The World in 2030

272 The World in 2030
it. Tedious fiddling about with mice and joysticks will
become irritants of the past. 491
I am convinced that from 2030 onwards humans will not
only be controlling computers directly from their brain
output but we will also be implanting software assistants
into our bodies and beginning to communicate with them
via neural interfaces.
Wealth
We, in the developed world, are all going to be substantially
better off in 2030 as information technology continues to
suck uncertainty and ‘friction’ out of business processes,
commercial transactions and daily life. ‘Friction’ in this
context is a lack of knowledge about where the best price for
a product or service can be obtained, a lack of knowledge
about the real-time structural integrity of a bridge or the
precise whereabouts of a particular item of cargo. Friction
is when a supermarket shopping cart doesn’t know what it
contains, nor what the prices of those goods are. Friction
is when you can’t read your emails on a subway train or
in an airliner. Friction is when you glance at a restaurant
in a town strange to you and you don’t automatically see
the establishment’s menu, prices and a number of reviews
swimming before your eyes. Friction is when a business has
no way of capturing and storing its business processes for
financial valuation. Friction is when we have to stop our
work or leisure activity to do something that produces no
product or economic output (like cleaning a house – see