Taking Technology to the Next Level

The good folks at Kiplinger are primarily in the business of forecasting — both in the near and long term. A few current facts, of course, are mixed in.

Here are a few of their recent postings regarding technology. I would categorize them as ones that make you stop and say, Wow!:

    •  Electronics now make up 40% of the cost of automobile materials, up from 15% in 2005. The average car is run by 40 microprocessors and 40 million lines of digital code

    • New cars and trucks cost less in real terms than in 1995. Prices for housing, food, energy, etc. have increased by more than 50% over a similar time period

    • Look for much faster smart phones by 2014 when wireless technology will let phones receive and send data at least five times as fast as today’s models

    • Computer speeds will leap too as electronic processors will be replaced by chips that  use light waves. The chips will be able to crunch data far faster than the current sending and receiving of slower electrons. 

On the last item, Kiplinger predicts commercialization around the year 2020. But don’t worry; there will be plenty more technology advancements between now and then.