Trends and Bets
The following are future trends I think will happen, or increasingly happen:
software: greater automation, more niches filled, higher-level abstractions, more leverage of Internet & smart, small mobile devices, more paper/physical goods/mediums augmented or replaced with digital approximations, standins, models, recordings or simulations
robots: more, better, cheaper, more broadly used, both in industry, home care and military
education: alternate, cheaper, faster, more efficient, more personal, more egalitarian, more informal
healthcare: alternate, universal, cheaper, more efficient, more/alt providers, bypassed insurance industry and/or better alternatives/reforms
political: better voting, resolving the political party problem, resolving the agency/representation problem, resolving the "idiocracy" problem, reducing the aristocracy/plutarchy problem; flatter; more restarts/revolutions/colonies/experiments, more sophistication, greater use of computer and Internet era technologies
banking and currency: there are many strengths but also some horrible flaws to the current mainstream government imposed/backed banking and currency systems; new technologies, ideas and grassroots political willpower is enabling new kinds of solutions and healthier or more efficient alternatives
privacy: more of it, and less of it; this is not a paradox, I'm saying the extreme ends will become more extreme due to changes both in law and technology (broad brush examples: think greater use of casual cryptography combined with greater use of say small flying surveillance robots by governments AND private citizens)
The above are not necessarily all of the future trends, just a subset. These are just those I am most confident are happening and will increasingly happen and grow. The rising tides, the expanding pies, etc. (Also note I am not necessarily saying that all of the above are good or desirable things, or that I agree with them, merely that I think they are going to happen, period.) And because I'm confident (enough) in these predictions, I think it's wise to place bets on each of them such that, if the prediction is right, the bet pays off in the form of increased wealth or other rewards. I have already placed bets in a few of these areas, and will likely place more. The one area it should be pretty obvious I already have a bet placed (but not intentionally) is in the area of software. I develop software for money. So the more that demand for software creators and maintainers grow, the greater demand for folks who do that for money. I didn't plan for that to happen, but luckily it has. I got into computers originally because I just enjoyed them and was fascinated by them.
home