Disruption: First Thoughts

Today I was filling out an application for PennApps and had to answer a fairly straightforward question that really hit home for me.

**Disclaimer: I plan on expanding on this and will provide an edit note later**

Here is the question I was asked on the PennApps application

Name a field or industry you believe will be radically changed by tech innovation in the next few years. What breakthrough technologies do you see as the main disruptor and why?

Here is the long-winded answer I provided because I simply could not stop

I am going to assume that a few years means 5-8 years out, simply because I believe that’s where all the exciting things will be happening. The easiest answer to this is going to be either transpiration or consumer home. This will mostly depend on which industry regulated in such a way that it promotes growth.

If transportation is the next big field then what we may see is the adoption of unmanned delivery fleets and the privatization of roads that only allow self aware vehicles. With privatized roads giving consumers an option to be on the road alongside other driver-less vehicles, we can find scientific data that supports the theory that self driving vehicles are safer. If the private industry can disrupt the current infrastructure and create a “smart road network,” and early adopters that can prove these vehicles are safe, it will push the industry to operate on the assumption that cars will drive themselves and roads will need to collect and send data. Fundamentally this is the disruption that will be coming to the autonomous vehicle industry. The unmanned drone fleet idea will bring the price and time of deliveries down which will enable more industries to do delivery. With fast “micro deliveries” (instead of having a truck that delivers to a whole area in one run, having drones that can deliver to one or two people quickly on a per-package-demand basis) food delivery could be one of the industries that are transformed.

Now if the consumer home is the next industry to be disrupted, then we will find ourselves living in a world where most mundane tasks are automated. With the potential of IoT data collection, homes will be able to make decisions like changing temperature in rooms and turning off the lights, all the way up to ordering servicemen to fix things in the house and preparing food or shopping lists. There are many decisions people have to make daily that can be an inconvenience and a waste of time. IoT will fix that and make a home where you do what you want, and the house simply organizes itself to best stay out of your way.

WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?!!?

So taking away the context, what this more or less boils down to is that disruption is good for everyone. As technology advances at terrifying rates, this will always open the door to new Blue Oceans (highly recommended) that will become the future.