The 2019 Update on The Future of Everything - Part IV (Final)

In this fourth and final installment of The 2019 Update on The Future of Everything, following up on The 2018 Update on The Future of Everything, I will focus on Evolution of Technology on the horizon, which will transform business realities permanently.

Quick Recap

Before I begin, a quick recap on the previous installments and updates:

The 2018 Update on The Future of Everything:

• AR/VR/MR/Haptics/Holographics and XR
• The Future of Fintech
• The Future of Production
• The Future of Work
• The Future of Education
• The Future of Travel

The 2019 Update on The Future of Everything - Part I:

• The Future of Computing
• The Future of Fashion & Apparel
• The Global Brain
• The Future of Artificial Intelligence
• The Future of Robotics

The 2019 Update on The Future of Everything - Part II:

• The Future of Materials
• The Future of Energy
• The Future of Food

The 2019 Update on The Future of Everything - Part III:

• The Future of Roads
• The Future of Road Vehicles
• The Future of Taxi Services
• The Future of Airplanes
• The Future of Marine Vessels

In This Final Installment

In this installment, I will address the following:

• The Internet: Tactile
• Cellular Network: 6G
• Swarm Robotics

The Internet: Tactile

In The 2018 Update on The Future of Everything, I extensively reported on developments in the areas of haptics. Tactile internet, is the stage of the internet, in which human-machine communication becomes enabled as such, that via the internet, over long-distances, haptic communication, interaction or experience becomes possible. In short, via the internet, you don't just place WhatsApp or Skype video calls anymore, to see and talk to loved ones, but via the internet, you get to hug each other, and feel, as if you are hugging each other in person.

The Business Case

The lovey-dovey aspects of long-range person-to-person touch aside, zooming into the fact, that such "touch" in real time would be possible, ultimately, fundamentally, and primarily, through machines at both ends, it needs to be highlighted and emphasized, that in true reality, tactile internet, is about human-to-machine connection, even if through a machine in the immediate proximity, importantly, to machines, far away, across the globe, and that is where we find true commercial value, as well as, commercial game-change, or rather, game evolution.

The remote human-to-machine connection, similar to presently possible human-to-human or macchine-to-machine connection, which enables us to access our accounts and content on sites like LinkedIn for example, would mean, that we can in real time, work from anywhere on earth, on jobs a little more hands-on, that the present day avatar of telecommuting allows.

As much as the hype is as of 2019, on the term "Remote Work", admittedly, it is very much limited, to work, you can do anywhere, with access to email minimally. The sort of work that Call Centre folks do, or accountants do, or Content Writers do or Programmers do. Work, where location, or presence, are pretty much inconsequential.

With Tactile Internet, the definition of "Remote Work" changes, in fact, wholly evolves. with Tactile Internet, safely sitting on a beach in "paradise", you can fix an industrial problem on heavy equipment, safely, adequately, by connecting to machines or robots, present there, onsite, half way around the world, as and when necessary, with that hardware acting as your surrogate, rendering your work, as good, as you being physically present there on site, with no difference at all.

In fact, there are no limits. An expert surgeon can conduct effective remote surgery, without on-ground human support, anywhere on earth, remotely, without having to fly about. In fact, Tactile Internet, means Omnipresence, where you can be present anywhere and everywhere, in multiple locations worldwide, simultaneously, via connection, to machines in those locations. Now, from a Human Resource Management perspective, think productivity, of the global expert, that is so highly desired, in the global workforce, at least by corporations, with global presence.

Cellular Networks: 6G

As much as the 5G saga continues to be hyped around the world, through all sorts of debates imaginable, in its very messy, painful roll-out, of all the Cellular Networks of past and future, it is likely to be the most short-lived, given work already begun, on an exponentially more advanced Network concept, of its eventual successor, in the form of 6G.

Look, even the biggest driver behind the 5G advent, China, is already working on 6G:

And when 6G goes online, utlimately, things on the internet final become as they should: Instant!

And the Internet of Everything finally becomes a complete everyday reality. However, is it really a decade away?:

By the time I post this, any, including the most recent, YouTube video you can find on the subject, carries only information that is outdated, and obsolete. However, the work that has already begun, even what is publicly known right now, at the very least, is in good progress:

In fact, if you know anything about the history of South Korean Industry or Samsung, when they decide they want to do something, usually, well, there is a challenge here, think of an exception, the disrupt the global market, they leapfrog over competition, and they get to their intended targets, faster, than anyone could possible anticipate. Yet, this is not an effort limited to China or South Korea. It is a global race, for good reasons.

Whether ingenious students with Google-level aspirations at top technological universities around the world, governments of powerful economies or extremely powerful tech, manufacturing or communications corporations, 5G, is already a let down before it has begun, because it nowhere nearly takes us towards the progress, that all these stakeholders are already seeking well beyond In fact, the shift from 4G to 5G is limiting, in its inability to support the Internet of Everything aspirations, that will truly bring about Smart, a term so far only a fad and played up, by rendering intelligent everything from handheld objects, buildings, vehicles, cities, countries and the whole world, bringing about a new beautiful, empowering, epoch for humanity. You can imagine the behind the curtains politics in various Western nations, wanting the 6G emergence, squarely placing 5G into the forgotten trash bin. And not just in Western nations, but in Eastern powers like China and South Korea.

The Artificial Intelligence

So far at best, despite all the hoo-haa around Artificial Intelligence in the 2010s, and all the impressive leapfrogging progress made, Cellular Networks are not something that have been associated, with AI.

