What is the hottest technology 5/10 years from now?

If I had extra money and wanted to invest in technology on the ground floor to maximaze my return on my investment, where should I put it?

If you would rather think long term, say 15 to 30 years out, then thats OK..

I'd love to here all ideas.

I guess, looking around your enviroment, i.e. where you live, what ever part of the world and seeing what likes and dislikes are is a good place to start.

Thanks

Well, since this is pretty much the profession i have choosen for my self so I guess I'll chime in. First I'll list some books you should read on the subject because they will explain it far better then I could.

First book I suggest you read is Engines of Creation, you should be able to get it in a library if you prefer the hard version, however there is a soft version available on this website(the book has been released under Creative Commons)
www.foresight.org...

Secon book is Quantum Investing, it mostly talks about the future Knowledge Based Quantum Economy that we are about to enter.

Third book is a bit more down to earth and its written as if its to a CEO of a large company. Its calle The Next Big Thing is Really Small.

As for where you should put your money in I would look out for companies that are IP heavy with a real revenue stream. In the Nanotech sector there is no such Pure Play yet, but there is a couple of Private companies that you should watch closely.

1. Nanosys - Developing High-Efficency Solar Cells amoung many other potentially disruptive techs.

2. Nanodynamics - Involved primarily in fuel cells

3. Nanotex - The makers of the Stainproof Pants and Wrinkle resistant suits.

4. www.zyvex.com... By far is the only company that has stated its goal is to develope Nanotech Assemblers and Disassemblers as like in Engines of Creation.

As for public companies well I am not going to mention anything publicly because I don't want to be endorsing anything on these boards. If you want to know which stocks I'm investing in right now give me U2U.


If you want a safe bet. Look at companies like IBM, Intel, Cyprus Semi, Dupont etc. The big players already have a significant advantage in this field. And Nanotech is going to develop allot like the Biotech industry.

Hope this helps

Originally posted by sardion2000
If you want a safe bet. Look at companies like IBM, Intel, Cyprus Semi, Dupont etc. The big players already have a significant advantage in this field. And Nanotech is going to develop allot like the Biotech industry.

I was going to say this, but sardion beat me to it.

Just remember 'Nano' is the secret word if thinking about future.

Surf

``

yessir, the 1st two replies were pretty good...

in 5 or 10 years, we'll be either at a relaxed peace or back at steam energy
as a throwback from the ravages of the war(s)

CAVE technology...kinda like the Holodeck on the Star-Trek series.
a total immersion cyber/holographic entertainment experience-reality

or

horse & buggy...except for the medics & politicos of the democracy-class
the NWO, exercises rationing to protect resources, environment and curb
the wanton coveting of a hoi polloi...

see: www.plim.org...
for 'glimmer' of hope.....

Investing Is a pet past time of mine. I would suggest you become a member of a webpage, The Motley Fool.

You should be able to find it here, www.fool.com

As far as investments, Wireless BroadBand called "WI-MAX" It is a limitless range wireless broadband internet. It's the next logical step after wi-fi and physical data lines.

-ADHDsux4me

P.S. I expect my consultant's fees, lol.

OLED displays and iMod displays will both prove to be a major player in upcoming computer systems, PDAs, and cell phones. Here are a couple of company that have some pretty promising technology:

www.iridigm.com...

and

www.universaldisplay.com...

there are so many technology coming out that I couldn't list them all here..

ADHD, he was asking about ground floor investments not somthing that was hot in like 2003. WIFI growndfloor investment has come and gone(and I missed out I also missed out on the China boom too sigh can't win em all), allthough it is pretty safe for a short term bet, and not as high risk as Nanotech.

As for the Foolish investors(note the capitolization on foolish ) I also suggest you subscribe to the Motley Fool amoung other sites as one of the things I have learned is that if one wants to be succesfull you gotta have multiple strategies and mutiple valuation methods(and multiple sources of information). All are pretty much learned through boring Due Dilligance, and as an Investor you should do ALL your own research and stopping by message boards is also a good idea as well(investing boards with Low membership rolls ei www.nanalyze.com...)


Sigma, I am really looking foward to OLED technology being embedded in large(40+ inches) TVs. OLED technology is already featured in some KODAC cameras and let me tell you it makes a big differance, the light is somehow softer yet the image is much crisper cool nanotech there.

