Well, I'm one of the visionaries. I definitely see more flying objects in our future. The flying car is the end result, yet there are other things that will fly before the car. Just wait and see, you'll be cleverly amazed at what dreamers, inventors, and visionaries will do. Could you imagine pizza delivery flying to your home or apartment, and a robot getting paid electronically? I'm not so sure about this, but it's interesting to think about. How about transporting via hovercraft? The future of touchscreen.

You've seen nothing yet, enjoy the videos! Yes, we're heading towards the Jetsons! The flying car in the video is nice (although it's not really a flying car)

Enjoy!

Shock No. 1: Triumph of the cloud
My main prediction is that the high cost of power and space is going to force the IT world to look at cloud services, with a shift to computing as a cloud resource occurring in the next five years. So like the old mainframe model where we didn't care how the machine is configured, we just dump requests to the machine and get results. In fact, cloud computing services will resemble mainframe service bureaus. We're already starting to see cloud service bureaus, such as Amazon's EC2. Ultimately, the emergence of cloud computing will reduce the need for computing at the enterprise level. --

Shock No. 2: Cyborg chic
By 2018, geek chic will look a lot like what today we'd call a cyborg. The human/machine interface will be ubiquitous, with people walking around giving voice/whisper commands and using earbud audio and an eyeglass display that superimposes a machine-enhanced view of the world on ordinary vision. Nobody will notice that half the population is cyborg, because we'll get there one small step at a time, as iPhone belt-clip holders give way to the iBeltBuckle, iGlasses (hey, that's catchy!), and iEarRings. A new generation of computer viruses will take over the new display technology. Sometimes they're fatal, as when the computer display shows an empty street, when in Actual Reality (AR) the street is filled with high-speed traffic. Other times they're just funny, as when the display insists on showing mustaches on every face in view. --

Shock No. 3: Everything works
You come home to do a little work on the computer, and when you turn it on, it boots up in just a few seconds with no issues. You open e-mail and it comes up without your having to wait. In fact, this new OS doesn't even have an hourglass icon! For the rest of the night, your computer does everything you ask it to do, without any waiting, hiccups, or errors. The interface is intuitive and sleek. It even changes based off what you're currently doing so that you can access features of the OS that you need while you're, say, working with e-mail or editing pics. We'll call this OS "Windows Sci-Fi" because we're all dreaming if we think that'll ever happen. –

Shock No. 4: Nothing escapes you
In 1945, Vannevar Bush conceived of a device called a Memex that would store and retrieve all information accumulated throughout one's life. In the next 30 years, advances in speech and video recognition, the power of cloud-based computing, and real-time, continuous, wearable content capture will bring the Memex vision to life. Just think: You'll be able to leave a meeting without worrying about manually capturing your to-dos. You won't have to remember that interesting thing your friend mentioned over coffee. You won't have to write down the thought that sprung to mind when you saw an advertisement on TV or a billboard on the way home.
Vannevar's Memex vision will come to fruition through your next-next-next-generation PDA. The device will continuously capture all audio and video from your daily experiences and upload that content to the cloud, where it will be parsed to succinctly recognize your tasks, interesting information, and reminders -- all searchable, of course. A summary of important content from your day will be available through your PDA automatically. And yes, like Google Chrome, a "p0rn mode" option will ensure that the things you don't want remembered won't be. --

Shock No. 5: Smartphones take center stage
I see the smartphone evolving into the preferred instrument for constant connectivity, with voice interaction, facial recognition, location awareness, constant video and sound input, and multitouch screens. The keyboard won't go away completely, but it might be virtual: Think about typing in the air on an image projected from your "smart glasses." Business desktops would evolve into docking stations for your smartphone, with large screens and input devices, Gigabit or better connectivity, and local resources comparable to one of today's big servers (technical desktops would be similar, but with way more onboard CPU and GPU power, as well as massive memory and storage, all connected to massive servers and cloud resources). In this vision, the laptop nearly goes away. --

Shock No. 6: Human-free manufacturing
We're already close to the perfect factory. (It employs one human and one dog; the human is there to feed the dog, and the dog is there to keep the human from touching anything.) Right now, manufacturing in the U.S. is up, while manufacturing employment is down. By 2018, automation will have hit enough labor sectors that while the GDP will continue to grow, fewer and fewer people will receive that growth in the form of wages. This will drive either social collapse or the establishment of a no-apologies welfare state. --

Shock No. 7: Perfect image recognition
I've actually always had this search engine dream. One day you'll be able to see a picture of something or take a picture of something, and load it into a search engine and have it scan the pic, search, and tell you what it is. So you see a flower, stop and take a pic of it, and Google will tell you what kind of flower it is. Or you can take a pic of a fungus growing on your favorite plant and Google will be able to tell you what it is by scanning the characteristics of the pic. Cars, people, buildings -- it should work for whatever you can photograph –

