitely wide awake now. You hop into the shower, and your Bluetooth enabled shower head (they exist, srs) starts playing some loud music so no one else has to hear your shower singing. After getting carried away taking shower selfies with your waterproof phone, you realize you're running late for work! "Hey, Google," you say to your Google Home device, "when's the bus coming?" It's 8 minutes late? Toronto transit still disorganized... some things never change. "Get me an Uber to work!" She's here in 5 minutes.

While you're commuting, you do your grocery shopping online (to arrive by the time you get home), and you also order your breakfast and pay online, so it's ready by the time you get there. You arrive at your destination, and you don't tip your Uber driver–it's the future, honey. You pick up your ready-made warm breakfast, and promptly vomit it all out once you read the latest Trump news on you phone. You go to the NFC-enabled vending machine and you get a Pepto Bismol from there. That's all before the start of your morning shift. Anyway, you catch my drift.

I think all the changes happened so gradually and under our nose, we don't notice the little ways our lives have completely changed since then. I'd say the difference between 2017 and 2010 is bigger than the difference between 2007 and 2000.

While also the new technological advancements do count, I don't think your story is very realistic. At least not for me, I don't rely on my phone so much that every activity requires it like the guy in your story.

While also the new technological advancements do count, I don't think your story is very realistic. At least not for me, I don't rely on my phone so much that every activity requires it like the guy in your story.


The guy in the story is Slowpoke. :P He was comparing how technology has influenced his life over the past seven years. :)

While also the new technological advancements do count, I don't think your story is very realistic. At least not for me, I don't rely on my phone so much that every activity requires it like the guy in your story.


I said "theoretical" :P It's all possible in 2017.


The guy in the story is Slowpoke. :P He was comparing how technology has influenced his life over the past seven years. :)


Oh no, that's not me. I'm probably more tech savvy than that hypothetical person actually, but that's because I know how to automate many things with my phone and smart devices (through scripts/programming).

I wish my bank would allow digital payments though. They're taking their sweet time implementing Google Wallet.  >:( I can only pay for my bus/train fare with my phone, that's because you pre-load it with your credit card.

While also the new technological advancements do count, I don't think your story is very realistic. At least not for me, I don't rely on my phone so much that every activity requires it like the guy in your story.


Same here.

Honestly, most of the technology I use is simply more evolved versions of what I used in 2010.  However, I know a lot of people are a lot more reliant on their gadgets than I am.  I still pretty much use my phone for calling, texting, and the occasional web surfing.  I don't have many apps.

2007 on the other hand was almost a different world from 2000.  In 2007 we were in the Web 2.0 era while in 2000, we weren't that far removed from the Windows 95 era, when dial-up, floppy disks, and CD-ROM ruled.

I think the 2020's will be the decade of automation (robots and self driving vehicles).

I think the 2020's will be the decade of automation (robots and self driving vehicles).


I came here to say this. Look for huge disruptions in our social and economic lives over the next decade.

I think the 2020's will be the decade of automation (robots and self driving vehicles).


that I would like to see.

I think technology is still growing and developing at a fast rate. The 2000s just had an explosion of technology being available for consumers, while the 2010s had more of an explosion of new technologies being developed (yet not available to consumers mass-wide such as self driving cars). The '20s will probably make these developments mainstream and available to average consumers. But compare a smartphone from 2010 and it is radically different from the specs and even the way it looks. Not to mention VR is fully available to everyone and it is decent and not that expensive. I think technological development is still very strong and we will see a lot of new inventions come in the next couple of years. However I don't think we will ever get an invention that will be as big as the internet again. I think the internet will be the last great invention and the robots/AI will still be using the internet for information in the future.

I think technology is still growing and developing at a fast rate. The 2000s just had an explosion of technology being available for consumers, while the 2010s had more of an explosion of new technologies being developed (yet not available to consumers mass-wide such as self driving cars). The '20s will probably make these developments mainstream and available to average consumers. But compare a smartphone from 2010 and it is radically different from the specs and even the way it looks. Not to mention VR is fully available to everyone and it is decent and not that expensive. I think technological development is still very strong and we will see a lot of new inventions come in the next couple of years. However I don't think we will ever get an invention that will be as big as the internet again. I think the internet will be the last great invention and the robots/AI will still be using the internet for information in the future.
  There were people in 1900 who were saying that the last great invention had been made and look where we are now. I believe that the changes that will be made in the future by stem cells, crispr, and 3d printers will be even greater than what we got with the internet.  We can now watch videos anywhere but we still have to through the same cavity treatments that people had in the 1950s.

I think the 2020's will be the decade of automation (robots and self driving vehicles).

I honesty don’t like that :-\\. I’d rather see and talk to actual humans, not machines. I can definitely see self driving cars being the norm near the late 20s and early 30s

I honesty don’t like that :-\\. I’d rather see and talk to actual humans, not machines. I can definitely see self driving cars being the norm near the late 20s and early 30s

I agree with you.

However, if that's the way the world is going then...we can't do anything about it :(.

