TWICE THE SIZE - DIT Update - Dublin Institute of Technology

Wild Cards
Some potential ‘wild cards’ are:
The end of intergenerational solidarity.
Growth of religious environmentalism.
First unambiguous contact with extraterrestrial life.
A new multi-faith force for good arises.
Global healthcare and pandemic control.
TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE
Life in 2030 will be revolutionised by the burgeoning impact of multidisciplinary science and
technology across all dimensions of the public and private realms: social, economic, political
and personal. The continuing diffusion of information technology and new applications in the
biotechnology field will be twin forces of global significance. The results of this global scientific
and technological revolution could be astonishing. Two general tendencies discerned, however,
are worthy of special note. First, the integration of existing disciplines to form new ones, with
the blending of information, technology, biotechnology, materials sciences and nanotechnology
generating a dramatic increase in innovation. And second, the lateral development of
technology, so that older established technologies will continue a ‘sideways’ evolution into new
markets and applications.
Global Context
The ten most meaningful global technological drivers and issues have been identified as follows.
1. Technology will be a major enabling force for business towards 2030 transforming
supply chains, value nets, business models, work styles and opening up new global
markets for expansion.
2. Discoveries in nanotechnology will lead to an unprecedented understanding of, and
control over, the fundamental building blocks of all physical things, to such an
extent that developments in this field are likely to change the way almost
everything is designed and made.
3. Breakthroughs in materials technology will generate widely available products that
are smart, multi-functional, environmentally compatible, more survivable and
customisable.
4. Everything will get ‘smarter’ through embedded technology allowing unobtrusive
devices and systems to monitor and react to operational actions, reducing the need
for human intervention in ‘routine’ activities.
5. Highly repetitive work, or work in difficult, extreme or unsafe environments, will
increasingly be undertaken by robotics and micro-robotics, which will become
smaller and smarter, and take on even more tasks.
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