I really enjoy the website Crave because it does an excellent job of scanning the horizon in search of cool, emerging technologies such as these recent posts on a dishwashing robot and a one-wheeled motorcycle.
What I’m not so fond of is its writers tendancy to quickly dismiss such technologies. If you read the above posts on the dishwashing robot and the one-wheeled motorcycyle you’ll find that they are equally dismissive of both technologies.
This is a mistake. It is not that I disagree with either prediction, but what the authors are missing is the possibility that technologies from each of the two products might be combined to create a third—cooler and more practical—technology.
To wit, the author’s note that the dishwashing robot is boxy and clumsy. Yet in the post on the one-wheeled motorcycle they also note that it is advances in gyroscopes and sensors which allow the one-wheeled motorcycle to maintain its balance.
In the near future, these same technologies could easily be applied to robots in order to make them smaller, thinner and more maneuverable. And when this happens, what might be produced is a one-wheeled robot that can navigate in even the smallest of kitchens!
Remember, if you want to jump the curve, don’t just think of the practical utility of existing technologies—also consider how different technologies might converge to create new technologies.
Jack Uldrich is a writer, futurist, public speaker and host of jumpthecurve.net. He is the author of seven books, including Jump the Curve and The Next Big Thing is Really Small: How Nanotechnology Will Change the Future of Your Business. He is also a frequenter speaker on future trends, innovation, change management and executive leadership to a variety of businesses, industries and non-profit organizations and associations.