At best, generational or genesis evolution of Cellular Networks, have only, been about speed, and connectivity. At best, the conversation has been around Internet of Things, or, perhaps, maybe, Internet of Everything as engineers across industries and borders, aspire, for more items, to get connected, and thus, take on evolved functions.

While in some YouTube content, you find definitions of 6G as limited to things pretty close to 5G at best, or, that it is still evolving as a concept, a good decent search of Google Scholar, turns up a very different picture, of reality, of progress, on the subject. 6G has been worked on, with credible, academic documentation very publicly available on Google Scholar, for far longer, than most LinkedIn using top executives would think. The concept has been worked on, since most of us began reading about 5G in mainstream press, even if when initially worked on, the concept was not always called 6G or 5G. However, it was about Cellular Networks, and the work is now given a direction, as a standard measure for 6G roll out, now that 5G is out. And that work, in the labs, away from public eyes, to do with evolving Cellular Networks, has been to render the whole network, and therefore by default the very internet, whole and all of it, Artificially Intelligent, with capabilities in and of itself, to mimic cognitive responses, to our needs. True Ubiquity. Now you know why I am talking about a whole new epoch.

The Business Environment

Imagine now, a world, where the consumer, is not using the goods in possession. The goods, are now autonomously, independently, intelligently, "proactively", serving, the consumer.

You go to work, and your work equipment, your work-space, your stationery, are working for you, literally, as if they are living beings, with sentience. How work happens, when that happens, and competitions among businesses, suddenly take on a very different kind of level. Your only limit, is your imagination and creativity.

Expect Resistance

Not all governments are democratic or benevolent in practical reality. And AI rendered or enabled internet or network, means, effectively, previously inconceivable, unfathomable and impossible empowerment, of anyone, with a sound mind, within the country. Some regimes, as of 2019, and safely for some time for now will remain, dictatorial, despotic, tyrannical, or simply, controlling. A populace as empowered as one with access to AI enabled internet, means, well, resistance to dominance or control, and, revolt, that can be very effective. Not only, would such governments want 6G not to enter their countries, they will try to deter, negate, slow, resist, lobby against and whatnot, to disrupt efforts in the directions of achieving 6G. That does not mean however, that 6G, at least in some countries, will not come about to end 5G, within less than a decade from today.

Swarm Robotics

So far, at best, on YouTube, or on a News show, you might have seen Swarm Robotics, in the embryonic stage, of, well, light drones, for show, for amusement, for entertainment, during some special occasion or celebration.

With Tactile Internet and 6G, when your regular household objects are increasingly robotized, just as your vacuum cleaner is today, imagine, what Swarm Robotics can do, in your home.

You wake up in the morning, lights come on. You go to the bathroom, the water heats up. You come out of the bathroom, breakfast is freshly prepared and ready, thanks to the robot kitchen, and the food, is nicely placed, on the table. When did you make an effort for input or instruction? Never! Autonomy, in true sense!

Same concept at work. Your productivity, is not just going to multiply. It is going to multiply, astronomically. So is, too, your ease and comfort. So too, your professional opportunities. The skill and competency barrier, takes a new shape. Your limited, and repeat as I did in the previous section, by only, your imagination and creativity, especially, when Swarm Robotics in convergence with Tactile Internet and 6G Network, not just enables Universal Democratization of Distribution, but also Universal Democratization of Production. This also means, we are talking about a true Sharing Economy, where we are sharing our resources, in all sorts of ways, openly and globally.

It is in the Intelligence

More important, than the realization of Swarm Robotics, currently, mostly being worked on for military purposes, and well, so far well under-addressed for civilian commercial purposes, or consumer purposes yet, is the technology that enables Swarm Robotics. And that is, Swarm Intelligence. Its something related to Artificial Intelligence, but thus far, an under-appreciated or under-focused upon aspect of it. It is however, one of the promising things, associated, with Artificial Intelligence yet.

We are talking about complete, intelligent, pre-determined, self-coordination of connected objects. Once you acquire an object, by well, purchasing it, connect it, registering it as your property, and then you make it a part of the network of all your other possessions, that is it. No more inputs, and it does what you need, in perfect synchrony, with everything else around you.

Yes, very much, the future, if we survive climate change, is paradise, right here on earth, in our lifetimes!

THANK YOU

Thank you for reading this update. If you have been following this Future of Everything Update series, since the end of 2018, all the more, thank you very much. Let me know what you think. If you believe I have missed out on something that should have been addressed or mentioned, leave a comment, and I will try visiting it, in another write-up.

Will there be further such updates from me on LinkedIn in the future, in 2020, or after? At the present moment, I do not know. I believe however, what I have done with this series, in 5 parts, starting with the 2018 update, has been rather comprehensive, for now. I will however, try to continue writing on LinkedIn, as and when time or schedule permits, to keep letting my network know, of what to expect, of developments, on the horizon, albeit dealing with each specific topic as it emerges, individually, and separately.

Harish Shah is Singapore's first local born Professional Futurist and a Management Strategy Consultant. He runs Stratserv Consultancy. His areas of consulting and Keynote Topics include EmTech, Industry 4.0, HR, Digital Transformation, Product Development, X Reality, Marketing, Strategic Foresight, Systems Thinking and Organisational Future Proofing. In an Open Letter recently, Harish has called on fellow Futurists around the world to emphasize in their course of work, on the need for Environmental Salvation.