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List of emerging technologies

This is a list of emerging technologies. Emerging technologies are new and potentially disruptive technologies, which may marginalize an existing dominant technology.

Only new and potentially disruptive technologies should be included in the list. Information technology is an example of a technology which has already proven disruptive, whereas artificial intelligence is a subset information technology with the potential of becoming disruptive in its own right.

Controversy exists over the degree of impact and economic viability of some instances of emerging technology. There is on going public policy debate over emerging technologies and their implications for society.

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Artificial intelligence

Theory and experiments
Human Brain
Creation of intelligent devices

Optical character recognition

-

LED lamp

Diffusion
Incandescent and Flourescent Lighting
illumination

-

Genetic engineering

/

Synthetic biology

Diffusion; ongoing research & development
Evolution
Creation and modification of

species
BioBrick

,

Igem

-

Nootropics

Available Now

Drugs that improve memory or cognition in healthy or aged populations.

Piracetam

,

Aniracetam

,

Pregnenolone

-
Bio fuels
Diffusion

Fossil fuels

Energy source, particularly for transportation

-

Electric cars

Small scale production, infrastructure investment

Internal combustion engine

Greener transportation

Tesla Motors

,

Better Place

-
Anti-aging drugs:

resveratrol

Animal testing
Existing treatments for age-related diseases

Life extension

-

Virtual retinal display

Working prototypes
VR headsets, displays

Augmented reality

,

virtual reality

-

Personal rapid transit

Working prototypes (and models)
Conventional rail/bus

public transport

; would reduce need for everyone to own their own car
Greener transportation

-

Solid-state drive

Diffusion; development of larger capacity

Hard disk drive

Smaller, faster, quieter, lower power consuming storage

-

Memristor

Working prototype
Some current

integrated circuits

, many other

electronics

devices
Smaller, faster, lower power consuming storage,

analogue electronics

,

Artificial intelligence

-

Optical computing

Theory and experiments - some components of integrated circuits have been developed
Many integrated circuits and other

electronics

devices
Smaller, faster, lower power consuming computing

-

Nanomaterials

:

carbon nanotubes

Diffusion and theory and experiments
Structural

steel

and

aluminium

Stronger, lighter, and more intelligent materials,

space elevator

-

Molecular nanotechnology

Theory and experiments
Small products and parts production & retail
Desktop devices that can make anything given the materials

-

Scramjet

Working Mach 10 Prototype

Jet engine

s,

Rocket engine

s
Very fast air travel

-

Wireless communication

Diffusion

Wired communication

Ubiquitous network connectivity

-

3D printing

In commercial production
Manual creation of prototypes and also some mass production methods that lack the ability for customization
Rapid prototyping and production of not only plastic objects but multi-material items, with the potential to significantly customize products for individual consumers

-

Semantic Web

or "Answers Machine"|

Search engine

s
Making the web machine-readable by linking data on the web based on its meaning

-
OLED
Diffusion; R&D on extending lifetime
LCD and plasma displays
Displays; lighting

-

Machine translation

|
Human translation of

natural language

s, in areas where misunderstanding is non-critical and language is formalized
Easier cross-cultural communication

-
Machine augmented cognition/exocortices
Diffusion of primitive amplifications; working prototypes of more; theory and experiments on more substantial amplification

-
Nuclear

fusion power

Theory and experiments

Fossil fuel

s,

renewable energy

, nuclear fission power
Electric power generation

-

3D optical data storage

or

Holographic data storage

Prototyping and research
All other

optical data storage

solutions,

magnetic tape data storage

, and other

mass storage

devices.
Storage and archiving of data that was previously erased for economic reasons

-

Spintronics

Working prototypes
Mechanical magnetic

hard disk drives

Data storage

-

Metamaterial

s
Diffusion
Classical

optics
Microscope

s,

camera

s,

cloaking device

s

-

High-temperature superconductivity

Working prototypes in

dry ice

; theory and experiments for higher temperatures
Copper wire
No loss conductors, frictionless bearings, magnetic levitation, lossless high-capacity accumulators

-

3D display

s
Theory and experiments
CRT, LCD, and other display technologies

Television

,

Computer interface

s, cinemas

-
Personal Aircraft
Commercial production||

-
Quantum computing
Theory and experiments

Electronic computing

,

optical computing

Much faster computing, for certain kinds of problems, chemical modeling, new materials with programmed properties

-

Hydrogen economy

Diffusion (of hydrogen fuel cells); Theory and experiments for less expensive production of hydrogen
Other technologies for storing energy (conventional batteries,

fossil fuel

s)
Green storage of energy

-

Nanowire battery

Working prototypes
Other technologies for storing energy (hydrogen, conventional batteries and in some cases

fossil fuel

s)
Laptops, cell phones and long-range

electric car

s. Storing power for

electric grid

-
Reliable

Global Navigation Satellite System

System currently being produced
Various custom built systems
Mission critical navigation

-

Powered exoskeleton

Prototyping and Diffusion
Legs and muscles
Heavy lifting,

paralysis

, muscle related diseases,

-

WiTricity

Working prototypes
Electrical cables

Wireless energy transfer

-
Optical CPUs
Theory and experiments
Electricity-powered processors and CPU coolers.
Faster, smaller, less power consuming than normal CPU.

-

Vitrification

or

Cryoprotectant

Theory and some experiments
Ischemic Damages

Organ transplant

-

Non-rocket spacelaunch

Theory and some experiments

Rocket

*

Launch loop

* launch track
*

Space gun

*

Space elevator

-

Holography

Diffusion
Display Technologies

-

Thermal copper pillar bump

Working prototypes in discrete devices
Conventional thermal solutions,

heat sink

s, bulk thermoelectrics
Electric circuit cooling; micro-fluidic actuators; small-device thermoelectric power generation

-

Phased array optics

Theory
Conventional

display

s (e.g.,

Television

)
Mass production of 3 Dimensional imagery |
-
Ultracapacitor
Diffusion and continued development
conventional batteries

Regenerative braking

; generally faster-charging, longer lasting, more flexible, and/or greener energy storage|
-