And you just reminded me of somthing, Carbon Nanotube TVs(CNTV) are also up and coming and the really cool thing about CNTVs is that they can be produced in Cathod Ray Tube plants with only minimal upgraded manufaturing equipment. Nanotech is gonna revolusionize the TV as well can't wait

Originally posted by sardion2000
ADHD, he was asking about ground floor investments not somthing that was hot in like 2003. WIFI growndfloor investment has come and gone(and I missed out.

Actually I must call your wrong there. WIMAX is very different from WIFI. Comparing the two is like saying a horse is as fast as a Ferrari. Doesn't quite work. WIMAX presents GLOBAL internet connectivity; compared to the 100-300 foot range of 802.11b wifi connections. Imagine no more wires; ever. No need for a modem. No need for installation. It's just there. Perfect, seamless connectivity. It is definitely a worthwhile investment.

Originally posted by iceofspades

Originally posted by sardion2000
ADHD, he was asking about ground floor investments not somthing that was hot in like 2003. WIFI growndfloor investment has come and gone(and I missed out.

Actually I must call your wrong there. WIMAX is very different from WIFI. Comparing the two is like saying a horse is as fast as a Ferrari. Doesn't quite work. WIMAX presents GLOBAL internet connectivity; compared to the 100-300 foot range of 802.11b wifi connections. Imagine no more wires; ever. No need for a modem. No need for installation. It's just there. Perfect, seamless connectivity. It is definitely a worthwhile investment.

Hmm...perhaps I was being overly dismissive. I like highly speculative stuff though, not things that are pretty much guarunteed, as the potential payoff is lower. What big players are invested in WIMAX? If the big players are already in heavy then I want no part in it as I most often spurn blue chips and go high beta instead.


On a side note I just thought of more areas that might be worth looking into. The Detriot Auto Industry, it has slowly been recovering(and since the USD has been plunging) and GM is the heavy player when looking into the future. When I look into the future I see a car very heavily influenced by GMs Hywire Hydrogen Concept car with the Skateboard Chasis.

Nanotech is a long while off really.... its still essentially just tarted up chemistry of meta-materials (the ones nature missed)

I would invest in superconductivity. Its been a slowly evolving subjuct for nearly a century but now people are just beginning to discover new TYPES of superconductivity ie spin up triplet states as opposed to the normal spin up/down doublets.... Also companies are just coming making superconducting motors.

The beifets of SC technology are huge... and if anyone were to discover the holy grail (room temp SC) then they'd be very rich and revolutionise society in the process.

I have a collection of several thousand ebooks. will there ever be a good device to read them? one time i heard sony has the rights for electronic paper(device uses energy only for changing the content not for displaying), they also had a reader out in japan but stopped to sell it.

I allways thought that electronic books(also newspapers and magazins) would become standard(it seems logic to me), maybe this is something to invest into.

I sure like WIMAX this will be the first free global datasphere.

read william gibson and dan simmons if you want to see the future.

[edit on 5-12-2004 by feyd rautha]

You might want to considder Phillips, some professor created a new data-storage technology and was going to sell it to phillips, it was going to be revolutionary, people at Silicon Valley said he was gonna be the richest man on the planet, but shortly before the deal was made with Phillips he "Mysteriously" died of a heart attack in his backyard...

So don't be suprised if Phillips comes with revolutionary technology, they already have some VERY neat stuff developed...like 3D ultra-sound...

But the best bet is Nanotechnology, according to experts it will be around in about 11 years from now with a little luck...well it's already around but in 11 years it will have matured in such a sense it will be usable for medical purposes and perhaps building things...(I.E. Colonies on Mars)

NanoTech would eventually be the road to immorality...the dark side of this technology is it could be used as a super-virus...capable of elimnating everything...

I would have to agree on nantechnologies though I think most may be more than 10 years away. I do believe that we will continue to see a surge in cosmetic related drugs and materials for aging, hair growth and preventing hair growth, birth control forms, eye color changing, things of that nature. I also see a consistent improvement in surgicval equiptment across the board. Then again these are natural progressions based on technologies rather than predicting anthing out of the ordinary such as time travel.

Yeah, nanotech will undoubtedly be the most revolutionary technology since the inception of microcomputing. With nanobots, humans can literally eradicate all viral and bacterial sickness as well as the potential for repairing harmful genetic mutations. In other words, the destruction of disease to the known man.

If that's not enough, nanotechnology presents the possibility for neural interfacing with computers and limitless computing power. It may take decades, in fact most likely will take several, but nanotech removes the technological barrier for humans. So, yeah...invest...invest a lot.

