11 reasons to be excited about the future of technology

In the year 1820, a person could expect to live less than 35 years, 94% of the global population
lived in extreme poverty, and less that 20% of the population was literate. Today, human life
expectancy is over 70 years, less that 10% of the global population lives in extreme poverty, and
over 80% of people are literate. These improvements are due mainly to advances in technology,
beginning in the industrial age and continuing today in the information age.
There are many exciting new technologies that will continue to transform the world and improve
human welfare. Here is one of them.
2. Clean Energy
Attempts to fight climate change by reducing the demand for energy haven’t worked. Fortunately,
scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs have been working hard on the supply side to make clean
energy convenient and cost-effective.
Due to steady technological and manufacturing advances, the price of solar cells has dropped
99.5% since 1977. Solar will soon be more cost efficient than fossil fuels. The cost of wind energy
has also dropped to an all-time low, and in the last decade represented about a third of newly
installed US energy capacity.
Forward thinking organizations are taking advantage of this. For example, in India there is an
initiative to convert airports to self-sustaining clean energy.
Tesla is making high-performance, affordable electric cars, and installing electric charging stations
worldwide.
There are hopeful signs that clean energy could soon be reaching a tipping point. For example, in
Japan, there are now more electric charging stations than gas stations.
And Germany produces so much renewable energy, it sometimes produces even more than it can
use.

Illustration 1: A Tesla, charging.