Conference Presentation, Panel
Lunch Program | The Future of Humankind
- Conference attendees are expected to depart with heightened clarity on future actions and a renewed sense of hope.
- Arctic ice is predicted to vanish completely within 50 to 70 years, with the current year projected to exceed the previous record high temperatures.
- Zika virus infection rates are forecast to reach 50 percent in Puerto Rico by year-end, rising to 80 percent by the following year.
- Land-based animal and plant species are currently migrating forward at an average rate of 15 feet per day.
- Solar photovoltaic costs are projected to decline by an average of 10 percent annually, eventually surpassing coal-based electricity to reach grid parity.
- China is expected to implement a cap and trade system next year, while U.S. new electricity capacity investment is driven by solar and wind, with photovoltaics outpacing natural gas.
- CRISPR-Cas9 technology is anticipated for human health applications to repair genetic disease mutations within 10 years, subject to responsible scientific application.
- A vision is presented for every one of the estimated 2 to 3 billion global knowledge workers to utilize cognitive assistants for daily discovery and decision-making.
- Cognitive computing is expected to transform decision-making across healthcare, education, financial services, manufacturing, oil and gas, and transportation industries.
- In a few decades, technologies will enable observation of all biological hierarchy levels and facilitate a million-fold increase in experiments to establish cause and effect.
- The world is expected to change significantly in five years regarding personalized medicine, transportation, and lifelong education.
- "Nerds over cattle" synthetic food production is identified as an initiative that could materially affect climate change and lower global food costs.
- Commercial buildings are expected to be manufactured quickly and cheaply in industrial factories soon, enabled by 3D printing technology.
- Virtual and augmented reality are predicted to explode in the near future, rendering narrative and technology inseparable.
- Mobile phone-based health monitoring is expected to eventually train users to trust their devices over doctors, with phones capable of immediate doctor alerts upon detecting health issues.
- Computer vision is predicted to exceed human vision in medical diagnostics, becoming the preferred method for reading radiological images.
- A project is being developed to analyze healthcare records to predict patient deterioration rates immediately upon hospital entry.
- Cures for cancer and other bedeviling diseases are expected to arrive within 10 to 15 years through advancements in genetics and gene editing.
- Self-driving cars are expected to become ubiquitous rapidly to save lives, utilizing computer vision superior to human vision.
- Computerized educational tools will eventually enable personalized learning models that adjust to student presentations via teacher augmentation rather than online-only instruction.
- Artificial intelligence will enable chemists to combine molecules and proteins faster to achieve significant improvements in material strength for buildings and cars.
- The overarching goal is to make humans smarter by leveraging computers to augment human intelligence.