As we embrace the digital age, people are becoming more and more connected to devices, and those devices are increasingly becoming connected to their bodies. We are seeing a paradigm shift where devices are not just being worn, but also implanted into bodies, serving communications, location and behaviour monitoring, and health functions. We can see these early innovations in pacemakers and cochlear implants, and they were just the beginning, with many more health devices consistently being launched. These devices will be able to sense the parameters of diseases; they will therefore enable individuals to take action, send and share data to monitoring centres, or potentially release healing medicines automatically. Smart tattoos and other unique chips are no longer a thing you see in Sci-fi movies, they are already helping with identification and location. Implanted devices will most likely also help to communicate thoughts normally expressed verbally through a “built-in” smartphone, and potentially even unexpressed thoughts or moods by reading brainwaves and other signals.
We believe that the tipping point for this technology to go mainstream will be the first implantable mobile phone available commercially, and this should happen around 2023 according to our data. By 2025, we should be fully reaping the benefits of implantable technology and seeing it go mainstream with plenty of use cases; health and medical being the forefront of this.
Positive impacts:
- Reduction in missing children
- Increased positive health outcomes
- Increased self-sufficiency
- Better decision-making
- Image recognition and availability of personal data (anonymous network that will “yelp” people)
Negative impacts:
- Privacy/potential surveillance
- Decreased data security
- Escapism and addiction
- Increased distractions (i.e. attention deficit disorder)
Unknown and controversial:
- Longer lives
- Changing nature of human relationships
- Changes in human interactions and relationships
- Real-time identification
- Cultural shift (eternal memory)
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