Hmm seems Intel has jumped on the WiMAX bandwagon, so I think this elevator has already left the ground floor unfortunetly I am kinda excited about the technology though.

Here is the link in case anyone is interested.
www.intel.com...

LEPs (Light Emitting Polymers). I'd love to work for a company that was developing products around this technology.

So far what I've seen come out of it has been pretty mundane, but the potential is really fantastic.

For example, supermarkets often struggle to ensure items on their shelves are correctly labelled, and more applicably, correctly priced. Cheap LEP shelf labelling could be remotely changed from a central computer so that prices are always correct. Special offers could flash and grab the customer's attention, perhaps scrolling descriptions, or details of warehouse stock levels, etc.

Dynamic wallpaper for instance. Your walls could change depending on the season, or perhaps they could morph gradually from one pattern to the next, or be used as a giant television screen. Also, because LEPs can be coated, entire products could be cased in display. Imagine clothes that could change color, or have video displays on them, or how about your car?

How about a flexible computer display that you roll up when you're done with it? An electronic newspaper or book?


For more information:

www.cdtltd.co.uk...

Nanotech combined with stem cell research
with a side order of real estate.

One also might consider that by the year 2015 ( if we make it that long)
more than half the U.S. population will be over 65.

The demand for affordable housing and assisted care facilities
will be tremendous.

Originally posted by Jadette
For example, supermarkets often struggle to ensure items on their shelves are correctly labelled, and more applicably, correctly priced. Cheap LEP shelf labelling could be remotely changed from a central computer so that prices are always correct. Special offers could flash and grab the customer's attention, perhaps scrolling descriptions, or details of warehouse stock levels, etc.

While not using LEP's, these systems have been trialled/are in use in the uk using current technology. A few years back Safeway trialled electronic shelf displays, linked to the shops main computer as you described, that were LCD and similar in size to a credit card. From what I know it was scrapped because the things broke all the time (customers dropping cans of beans on them I guess). Correct prices are now maintained by having the price included in the barcode so it cannot go through the tills at any other price than that stated. Tesco currently use flat screen monitors bracketed to the shelves which are constantly playing adverts/promotions and other information.
The first company to use LEP's as part of their product packaging will have a head-start against it's competitors. This would ideally suit the products that are aimed at kids...especially the products that endorse a movie/sport etc.

As far as future technologies worth investing in........none, unless you have real in-depth knowledge of the product and it's competitors. There are usually many variations or versions of any new technology and all bar one/a couple fall by the wayside. Betamax anyone?

All, I'd like to thank everyone your reponses. I've read through all these and will try to summarize all that is said if I can.

To every one concerned, I was looking for tech's and investments tech's that would kinda provoke the thought "Why didn't I think of that before." You know, like predicitng in 1980 Microsoft would have been as big as it was in 1990, or better yet, 2000.

Now, we'd all love to have this kind of foresight, maybe collectively we can.

What I've seen so far can be broken down into three things.

1. WIMAX - I'm certainly going to do more research into this area as I'm not familiar with the technology. WIFI is still in it's infancy over in the next largest city. Actually WIFI might would be a good idea for me where I live just due to lack of a product serving a market. Someone asked Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart, why he built all of his stores in such small towns. He said "There's a lot of money in them small towns"

2. Nanotechnology - I'm an Electrical Engineer and I read many trade rags to stay current and I see many companies pursuing nanotechs. MEMS is another area where nanotech is prevalent. This is such a broad field and the implications are so abundent, it's hard, at least for me, which horse to put my money on.

3. LEP's - Light Emitting Polymers. Just the name sounds sexy to me. I will most definitly keep my eye on this on. What I would like to know is, if my car was coated with this product, could I change the color with the click of switch. I'm pipe dreaming here, but talk about being able to escape and evade not to mention just brighten your day.

Please keep up the post and thanks to all that have contributed so far.

Originally posted by birddawg
3. LEP's - Light Emitting Polymers. Just the name sounds sexy to me. I will most definitly keep my eye on this on. What I would like to know is, if my car was coated with this product, could I change the color with the click of switch. I'm pipe dreaming here, but talk about being able to escape and evade not to mention just brighten your day.

Honestly, if they think they can do the other things they predict, I don't see why not. I heard speculation that buses and taxis could have advertisements on them. So why not change the color?