What Is This?
This site outlines the current tech trends of 2022 and provides insight and resources into how they're currently doing, how they are predicted to do, and examples of them today.
Trends marked with Top Trend represent a trend that is predicted to be successful or I have a personal interest in.
Either scroll down or use the list on the right to get started
Edge Computing
Edge computing decentralizes an application to make websites faster by having multiple computers around the world (the network of these being called the "edge") running the same application, that way visitors to a site can contact the nearest server instead of one from around the world.
Pros
- Faster Load Times
- Prevents Cold-Starts
Cons
- Costly
Societal Impact
I think this will result in a shift from more centralized servers to a more decentralized structure. In terms of the effect on consumers, they might not even notice ;-;
More Info
- IBM's article on edge computing, which explains how edge computing works
- This video by Fireship, which compares edge computing to cloud functions
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence refers to creating a program that can learn and adapt to a given set of data or stimuli. It has many uses today, such as DALL-E making the rounds on social media for its ability to generate images from a text description. The image for this trend was actually generated by DALL-E Mini! And with GitHub Copilot going public, it gives developers auto-complete for source code. The uses for this field keep increasing, which is why I think it's such a promising trend.
Pros
- Endless possibilities for automation
- Ability to solve problems that we can't
Cons
- Creating models takes a lot of time and input data
- Ethical implications (see below)
Societal Impact
While artificial intelligence is very powerful, it's a moral gray area. First and foremost we have deepfakes, these are fake pieces of media generated by AI, while many people use them for harmless fun, they can be used to impersonate and hurt others. Then there are the issues with how some AI models learn, for example, many developers do not like how GitHub copilot was trained with all public source code on GitHub and StackOverflow, because there is no way to confirm whether it was allowed to use that code.
More Info
- IBM's Article On Artificial Intelligence
- Fireship's video on DALL-E
- This article by FOSSA outlining the legal and ethical issues surrounding copilot
Quantum Computing
Quantum computing utilizes quantum mechanics to solve unique technical problems. It's essentially a very advanced version of guess and check.
Pros
- Solves certain problems that classical computing can't (or would take forever to solve)
Cons
- Expensive to make and upkeep
Societal Impact
I think people misunderstand what quantum computing is, it's not a "faster way of computing", it's more a tool that can help solve certain problems faster. In the future, we're probably not going to see "quantum computers" sold to consumers, we're more likely to see regular computers sold with some sort of quantum chip that can help solve these issues fast.
More Info
3D Printing
3D printing is starting to be used more and more, it's even being used in Florida to create houses. It also has the potential to create organs for those that otherwise may not be able to get them in time.
Pros
- Useful for creating things without manual labor
- Can create things that require precision
Cons
- Takes time
- Ethical implications (see below)
Societal Impact
Even though 3D printing has its uses, it has also been used to create weapons, bypassing current regulations regarding weapons. This has caused a lot of controversies.
More Info
Cybersecurity
This one is a given, cybersecurity will never not be important unless one day we wake up and everyone is super-duper nice and never tries to break into anything ever. Then we could just ask for a username when logging in and since everyone is so nice they'll always enter their own :D.
Pros
- Not being hacked
Cons
- Every single website I try to go to on managed networks is blocked :(
Societal Impact
Data breaches and ransomware attacks can affect many people and even take down vital systems to our nation's infrastructure, we must keep this in mind when securing our systems.
More Info
- IBM's article on cybersecurity (What don't they have an article on?)
- Cisco's article on cybersecurity
Virtual Reality
Right now VR is still expensive and not developed enough to be in the mainstream. However, recent efforts from certain companies promise to make it more popular.
Pros
- Can be very immersive
- Can be used for training
- Can give businesses an environment to hold meetings
Cons
- Still pretty expensive (for now)
- Every dystopian novel involving VR ever
- Meta's VR avatars are lifeless and terrible
Societal Impact
At the risk of sounding cliché, people might get disconnected from reality à la Ready Player One.
More Info
Internet Of Things
Internet of things (IoT) offers the ability to control various aspects of your home or business wirelessly, and automate said devices. Recently, Matter, a protocol that aims to provide a universal interface for all IoT devices has been becoming more popular.
Pros
- Provides the ability to control your home from anywhere
- Allows for automation
Cons
- Security, these devices are often not secured enough
- Humans may grow too dependent on technology
Societal Impact
I think overall this will increase our reliance on technology, it's important that we're still able to do things without this tech.
More Info
- Amazon's article on IoT
- Microsoft's article on IoT
- Surprise Surprise: IBM's article on IoT
Datafication
Datafication turns many aspects of reality into data, whether that be things like our relationships to others to the dogs we own. By turning these parts into data we can perform transformation and analysis on them to do a variety of things.
Pros
- Personalized systems
- Easy population analysis
Cons
- Privacy concerns
- Look to any dystopian novel
Societal Impact
I think we're already experiencing the effects of datafication with how closely companies like Google and Facebook monitor us, if it continues in the way that it's going we could see a world where our every move is monitored.
More Info
Digital Trust
Digital trust ties in a lot to Cybersecurity, it's about how users trust platforms and technologies with their information.
Pros
- Users have more trust in your product
Cons
- Can hurt usability
- Costs a lot of money
Societal Impact
Digital trust is something we all look for when using software, we don't want to use unsecure apps because then our data can get stolen.
More Info
Genomics
Genomics is the study of genes and DNA, while this trend leads more towards biology we use computers a lot in it, and need very specialized programs to analyze DNA.
Pros
- We can understand more about ourselves and other species
- We can detect various afflictions such as cancer early on
- We can find vaccines and cures for various diseases and ailments
Cons
- If we get to the point where we can 'fix' anything, what constitutes as needing to be fixed
- Costs a lot of money to research
Societal Impact
I think genomics will ultimately benefit society as whole by being able to help us medically.
More Info
Jobs
| Job Name | Description | Salary Range | Read More |
|---|---|---|---|
| Data Scientist | Analyze and work with data from various sources | $98k-$163k | Description |
| Analytics Lead | Lead teams to analyze and share findings about data | $104k-$172k | Description |
| Data Engineer | Work on systems to aggregate and analyze data | $67k-$134k | Description |
| Data Analyst | Analyze and share findings about data | $45k-$109k | Description |
| Cybersecurity Analyst | Analyze and test cybersecurity systems | $55k-$118k | Description |
| Penetration Tester | Test various systems for security vulnerabilities | $85k-$160k | Description |
| Fullstack Dev | Build and maintain all components of a system | $85k-$113k | Description |