Timeline of Emerging Science and Technology: A visual framework

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My colleague and friend Richard Watson and I have created a number of visual frameworks together, including Trend Blend 2007+ based on the London tube map, which has spawned many imitators over the years.

Since Richard has moved back to London we’ve collaborated less on frameworks, however Richard has continued to do some marvellous work.

Here is the Timeline of Emerging Science and Technology, created by Richard’s What’s Next in collaboration with Imperial College Tech Foresight.

Timeline_Emerging_Science
Click on the image to view the full-size pdf.

The timeline needs careful study, it is not for quick scanning, do spend some time with it.

It’s also well worth seeing Richard’s post describing how the visual was generated, including the full design process.

Here is a small selection of the emerging technologies mentioned in the visual:

  • Vibration energy harvesting
  • Community grids
  • Synthetic jet fuels
  • Transparent (organic) solar cells on skyscrapers
  • In-road inductive charging for electric vehicles
  • 3D printed soil for vertical agriculture
  • DNA dating agencies
  • Body hacking for sensory augmentation
  • Artificial muscles from spun Nano-fibre
  • Tattooed circuits (video tattoos on the human body)
  • Insect-sized surveillance robots
  • Hacking of implanted neuro-devices
  • Warfare merges with gaming
  • Nanotubes for synthetic neurons and neural implants
  • Hangover-free alcohol substitute
  • Brain prostheses to enhance or erase memory