A Glimpse Into The Future And How It Is Improving

Being a technologist, I immerse myself into stories, articles, and papers about technology. For the better part of a decade, I did this in an effort to understand trends and where things are going.

There are so many out there with a dystopian view of things. I find that the view people have of the future, whether good or bad, tends to be nothing more than a projection of how they see things now. Nevertheless, there are thousands of reasons a week to be optimistic about how things are progressing.

There are millions of projects, if not tens of millions, being worked on around the world in all the different fields. Collectively, these are all having a major impact. Technology is at the core of much of this. Disruption is coming on hot and heavy with few prepared for it.

The technological implications are a bit different from the societal ones. Here, I am focusing solely on the technological benefits. Society is going to have to do a lot of work to solve other issues.

One of the leading fields in automation and technological progress is the agriculture business. When making reference to autonomous vehicles, names like Tesla, Waymo, and Uber are thrown around. Never do you hear of the company that most produced more autonomous vehicles than anyone else: John Deere.

Over the past decade, this company took great strides in implementing technology that is now in operation in fields all over the world. In fact, most companies in this industry did the same thing. Farms now employ a fraction of the number of workers they did in the past. We ever are starting to see the use of automatic milking machines for cows.

One drawback to the entire sector is the use of pesticides. This constant for decades is now coming under fire itself. Whether we are looking at the personal garden behind one's house or the full-scale farm, the same holds true: most everything is sprayed with chemicals. The argri-petrochemical business is huge.

Of course, this creates a series of problems. The most notable is that they are sprayed everywhere. There is no regard for food versus weed. It is also a major detriment to the environment. Over time, the soil is harmed because of the long-term use of these chemicals (not to mention it getting into the drinking water).

What if, however, this could be reduced by a factor of 20?

This is exactly what we could be looking at. The $26B herbicide business could be seriously dented.

This will be the future.

The future: Robots like the one created by ecoRobotix (shown above) will be able to roll through fields, using computer vision to target and spray individual weeds as they go. EcoRobotix claims its robo-brigade will decrease total herbicide use by a factor of 20. You might even be able to get a smaller Roomba-esque version for your home garden.

Essentially we are looking at the use of computer intelligence (AI) to target the weeds that need spraying which is going to cut the use of these chemicals by 95%. This is something that is going to have a major impact on the environment, could crush the revenues of the chemical companies, and improve the health of people.

Of course, start ups have always existed with grand ideas to radically change industries only to falter. Not this time.

The use of these weed killers isn’t far off. John Deere got in on the tech last year, acquiring the precision spraying startup Blue River, meaning its tractors could be outfitted with weed targeters very soon. Large agrochemical companies are desperately trying to acquire businesses working on similar technologies, in preparation for a decline in demand for their chemicals.

https://www.technologyreview.com/the-download/611196/weed-killing-robots-are-threatening-giant-chemical-companies-business-models/

This is how you know it is a done deal. Not only is the biggest fish in this pond, John Deere, in this market, but all the major agrochemical companies too. When everyone in an industry is moving in a direction, that is the direction the industry takes.

Here we have one idea that is going to have huge impact. What is fascinating is that it is something 99% of the population has no idea about. Who thinks about the herbicide spraying on farms and the ramifications of it? This is not exactly on the top of most people's agenda. I am sure more people know what the President did this morning than this major ecological and agriculture innovation.

Now multiply this times a few hundred thousand and you see how the world is changing. For every negative story about something bad happening with technology, there are a thousand case points which negate that.

So get excited, we are going to see a major improvement in humanity over the next 5-10 years. This progress is not something decades or centuries away. It is right at the front door.

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