PASSAGE
2020 VISION: WHAT THE NEXT FIVE YEARS WILL BRING IN NEW TECHNOLOGY SELF-DRIVING CARS WITH A MORAL CODE? WEARABLE DEVICES THAT MONITOR YOUR HEALTH BY THE SECOND? WELCOME TO A RADICALLY DIFFERENT LIFE IN 2020.
Rod ChesterNews Corp Australia Network
OCTOBER 12, 2015 8:32 AM
Predict the future and you can be certain of one thing: in the future, you’ll be embarrassed by your
mistakes. Pitch your prediction too far and it’s science fiction that’s forgot before the due date. Pitch it too soon
and all you’re doing is taking today’s tech and giving it a once over. Predictions are easy to make but easy to
make wrong.
[05] Bill Gates, in his 1999 book Business@ the Speed of Thought, predicted people would carry around small
devices for news, commerce and communication (smartphones), people would pay their bills online, and friends
would make social plans through online communication. But then again he predicted the future of computing
would be tablet devices (right) running Windows (not so right). His friend, and successor as Microsoft CEO, Steve
Balmer, famously said “there’s no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share”. IBM
[10] chairman Thomas Watson famously predicted, in 1943, there “there is a world market for maybe five
computers”.
So, what will the world look like in 2020? Here is a snapshot of predictions by various technology experts.
There will be self-driving cars on Australian roads. Our homes and lives will be organised by connected
smart devices interacting with our personal digital assistants. We will wear sensors, perhaps as contact lenses or
[15] even tattoos, that will monitor our body and report irregularities to our doctor. Some of us will wear clothing
with digital sensors, that will do everything from monitor the way particular muscles work during exercise to
control social interactions, such as communicating with the clothes of friends and acquaintances. Manufacturing
will be revolutionised by 3D printing and autonomous delivery, be it through self-driving cars or drones, and 3D
printing will also be used to make human tissues and organs. Passwords will be a thing of the past, with
[20] biometrics replacing them.
It’s one thing to make predictions, it’s another to ponder what it all means.
Availableat:http://www.news.com.au/technology/gadgets/2020-vision-what-the-next-five-years-will-bring-in-new-technology/newsstory/618c170f3903a3e20efb1804066f51fa. (Adapted)
The passage is written using mostly a specific verb tense which is:
