Technologies That Will Change Our Children’s Lives
Rogelio Valdés
Oct 9, 2020
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The world is constantly changing, and more and more often we have to adapt to new technologies. Many of us have lived through powerful trends that completely transformed the way we work, study, and live. In my case, I saw the birth and rise of smartphones and mobile apps. My parents witnessed the arrival of early computers and the birth of the internet. It is impossible to predict exactly what will come next, but I can point to a few trends that have the potential to revolutionize our children’s lives again. I also want to share the tools children should start learning today so they can not only understand the future of technology, but help build it.
Virtual and augmented reality
What should children start learning?
Programming
Animation and 3D graphics
The internet showed us that there can be a fully digital world where we do almost everything we do in real life. There are stores, places to have fun, spaces to connect with friends, banks, places to work and collaborate online, and of course places to learn. And even though the experience is still different from the physical world, more and more developments are narrowing that gap.
There are incredible projects such as Facebook’s Oculus, which lets you step into a virtual world from almost anywhere using only a headset. You can build a virtual desk and work, watch a movie, play a video game as if you were inside it, visit stores and museums, or simply walk around a city like a tourist.
On the other hand, Microsoft’s HoloLens focuses more on extending reality by creating holograms you can see in your own living room. There are demos showing a father speaking with his daughter in real time through a hologram and even preserving that moment to relive it later.
Biomedical engineering
What should children start learning?
Programming
Electronics
Biology
This is a very broad area because in recent years we have redefined what is possible in health and medicine. Things that once seemed impossible, such as creating vaccines and medicines in record time with the support of artificial intelligence algorithms, are already happening. There are laboratories that are creating functional organs so that patients who lost a vital organ through illness or accident may one day generate a replacement instead of waiting years for a compatible donor.
Even Elon Musk, the founder behind Tesla and SpaceX, announced some months ago that he was already working on a device that connects directly with thousands of neurons in the human brain in order to treat different illnesses. It could help people with neurological conditions or people who have lost mobility in parts of their bodies.
Quantum computing
What should children start learning?
Programming
Physics
Mathematics
I already talked before about how a computer works when I wrote about what programming language a child should learn, but there is another kind of computer built on a fundamentally different language. Quantum computers do not operate through the same system of ones and zeros as conventional computers. This different way of “thinking” may help us solve problems that normal computers struggle with, such as predicting the weather. We can estimate the weather now, of course, but it is influenced by so many variables that even a tiny change on the other side of the world can affect the forecast.
Quantum computers may eventually be able to take into account huge numbers of variables in order to model weather more accurately. The same kind of power could be used to predict economic or financial behavior, or even help generate the formula for a new medicine or vaccine. This technology is still at an early stage and probably will not replace conventional computers, because they are really two very different species of technology, but it will definitely shape the way our children and future generations live.
These are just a few of the exponential technologies that will transform everyday life for the generations that come next. It may feel overwhelming for a child to imagine creating things like this, but right now the goal should be inspiration. They should look at what is already happening and use that to stay motivated. Many of the things they learn as children, such as programming, will help them later when they face a world that looks very different from today.
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