Future Inventions Changing Our World

Future inventions are being imagined, tested and built right now — and some of them could completely change how you travel, communicate, work, explore and look after our planet. Artificial intelligence, robots, renewable energy, electric vehicles, 3D printing and missions to Mars might sound like ideas from science fiction, but many of these technologies already exist. The really exciting question is what they could become next.

Almost every invention begins with a problem. How can we produce energy without relying so heavily on fossil fuels? Could a machine explore somewhere too dangerous for a person? Can we manufacture something exactly where it is needed instead of transporting it halfway around the world? And what would humans need if we ever wanted to live and work on another planet?

Scientists, engineers, designers and inventors are already trying to answer questions like these. But the future is far from finished. There are still problems nobody has solved, machines nobody has built and ideas nobody has thought of yet.

Artificial intelligence: computers that learn from information

You have probably already heard a lot about artificial intelligence, usually shortened to AI. It is appearing in everything from phones and computers to medicine, science and transport.

AI allows computer systems to perform tasks that usually require some form of human intelligence. They can recognise patterns, work with language, analyse enormous amounts of information and make predictions from data. But there isn’t a tiny human-like mind hiding inside the computer. AI works using software, mathematical methods, data and powerful computer systems that identify patterns and use them to produce results. That is also how the October MiniMag feature introduces AI: as technology that can recognise patterns, understand language, analyse information and learn from examples.

One of the most interesting parts of AI is how many different problems it could help us tackle. Scientists can use it to analyse information far faster than a person could manage alone. Doctors are exploring ways to use AI to help interpret medical information, while engineers can use it to improve transport systems or predict when machines need maintenance.

But inventing powerful technology also brings responsibility. The people designing AI have to think about whether the systems they create are accurate, safe, fair and trustworthy. That means some of the biggest challenges in AI are not simply about making computers more powerful — they are about deciding how that power should be used. The US National Institute of Standards and Technology has developed an entire framework around building and using AI responsibly. NIST

Explore NIST’s guide to trustworthy and responsible AI

Robots: machines that lend a hand

Robots often appear alongside AI, but the two are not the same thing. A robot is a physical machine designed to carry out tasks, while AI is a type of computer technology that can help machines analyse information or make decisions. Some robots use AI, while others simply follow carefully programmed instructions.

Robots are already hard at work in factories, laboratories, hospitals and warehouses. Some can explore places that would be dangerous for humans, while robotic spacecraft have travelled to other worlds. As the original MiniMag feature explains, future robots could become especially useful for jobs that are dangerous, difficult, repetitive or simply too far away for people to do easily.

Imagine a rescue robot small enough to crawl through the wreckage of a collapsed building, an underwater robot searching the deep ocean, or a machine that plants trees across damaged landscapes. A robot does not need to look like a person to be useful. Sometimes the best design is one perfectly shaped for a single job.

That is one of the secrets of invention: start with the problem, then design the machine that solves it.

Renewable energy: power from nature

Modern life uses an enormous amount of energy. Homes need electricity, hospitals need reliable power, factories run machines and billions of phones, computers and other devices need to be charged. For much of the modern era, coal, oil and natural gas have supplied a large share of that energy.

Scientists and engineers are developing ways to produce more energy from resources that are naturally replenished. Solar panels capture energy from sunlight, wind turbines use moving air to generate electricity and hydroelectric systems use moving water. Geothermal energy can use heat from inside Earth, while researchers are also exploring energy from tides and other ocean systems.

The challenge is not simply producing electricity. The Sun does not shine all night, and the wind does not blow at exactly the same strength all the time. That means engineers also need better ways to store energy and move it to where it is needed.

Batteries are therefore becoming an important part of the renewable-energy story. A future neighbourhood might have solar panels on rooftops, batteries storing spare electricity, electric vehicles charging outside homes and a power network that moves energy around depending on demand. Instead of one invention solving everything, the future may depend on many technologies learning to work together.

The US Department of Energy has more information about how photovoltaic cells in solar panels convert sunlight into electricity. NIST

Discover how solar energy works

Electric vehicles: changing how we travel

Cars are changing too. Instead of burning petrol or diesel inside an engine, an electric vehicle stores electricity in a battery and uses that energy to power an electric motor.

