The 2018 Griffin Annual Emerging Technology Starburst, 2018 to 2040

THE 2018 GRIFFIN EMERGING TECHNOLOGY STARBURST

WELCOME TO the Griffin Emerging Technology Starburst 2018 Edition, which is part of our overall 311 Institute Emerging Technology Starburst Collection, and which is complimented by the companion 311 Institute Exponential Technology Codex which explores the future and deep future and all of the technologies listed on our Starbursts in greater detail.

Firstly, I’d like to thank everyone who supported me during 2018 to make it my most enjoyable year yet, and here’s wishing you all a prosperous 2019.

As in previous years, and building on the firm foundation of the previous 2017 Griffin Emerging Technology Starbursts this year’s 2018 Starburst is the culmination of years of ceaseless investigating, monitoring, and tracking the appearance and development of new emerging technologies from every corner of the globe, and I am now tracking over 300 of them. It’s also clear that, year on year, the volume of new emerging technologies appearing is still increasing, and that their impact, power, and sophistication, and ergo their ability, to disrupt and transform global culture, industry and society, especially as many of them become increasingly democratised, with a pace and voracity never seen before, is also increasing.

They, whoever “they” are, say a lot changes in a year, computer chips get faster, displays get sharper, storage devices get larger, but a year in the life of emerging technology is like none other that you’ll ever experience. In many ways, it’s like watching technology development on steroids, with what seems to be a decade’s or more progress crammed into just a scant twelve months. And it gets faster and more furious every year. Indeed, when it comes to emerging technology development it increasingly feels like we’re riding on the back of a rocket.

In this year’s Starburst, which displays 169 of the world’s most promising and coveted emerging technologies, each with an addressable market value of at least $500 Billion spread across 11 categories, I have expanded the horizon timeline from 2035 to 2040, giving you a clear 22 year view of what’s coming, and promoted 42 new emerging technologies that weren’t in last years’ Starburst.

While the Starbursts might look visually appealing they have a more practical purpose which is to help governments, individuals, and organisations alike envision and predict new disruptive threats to their countries, industries, and companies. And, furthermore, when used in conjunction with our How to Build Exponential Enterprises Codex and our first of a kind ExPLORER Innovation Framework, they can be used to help organisations accelerate the development of innovative new policies, products, and services.

By creating and publishing these Starbursts I also hope they help spark people’s imagination, and demonstrate to us all, young and old, rich and poor, that nothing is impossible. Among the hundreds of other emerging technology breakthroughs I saw were, for example, the development of the world’s first self-designing, self-evolving, and self-replicating AI’s, and AI’s 3D printed and made out of DNA, a new, self-configuring “unhackable” computer platform, a new communication technology that sends data without using signals, a relatively promising alternative to Blockchain, the first human telepathic game, the first memories transferred between animals, and six new types of computing platform, and all that’s for starters.

In 2017, I’m happy to say, the Starburst had the impact I hoped it would and it was used  by, among others, the world’s largest smartphone manufacturers, including Huawei and Samsung, whose handsets are in the hands of billions of people, high tech semiconductor companies, whose chips power tens of billions of devices, and hundreds of other smaller organisations who used it to map out the future of their industries, adjacent industries, and help them ideate the next twenty years of products and services.

Signing off for now, if I could give you one piece of advice, from all my years of being a “futurist,” it would be forget what you know, open your mind and look forwards to what’s coming, because it’s going to be an awesome ride, and if you want to know more then you’re in the right place, check out my blogs, keynotes and videos, hold onto your hats and let’s go down the wormhole together.

Explore more,

MATTHEW GRIFFIN.

Founder