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What's the Next Big Thing in Tech? It's Up To Us (wsj.com) 87

Posted by msmash from the shape-of-things-to-come dept.
If it feels like new technologies go from flights of fancy to billion-dollar businesses faster than ever, that's because they do. From a column (which may be paywalled): Consider that Uber, founded in 2009, started allowing drivers to sign up with their own cars in 2013. Five short years later, the company operates in more than 70 countries and competes with dozens of copycats. It's considering going public in 2019 at a potential valuation of $120 billion, which would make it the biggest IPO in U.S. history by far. When novel software can go from hackathon to app store overnight, and even complex hardware can hit manufacturing lines in months, the determining factor of success is us -- as consumers, workers, even regulators. If the pitch works and we bite, a technology can quickly transform our social norms.

At the WSJ Tech D. Live conference in Laguna Beach, Calif., this week, what became apparent across dozens of talks, classes and informal chats is that, when almost anything we can dream up is possible, the most important factors in the spread of technology are now cultural. Not every new development in technology leads to an Uber-scale industry, of course, but here are five trends that highlight this shift. China's success in addressing tech needs at home has made it a global leader. As Google struggles with walkouts and morale at Facebook craters, many workers at Chinese startups are so committed to their work that they've adopted a grueling schedule called 996 -- 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week. In 2018, China will eclipse the U.S. in spending on R&D, projects the National Science Board.

Patrick Collison, chief executive of Stripe, talked about how much of Asia is leapfrogging the West because there isn't tons of old infrastructure -- like gas-guzzling car fleets -- to update, so the latest technology catches on right away. In China, this is especially true in payments, which are now overwhelmingly made through mobile phones. The world's leading face-recognition and drone companies are in China, and its electric-vehicle, autonomous-driving and AI companies are already on par with their U.S. counterparts, said Kai-Fu Lee, former president of Google China and current head of technology-investment firm Sinovation Ventures. China's mission rests on techies dedicated to building the future for its billion-plus population -- achieving global technological dominance en route.
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What's the Next Big Thing in Tech? It's Up To Us More

What's the Next Big Thing in Tech? It's Up To Us

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    • Before you starting writing code, understand the problem you are solving. Think about how people use tech.

      Understand what they do on a regular basis. What bugs them the most about their day?

      What do they care about? Do they have pets? Do they give to charities?

      What do they buy for a snack at work? Why do they make their bed a certain way?

      Why do they walk down one aisle and not the other?

      What did they want to be when they grew up? What is their favorite color?

      What do they pause and look at w

  • Sad (Score:5, Insightful)

    by 110010001000 ( 697113 ) on Saturday November 24, 2018 @04:08PM (#57693686) Homepage Journal
    It is pathetic that Slashdot considers Uber and Facebook "tech". They are just businesses and won't be around long.

    • Re: Sad (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Uber and FB speaks volumes of the moral character of the masses.

    • By way of visiting reality for a moment, /. is not the author of the article.

  • It's going to be something addictive and exploitative, of course. Something that's going to made pervasive phone/app addiction look tame by comparison.

  • If you are looking to invest (Score:3)

    by bobstreo ( 1320787 ) on Saturday November 24, 2018 @04:30PM (#57693762)

    I'd go with:

    Solid State, Self Driving Social Networks using Blockchain.

    ('d sell quickly afterward,

    • Re: (Score:1, Interesting)

      by The Grim Reefer ( 1162755 )

      I'd go with:

      Solid State

      Well damn. I still have my stereo receiver from the late 1960's It has a metal badge on the front proudly declaring it is "Solid State". I'm pretty sure I still have a transistor radio somewhere from that time period that is also "solid state" Unfortunately my TV with a solid state badge has been gone for some time now.

      BTW, your idea will obviously fail. It has no AI/deep learning/machine learning and no cloud.

    • You insensitive clod.

      You left out quantum qubits in a paradigm-shifting algorithmic panoramic inductive-force ionic infusion non-ferratic indimeous pratallatic vibranium source.

      Gee willikers.

  • So I can't help but notice that this starts out with what do we want to do and finishes with "fear of the foreigners" scaremongering that would not have been out of place in a Fu Manchu novel in which the Yellow Peril will consume us all. It was bullshit then and it's bullshit now. What's the deal? Why the sudden xenophobia? It's totally out of place, off topic, and racist and nativist.
  • I'm thinking a blue tooth enabled pet rock.

  • > Consider that Uber, founded in 2009, started allowing drivers to sign up with their own cars in 2013. Five short years later, the company operates in more than 70 countries and competes with dozens of copycats.

    Consider that whatever potential you may have had at your birth, and that N disgusting, grueling years later, you're pumping out this kind of copy.

    > If the pitch works and we bite, a technology can quickly transform our social norms.

    You were just talking about quick financial success, nothing

  • My spying with ads. More spying by governments.

    Games and software as always connected online services. Rented per year.
    A legal block of repair products/parts and services as counterfeiting.
    Military expecting the easy joy of using more drones until they can't control their own secure networks.
    More online nation state propaganda. More calls to ban user created cartoons, political jokes and bad movie reviews.
    A low quality of computer code as more below average and mediocre "educated" people get to b
  • How about we stop spending so much time and energy on toys that we don't necessarily need and allocate that energy and resources to fixing and maybe reversing the damage we've done to the environment of the Earth, being the only planet we can currently live on?
    Don't even say we should move to another planet. Ain't happening and you all damned well know it and there's nowhere to go in any case.

  • America is masturbating ... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by CaptainDork ( 3678879 ) on Saturday November 24, 2018 @07:09PM (#57694414)

    ... with self-serving nationalism and "America First," and anti-science, anti-immigration, anti-globalism, pro-capitalism, batshit crazy Whiteism, and a bullying immature president backed by scared shitless Republicans.

    All civilisations fail, eventually. the yanks want to go to hell, let's just make sure the goddam hand basket is Made in America.

    • God forbid we should look after ourselves. You know, like every single other nation on the planet does. Globalism is bullshit, unless you think invading Iraq was a great idea.

      • If Americans think globalism is bullshit, I'd like them to stop selling their software, films, music and junk food all over the world.

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • We need a computer that's small and light enough to carry easily, but can be stretched out, or unfolded, to a full-sized screen and keyboard. Then when you're done using it, you fold it back again to its small size, and put it back into your pocket.

    Also we need to work on fighting fires.

    1) Chemists and biologists should figure out a better way to put out a fire. Maybe an improved fire-fighting foam, powder, or gas. The foam or whatever shouldn't cost much, or be bad for the environment. And it should be lig

  • First, the idea that those ancient civilizations don't have to replace infrastructure is stupid. And people keep ignoring the elephant in the room - greed. Greedy capitalists have driven costs so high that wages are high, too. Countries in Asia which have kept greed under control have a much lower cost of living and proportionally lower wages. This allows them to undercut your prices every time. Fix the cost of living imbalance and the trade problems will melt away.

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