According to the World Economic Forum and Scientific American, self-fertilizing crops are one of the world’s Top 10 Emerging Technologies.
Low-carbon shipping and 3D-printed dwellings are two other emerging technology trends.
The metaverse will generate even more attention in 2022, as the boundaries between the physical and digital worlds continue to dissolve.
Metaverse
One of the most popular buzzwords right now is “metaverse.” It’s essentially a virtual world made possible by merging several technologies, such as virtual and augmented reality.
Companies like Facebook hope that the metaverse will become a place where we can meet, work, play, study, and shop, even if it doesn’t exist yet.
The next phase of the internet is expected to be ‘extended reality,’ which will blur the barriers between physical and digital existence. Consider in-game purchases, in which computer gamers can pay real money for virtual products and services. A customized avatar creator or a metaverse research scientist are examples of jobs in the metaverse.
Crops that self-fertilize
Every year, roughly 110 million tonnes of nitrogen fertilizer are utilized in global crop production. This is equivalent to 1% to 2% of worldwide carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.
Plants such as soy and beans, which are members of the legume family, which also includes peas and lentils, employ a “clever approach” to make their own nitrogen, according to the Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2021 report published by Scientific American and the World Economic Forum.
Other crops, such as corn and other grains, may now be “coaxed” to self-fertilize, according to scientists.
Houses made from 3D printers
In the paper that feeding elements like concrete, sand, and polymers into a giant 3D printer to manufacture homes is a “very easy and low-cost construction process.”
However, the absence of infrastructure to transport materials has prevented 3D printing from being used in remote and growing countries, where it may have the most impact.
This could change if more businesses follow in the footsteps of WASP, an Italian 3D printing startup that has demonstrated how to create home components out of local resources like clay soil.
Shipping that is low in carbon
Currently, just about 2% of road transport fleets create zero emissions. However, low-carbon solutions have emerged as a result of bulk shipping – both rail and seaborne.
A CO2-free passenger rail, and the development of alternative shipping fuels like green ammonia, a carbon-free gas created with renewable energy, are two examples.
According to Meyerson’s Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2021 research, the problem is getting these technologies to scale.
Given that such transformational programs demand major capital expenditure, the constraints are not only technological but also political.
Is it possible that by 2022, we’ll have made significant progress?
Cryptocurrencies
According to Thomson Reuters Foundation, a global news and information services company, cryptocurrency is going from the “fringes of finance” to the “mainstream.”
In September 2021, El Salvador, a Central American country, became the first to make bitcoin, the original and most popular cryptocurrency, legal tender.
While this is going on, central banks in Sweden, Canada, the European Union, and the United Kingdom are all considering their own digital currencies.
Not everyone, however, sees this as a positive trend in the future of finance. Countries such as China, Bangladesh, Qatar, Egypt, and Morocco have all banned cryptocurrencies due to concerns about possible risk and fraud.
It’s also harmful to the environment to use massively powerful computer systems to ‘mine’ for fresh crypto. However, other experts in the computer industry feel that with regulation, it will become a more long-term legal tende
These are the top 5 trends that have already taken over 2022 and are expected to grow throughout the year. Let us know in the comments what do you think of these 5 trends…