List of emerging technologies

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This is a list of emerging technologies. Emerging technologies are new and potentially disruptive technologies which have the potential to significantly change everyday life in the near future. A disruptive technology supersedes or marginalizes an existing dominant technology or status quo product in the market.

Only new and potentially disruptive technologies should be included in the list. Information technology is an example of a technology which has already proven disruptive, whereas artificial intelligence is a subset information technology with the potential of becoming disruptive in its own right.

It is worth noting that it is controversial whether some of these technologies will ever come into existence.

Emerging technology	Status	Things potentially losing importance	Applications	Potential drawbacks
Artificial intelligence	Theory and experiments		Creation of intelligent devices, which could replace humans for a number of tasks	Massive economic dislocation
Intelligence amplification	Diffusion of primitive amplifications; working prototypes of more; theory and experiments on more substantial amplification
Genetic engineering / Synthetic biology	Diffusion		Creation of species, modification of species to be more fit for a purpose	Human-made disease or worse hazard
Electric cars	Small scale production and prototypes	Internal combustion engine automobiles	Greener transportation
Personal rapid transit	Working prototypes (and models)	Conventional rail/bus public transport	Greener transportation
Practical flying cars or PAVs	Existing prototypes		Reduce congestion in densely populated areas	Noise pollution, High fuel cost
Solid-state drive	Diffusion	Hard disk drive	Smaller, faster, quieter, lower power consuming storage
Memristor	Working prototype	Some current integrated circuits, many other electronics devices	Smaller, faster, lower power consuming storage, analogue electronics, Artificial intelligence
Optical computing	Theory and experiments - some components of integrated circuits have been developed	Many integrated circuits and other electronics devices	Smaller, faster, lower power consuming computing
Nanomaterials: carbon nanotubes	Diffusion and Theory and experiments	Structural steel and aluminium	Stronger, lighter, and more intelligent materials	Nanoparticles' health risks
Molecular nanotechnology	Theory and experiments	Small products and parts production & retail	Desktop devices that can make anything given the materials	Massive economic dislocation
CVD production of diamonds		Kevlar, Glass, Metal heatsinks	Hardest and most thermally conductive material known
Scramjet	Working Mach 10 Prototype	Jet engines, Rocket engines	Very fast air travel	Noise pollution, greenhouse gases
Wireless communication	Diffusion	Wired communication	Ubiquitous network connectivity
3D printing	In Commercial Production	Manual creation of prototypes and also some mass production methods that lack the ability for customization	Rapid prototyping and production of not only plastic objects but multi-material items, with the potential to significantly customize products for individual consumers
Anti-aging drugs: resveratrol	Basic theory	A range of treatments fighting age-related diseases	Life extension	Overpopulation
Nootropics: Piracetam, Pregnenolone		Drugs that improve memory or cognition in healthy or aged populations.	Nootropics
Semantic Web or Answers Machine		Search engines	Making the web machine-readable by linking data on the web based on its meaning
Bio fuels	Diffusion	Fossil fuels	Energy source, particularly for transportation	Raises food prices when it competes with food crops
OLED	Diffusion	LCD and plasma displays	Displays and screens of various kinds
Machine translation		Human translation of natural languages, in areas where misunderstanding is non-critical and language is formalized	Easier cross-cultural communication	Loss of translation jobs for humans
Nuclear fusion power (hot or cold)	Theory and experiments	Fossil fuels, hydroelectricity, nuclear fission power	Electric power generation
3D optical data storage or Holographic data storage		All other optical data storage solutions, magnetic tape data storage, and other mass storage devices.	Storage and archiving of data that was previously erased for economic reasons
Spintronics	Working prototypes	Mechanical magnetic hard disk drives	Data storage
Metamaterials		Classical optics	Microscopes, cameras, cloaking devices
High-temperature superconductivity	Working prototypes in dry ice; theory and experiments for higher temperatures	Copper wire	No loss conductors, frictionless bearings, magnetic levitation
3D displays	Theory and experiments	CRT, LCD, and other display technologies	Television, Computer interfaces, cinemas
Quantum computing	Theory and experiments	Electronic computing, optical computing	Much faster computing, for certain kinds of problems
Hydrogen economy	Diffusion (of hydrogen fuel cells); Theory and experiments for less expensive production of hydrogen	Other technologies for storing energy (conventional batteries, fossil fuels)
Nanowire battery	Working prototypes	Other technologies for storing energy (hydrogen, conventional batteries and in some cases fossil fuels)	Laptops, cell phones and long-range electric cars. Storing power for electric grid
Virtual retinal display	Working prototypes	VR headsets, displays	Augmented reality, virtual reality
Reliable Global Navigation Satellite System	System currently being produced	Various custom built systems	Mission critical navigation
WiTricity	Working prototypes	Electrical cables	Wireless energy transfer
Vitrification or Cryoprotectant	Theory and some experiments	Ischemic Damages	Organ transplant
Non-rocket spacelaunch	Theory and some experiments	Rocket	Launch loop launch track Space gun Space elevator
Holography
Thermal copper pillar bump	Working prototypes in discrete devices	Conventional thermal solutions, heat sinks, bulk thermoelectrics	Cooling hot spots in integrated circuits; cooling high-brightness light-emitting diode and laser diodes; actuating micro-fluidic valves; energy harvesting (recycling) from combustion processes; electric power for remote devices such as wireless sensor networks; power generation for medical implants