Shock No. 8: Big Brother never sleeps
In the next 10 years, perfect governmental tracking and monitoring of each human being will become reality. Some people will accept LoJack implants for personal safety. Face-recognition technology tied to video monitors at street corners will also contribute. Also very possible: LoJack-style technology along with a digital voice recorder embedded in drivers' licenses (it's optional -- hey, driving is a privilege, not a right). The actual trigger will be pulled when Mercedes-Benz buys General Motors and acquires OnStar, which by then will be private industry's principle purveyor of "Personal LoJack" systems. Shortly thereafter, Russia will have acquired Mercedes, either through conquest or by buying it with oil money, so Russia will know the exact location and movement of most affluent Americans. So will China, which will have manufactured the LoJack transmitters, surreptitiously adding a backdoor feature that lets the Chinese government track everyone as well. --
Shock No. 9: Unbroken connectivity
Checking to see if you're connected to a network will seem as old-fashioned as turning on a device to get information in 10 years. Devices that are always receiving information (and displaying it on low-draw screens in the cover of phones and portable computers) will meet networks that are always available to make your interaction with the information world more like a flowing stream than a chain of data lakes. From sports scores to friends' activities, the idea of interrupting your activities to get the news will be a thing of the past. --
Shock No. 10: Relationship enhancement
My 2018 prediction is that we use technology to remember and fortify social connections. You'll get together socially with a friend, geo-locate, take pictures, Twitter, make notes and videos, and so on, and it all gets automatically filed away. You may forget what happened, but you can access it all again when you search your own personal store, either by matching keywords or simply preparing for the next social event with same friend. There will be no difference between "online friends" and "real friends". This will be life-altering. We already have the freedom of not having to remember street directions. When we have the freedom not to remember what happened in social interactions, it raises a fascinating question: Will this solidify personal relationships or change them in some other way? --

I just got done taking a college class on Health Care Management and one of our assignments was what would be new in the next 10 years. One thing I found out is that the virtual doctors office might be in the future. You would go online at home and schedule your own appointment with your doctor. The doctor might even be able to do the examination while online with him. Your medical records might be online for any doctor to look up your record in an emergency.

I think a car that flies and drives.I only say this becuase my husband brought home a flyer from school that said that one of the car companies was working on that type of motor vehicle. I am sure it will be out within the next 10 years, but don't know how good it will actually be.

I think cybernetics, combining humans with mechanical parts will definitely be interesting. I'm sure it'll begin innocently, amputees being able to walk again. Then it'll be military soldiers with enhanced, combat ready, body parts. Of course the black market will have hold of it by then and you'll have the olympics adding metal detectors to the drug testing.

Voice activation. On everything, the most common thing in futuristic movies is the voice activated home. A home with it's own computer that can be voice activated. Like on the Enterprise. "Computer, dim the lights to level 2, play some D'angelo at volume setting 3, scent the air with lavender and a hint of licorice, raise the temperature to 79 degrees and dispense two glasses of Chardonnay."

You know with technology advancing the way it is exponentially, that we don't have to wait ten years.
Five years it will be different. In fact, the craziest stuff that we will have we cannot even imagine. No matter how people try. No one predicted YouTube, Twitter, or that people would actually watch videos on tiny little screens.

The sure things is that technologies will get smaller, faster, cheaper and more intuitive so that it seems like we cannot live without it.

I think the craziest thing that may happen is a backlash to all this techie advancement.
What I mean is that people may go back to "old fashioned" ways such as gardening, slow cooking, reading, interacting with live people and friends. This may be out of nostalgia or as a social movement as people become more and more disconnected, disaffected, and social dysfunctional.

People maybe become anti technology. Now that's something most of us would never believe will happen in 10 years.

1. AI will be real. Right now it is nothing but if-then-else statements. Computers will be sufficiently advanced to be able to have real intelligence, not the pretend stuff we have now.

2. Petabyte drives in your pocket. Seems ever 10 years we go from mega to giga, giga to terra. So, peta is the next logical step.

3. Particle beam weapons. That whole "set phasers to stun" stuff. The only ones that will be using bullets will be small town police, criminals, and hunters.

4. Cars that drive themselves. Hop in, put in your destination, and your car will join other cars going to the same general area. Of course, there will have to be a lot more smarts put into the road system, but this will also be a direct effect of number one above.

5. Cancer cures will be starting to pop up. Unfortunately, not all, but quite a few.

6. Many forms of blindness will be cured, either through stem cell therapies, or man-machine interfaces. I know both are showing hope in the lab, but it is really gonna get crazy awesome soon.

7. Gigabit to the home. No, not through the typical players - it will be someone else.

8. In 2020 the first stretch of the North American bullet train will finally be laid. It will be a New York to San Francisco run. Unfortunately, it will never go to Anaheim, Azusa, or Cucamonga. However, it will give a big boost to rail travel.

9. Death of cell phones. We will still have them, but they will of course be much smaller. How small? Fit entirely in your ear small. There will still be uses for larger ones such as iPhones, but mainly just as human interfaces.

10. The cloud will be much bigger. We will not be having to go out and buy the latest version of Windows or OS X. It will just be there. Much like Chromium, but much more massive. Everything will not only be connected through the net, but will reside there as well. More information will be available (not that it is not already) and more connections between the data will form - connections that we do not even see today.

I think artificial intelligence will be a big thing ten years from now. Everyone will have a virtual personal assistant they carry around with them either on their phone, bluetooth, or a whole other device altogether, this would keep track of everything for you, and be able to perform tasks like changing the time of an event and notifying everyone invited, or just ordering pizza. It will be able to understand you, and the longer it talks with you, the longer it just "knows you". Then there would be more advanced artificial intelligence that would run everything in your house similar to Jarvis from Iron Man. All your compatible household appliances would interconnect wirelessly at a central hub so it'd know when your laundry would be done, or give you a friendly warning if you say "be right back I'm going to the grocery store" it could say "be sure to get some more milk." if the milk in the fridge expired. And in an ideal world everyone would use the same brand of Home Connecting AI, so you could send messages to your other friends homes by just speaking at the dinner table, and telling your computer which home to send the message to. You could watch over your friend's house if they were on vacation, or just ask if target has the new monopoly game in stock, and it would check target's AI manager, and see if the new Monopoly was in or out of stock. Of course it's far fetched that everyone would use one thing, that operated that seamlessly, because that would probably be considered a monopoly, but I still have hope for the "Home Net" maybe they could connect different brands of AI homes to something similar to our internet, where we connect different brands of computers seamlessly together.