I honesty don’t like that :-\\. I’d rather see and talk to actual humans, not machines. I can definitely see self driving cars being the norm near the late 20s and early 30s


Forget seeing and talking to humans, automation will also lead to a massive rise in unemployment as people are replaced by those machines. It's the economic crisis nobody is talking about.

This year, tech companies have been really pushing for the voice-activated assistants like Alexa. VR still doesn't seem like it has much staying power, though I'm so out of the loop in the gaming world these days that I'm probably not one to really judge that matter.

If there's going to be real technological progress in the 2020s, I would imagine it would involve improving the portability of streamed shows, so as not to make them drain batteries so quickly. It's likely voice commands will get more refined, as well, perhaps not to the point that finger texting is obsolete, but at least such that they're more intelligent and accurate. I'm not sure how popular Alexa is right now, but I suppose I could plausibly imagine computerized media becoming increasingly managed by vocal assistants over the course of the 2020s.

Besides the usual refinements of already-existing technologies, I'm curious to see the rate at which holographic technology hits milestones that would ultimately cause it to permeate the mainstream. It's been in its primitive, experimental stages as of late, similar to where computers and video games were in the 60s, but if it ever gets perfected enough, then I could see it really revolutionizing everyday life because it would improve the portability and exchangeability of so many activities previously limited to a big glass screen. Just imagine somebody projecting a Netflix show with the help of a pocket-sized piece of metal. With the right level of advancement, it would certainly give huge living room television screens a run for their money.

VR still doesn't seem like it has much staying power, though I'm so out of the loop in the gaming world these days that I'm probably not one to really judge that matter.

VR absolutely is still big and will grow even bigger. A couple months ago one of my favourite VR apps called AltSpace VR got bought by Microsoft after they announced they were shutting down and now they are back up in running and growing big. New gaming apps always get developed for VR as well. It does have staying power and is growing big. I love my VR headset.

Phones from 2010 are unusable in 2017.

I honesty don’t like that :-\\. I’d rather see and talk to actual humans, not machines. I can definitely see self driving cars being the norm near the late 20s and early 30s


I know what you mean, just like on the phone when you're trying to get through to an operator and you're stuck for 5-10 minutes talking to a robotic recording. ::)

I know what you mean, just like on the phone when you're trying to get through to an operator and you're stuck for 5-10 minutes talking to an robotic recording. ::)


I once managed to get a guy fired over a robot phone system. His phone system was not working properly and I issued a professional report outlining the issues.

The Vice President of IT, who was in charge of the phone system, then sent a wide-distribution email complaining about how I was wasting the company's time with my study. Technically he was far higher up on the company ladder than I was, but I possessed a huge amount of "informal power" within the company, so his email was a huge mistake on his part.

Since he started it, I did a reply-all and dressed him down royally. I then gave him the extension number of our President's office and told him "if you have any complaints about how I spend my time, call the Pres.  If the phone actually rings I am sure that he will give your concerns their due consideration."

Unwisely he took me up on my offer and he was shown the door. The President was the guy who had asked me to evaluate the phone system.  ;D 8)

In some areas it may slow down as it hits road blocks to further development, in other areas it will forge ahead.  For example, there is a genetic eye disease called retinitis pigmentosa which gradually renders one blind.  There was  no cure - until now.  They have found a way to replace the faulty gene and so restore sight.  I'm guessing that soon it will be possible to replace other faulty genes and so cure other genetic defects.  Breakthroughs like this will only multiply

In some areas it may slow down as it hits road blocks to further development, in other areas it will forge ahead.  For example, there is a genetic eye disease called retinitis pigmentosa which gradually renders one blind.  There was  no cure - until now.  They have found a way to replace the faulty gene and so restore sight.  I'm guessing that soon it will be possible to replace other faulty genes and so cure other genetic defects.  Breakthroughs like this will only multiply


Awesome that they found a cure for pigmentitis retinosa.  8)

Awesome that they found a cure for pigmentitis retinosa.  8)


Both are correct, google it

What do you guys think about Siri, Alexa and Cortana for computers and IOS devices?

What do you guys think about Siri, Alexa and Cortana for computers and IOS devices?

I have Alexa and Cortana. It's okay. I occasionally use it to play songs or check the weather.

I have Alexa and Cortana. It's okay. I occasionally use it to play songs or check the weather.

I find myself not really using such features a lot. The built-in voice assistant on my Android can still be useless since my phone is generally slow.

I find myself not really using such features a lot. The built-in voice assistant on my Android can still be useless since my phone is generally slow.

My Amazon Echo Dot with Alexa is set up in my room as a speaker so that makes it more convenient if I am away from my phone.

I have Alexa and Cortana. It's okay. I occasionally use it to play songs or check the weather.


I have Cortana for Windows 10.

I find myself not really using such features a lot. The built-in voice assistant on my Android can still be useless since my phone is generally slow.



Does she get things wrong sometimes?

Does she get things wrong sometimes?

Yeah

Yeah


sometimes I let Alexa listen to a song and she got both song and artist wrong.

I think the 2020's will be the decade of automation (robots and self driving vehicles).


I don't want this. If automation has to happen, make them look like R.O.B from Nintendo.