Because nothing is being burned inside an all-electric car while it is driving, it produces no exhaust from a tailpipe. That does not mean electric vehicles have no environmental impact. Their batteries require materials and energy to manufacture, and the electricity used to charge them still has to be produced somewhere. MiniMag’s October feature highlights both sides of the story while explaining that scientists are working to make batteries cheaper, lighter, safer and capable of storing more energy.

Those improvements could matter far beyond cars. Better batteries could help store renewable electricity for homes, power robots for longer, improve portable technology and perhaps even play a role in future spacecraft.

The vehicle of the future may change in other ways too. Electric buses, trains and delivery vehicles are already appearing in cities around the world, while engineers continue experimenting with autonomous driving technology. Transport might eventually become not only cleaner, but smarter and more connected.

3D printing: building one layer at a time

A normal printer creates an image by placing ink on paper. A 3D printer can turn a digital design into a physical object.

Many 3D printers work by building an object gradually, adding one thin layer of material after another. Today the technology is already used to create prototypes, models, tools, machine parts and some medical devices.

That becomes especially interesting when you think about distance.

Imagine a scientist working at a research station thousands of kilometres from the nearest city who suddenly needs a small replacement part. Sending another part could take days or weeks. If the correct material and equipment were available, a digital design might instead be sent to the station and manufactured there.

Now take that idea much farther.

What if the nearest supply warehouse wasn’t on another continent, but on another planet?

Being able to manufacture tools and replacement parts where they are needed could become extremely valuable to future space explorers and coming up with future inventions. A digital file weighs nothing, takes up no cargo space and can be transmitted over enormous distances. The material still has to come from somewhere, but the object itself might be made only when it is needed.

Photo by Snapmaker 3D Printer on Unsplash

Mars: the ultimate invention challenge

Mars may be one of the greatest engineering challenges humans have ever considered.

Robotic spacecraft have already travelled there to photograph the landscape, study rocks and search for clues about the planet’s ancient past. But sending humans would be far more complicated. Mars is extremely distant, and astronauts would need enough food, water and oxygen for the journey, along with shelter, power and protection from radiation once they arrived.

Many technologies we have already explored in this article suddenly become important on Mars. Solar power could generate electricity. Robots could scout dangerous locations before people enter them. 3D printers might manufacture replacement parts. Artificial intelligence could help equipment operate when immediate instructions from Earth are impossible.

There is another intriguing possibility: instead of carrying everything from Earth, could astronauts make some of what they need after they arrive?

NASA has already experimented with exactly that idea. The MOXIE experiment aboard the Perseverance rover demonstrated a way of producing oxygen from carbon dioxide in the Martian atmosphere. It was a small experiment, but it tested an idea that could become extremely important if people eventually travel there. NIST Publications

Explore NASA’s plans for future human exploration of Mars

NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover acquired this image using its onboard Left Navigation Camera (Navcam). The camera is located high on the rover’s mast and aids in driving.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The future inventions you might never notice

Not every world-changing invention has to be a giant robot, an electric car or a rocket.

Some of the most important future technologies may solve problems that seem surprisingly ordinary. A new material could keep food fresh for longer. A better water filter might make clean drinking water easier to access. A new battery could store more renewable energy. Farming technology could help grow more food using less water, while an inexpensive medical device could make treatment available far from a hospital.

Inventions like these might never appear dramatically in a science-fiction film, but they could improve millions of lives.

Great inventors are often good at noticing problems that everybody else has simply learned to accept. They look at something familiar and ask, Why does it work this way? Could it work better?

What future inventions would you invent?

Nobody knows exactly what the world will look like in 20, 50 or 100 years. That uncertainty is what makes future inventions so exciting.

The scientists and engineers developing tomorrow’s technology did not begin their lives knowing how to build robots, spacecraft, batteries or artificial intelligence. They learned how things worked, experimented with ideas, made mistakes and kept asking questions.

You can begin the same way.

Look around you for something that is difficult, wasteful, slow, annoying or simply not working as well as it could. Think about how you would change it. Draw your idea and label the important parts. Work out what materials it might need and what could go wrong. Then change the design and make it better.

Almost everything around you — from the screen you’re reading this on to the electricity powering it — began because somebody imagined a different way of doing something.

The next invention that changes the world may still be nothing more than an idea.

And someone still has to think of it.

Keep exploring

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