I wrote about one article in this issue before: The View from the Top. For the 40th anniversary, the magazine interviewed 40 leading tech gurus
about what the most important technology of the past 40 years has been and what the most important technology of the coming decade will be. A summary:
- Transistor/integrated circuit: 21
- Internet/world wide web: 11
- DNA/gene sequencing: 2
- Automated transaction processing
- Quantum technology
- Parallel technology
- Threshold theorems
- Photonics
- Photolothography
10 Tech Companies for the Next 10 Years is pretty cool. Here's the technology from the ten companies:
- Display technology that uses lasers to "draw" images directly on the retina. Microvision
- Underwater robots. Cybernétix
- High power LEDs. Lumileds Lighting
- Self-healing wireless networks. MeshNetworks (already purchased by Motorola)
- Quantum cryptography. MagiQ Technologies
- Carbon nanotubes. Nantero
- Pan & scan software for P.D.A.s. Picsel Technologies
- Wireless sensor networks. Crossbow Technology
- Embedded chips which dispense medicine after implantation. MicroCHIPS
- Power electronics. Semikron
Write and Wrong is a nifty article that examines prognostication made by the magazine over the last 40 years. The article notes where they were right, and where they were wrong. Not often that magazines do that.