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Magazine

The predictions issue

March 2020

Here is our annual list of 10 Breakthrough Technologies. Plus: why predictions matter and how to get better at them.

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Letter from the editor

Editor’s letter: How to predict what’s coming in 2030 and beyond

Features

Categorized in Computing
We’re not prepared for the end of Moore’s Law
It has fueled prosperity of the last 50 years. But the end is now in sight.
Categorized in Space
How satellite mega-constellations will change the way we use space
And wherever humans go, they’ll be taking satellite constellations with them to moon and Mars.
Categorized in Blockchain
An elegy for cash: the technology we might never replace
Cash is gradually dying out. Will we ever have a digital alternative that offers the same mix of convenience and freedom?
Categorized in Computing
Inside the race to build the best quantum computer on Earth
IBM thinks quantum supremacy is not the milestone we should care about.
Categorized in Biotechnology
If DNA is like software, can we just fix the code?
In a race to cure his daughter, a Google programmer enters the world of hyper-personalized drugs.
Categorized in Humans and technology
The professionals who predict the future for a living
Everywhere from business to medicine to the climate, forecasting the future is a complex and absolutely critical job. So how do you do it—and what comes next?
Categorized in Artificial intelligence
What AI still can’t do
Artificial intelligence won’t be very smart if computers don’t grasp cause and effect. That’s something even humans have trouble with.
Categorized in Humans and technology
How big tech hijacked its sharpest, funniest critics
Without design fiction, critical hits like Black Mirror would look very different.
COURTESY PHOTOS
Categorized in Election 2020
Pollsters got it wrong in the 2016 election. Now they want another shot.
There’s a new crowd of would-be oracles, determined not to replicate the mistakes of their predecessors.

Also in this issue
- Five forces that will shape the future
  These are the big trends of the coming decades that need to be considered for any new technologies to be successful.
  Categorized in Humans and technology
- Predictions for 2030 by people shaping the world
  At the World Economic Forum in Davos, the elite of the elite gather to hatch plans for the future of the planet. I asked some of this year’s participants to tell me one thing they think will happen by 2030 that most people don’t realize.
  Categorized in Humans and technology
- 5 of the best books about prediction
  Predictions of any importance are never only about saying what will happen. Right or wrong, they also shape the course of events.
  Categorized in Humans and technology
- Zooming
  Short fiction about surveillance.
  Categorized in Humans and technology
- A brief history of the future
  This publication has been predicting what comes next for 120 years. Here’s what some of those predictions have looked like through the decades.
  Categorized in Humans and technology
- The Google-IBM “quantum supremacy” feud
  In the first episode of our new podcast, Deep Tech, we dig into the story behind two little words that could change the world.
  Categorized in Computing

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