nano technology, alternative energy, space travel R&D
In what areas are the massive fortunes of the future going to be made?
51–60 of 102 posts
Re: In what areas are the massive fortunes of the future going to be made?
#52driverless cars.
I think google is years ahead of everyone else here, and it will be a product that will be high price, high margin. And the market is huge.
I really don't see how google could walk away from that one without gobs of cash in their pockets.
Re: In what areas are the massive fortunes of the future going to be made?
#53Always hard to predict, but one area where I'm sure there's lots of room is starting startups in industries that didn't previously have them. To use one example of many, LendUp.
The cliche phrase "software is eating the world" doesn't quite do the future justice. "Startups in industries that didn't previously have them" does it much better: that's agriculture (Sourcerly), payments (WePay, Stripe, Balanced, Slidepay, Square), lending (LendUp, Lending Club), startup investing (Anglelist, WeFunder), banking (Palintir, Standard Treasury), insurance (Oscar) fashion (La Tote, Crowdery), and more.…
Space, Robotics, Desktop Manufacturing, Augmented Reality
Re: In what areas are the massive fortunes of the future going to be made?
#54software
Re: In what areas are the massive fortunes of the future going to be made?
#55As a co-founder of Tiny Farms[1], we're betting on the growing need for alternative sources of protein. Humanity's current protein supply is inefficient, unsustainable and won't scale to feed the future world. Our particular domain is edible insects; we wrote this article about why entrepreneurs should get involved: http://www.xconomy.com/san-francisco/2013/09/10/5-reasons-dr... [1] http://www.tiny-farms.com
"Tiny Farms is the edible insect company"
Future is here. First Soylent and now this. FTW!
Re: In what areas are the massive fortunes of the future going to be made?
#56Let's extrapolate from present trends. More robotics and automation means people will work fewer hours but still have disposable income. Medical advances mean people will live longer, healthier lives. Conclusion? There's going to be a lot of energetic, healthy people with time on their hands -- even more than at present. So there will be many future opportunities in the areas of entertainment, computer games and trav…
I disagree about people working fewer hours. Work that used to be performed by humans has already been automated to a large degree. Rather than a uniform reduction in hours, the result appears to be a swelling class of unemployed and increasing hours worked by those who are employed. Those who have time do not have money and vice versa.
You are absolutely right. 40 hours/week is the standard that was set more than 100 years ago and is long due for an update. As long as there are groups of people competing against each other to get the bigger part of the pie, it will continue this way until there is a big movement similar to the following:
From wiki:
"The eight-hour day movement or 40-hour week movement, also known as the short-time movement, had its origins in the Industrial Revolution in Britain, where industrial production in large factories transformed working life. The use of child labour was common. The working day could range from 10 to 16 hours for six days a week"
We now need a 4-hour day movement. :)
Re: In what areas are the massive fortunes of the future going to be made?
#57Artificial Wombs Artificial/in vitro food
I always thought that the anti-abortion crowd was missing out on an angle that could be taken advantage by science-types. The whole "no abortion for X weeks" is based on the age that it's plausible that a fetus can live outside of the womb.
If the anti-abortion folk are so serious about their beliefs, they should fund a massive research project to create artificial wombs that very early babies can be placed into to finish their development.
If anyone wants to work on the tech, that's the benefactors you should go after!
Re: In what areas are the massive fortunes of the future going to be made?
#58Package delivery using drones. A DPS (Drone Parcel Service) base truck could roll into a neighborhood and a swarm of drones would fly out with packages under a certain weight and deliver them, while the base truck delivers any packages too heavy. The drones keep informed of where the truck is so they can return (even when the truck is in motion) to recharge until the next neighborhood.
With county budgets being stressed and more areas considering converting paved roads to gravel roads, any kind of delivery system that can avoid roads will be a benefit.
Re: In what areas are the massive fortunes of the future going to be made?
#59Let's extrapolate from present trends. More robotics and automation means people will work fewer hours but still have disposable income. Medical advances mean people will live longer, healthier lives. Conclusion? There's going to be a lot of energetic, healthy people with time on their hands -- even more than at present. So there will be many future opportunities in the areas of entertainment, computer games and trav…
Clinical psychiatry and psychology are areas of neuroscience these days, so I don't quite understand the "historic meltdown" point, any references on that?
> Clinical psychiatry and psychology are areas of neuroscience these days ...
Quote false. To a greater degree than in the past, psychiatry and psychology are moving away from science, not toward it. The situation has gotten so extreme and frankly embarrassing for those who want to see more science in mental health, that the director of the NIMH has decided to drop support for the new DSM (DSM-5), arguing that the mentally ill "deserve better":
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/about/director/2013/transforming-dia...
Quote: " While DSM has been described as a “Bible” for the field, it is, at best, a dictionary, creating a set of labels and defining each. The strength of each of the editions of DSM has been “reliability” – each edition has ensured that clinicians use the same terms in the same ways. The weakness is its lack of validity."
There's more. The editor of the previous DSM, DSM-IV, Allen Frances, watched the process that led to DSM-5 with increasing amazement and dismay. He now strongly recommends that professionals avoid the DSM entirely -- he recommends that people not teach it or use it:
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/05/psychiatry-allen...
How important is this? The DSM is to psychiatry and psychology what the Standard Model is to physics -- to a large extent it defines the field and it is the leading reference for theory and practice. And it has gotten so embarrassing that the most influential psychiatrist in the country (the NIMH director) is abandoning it, choosing to move in a more scientific direction.
> ... so I don't quite understand the "historic meltdown" point, any references on that?
See above. And read what others are saying:
http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2010/03/01/100...
Quote: "[Psychiatrist and writer] Greenberg is repeating a common criticism of contemporary psychiatry, which is that the profession is creating ever more expansive criteria for mental illness that end up labelling as sick people who are just different—a phenomenon that has consequences for the insurance system, the justice system, the administration of social welfare, and the cost of health care."
Believe me when I tell you, I could produce scores of similar criticisms from within the field, by people who are mental health professionals but who are incensed by what's happening to the field.
I have to say that anyone in the field of mental health who doesn't see fundamental changes coming, hasn't been keeping up with current events.
Re: In what areas are the massive fortunes of the future going to be made?
#60Let's extrapolate from present trends. More robotics and automation means people will work fewer hours but still have disposable income. Medical advances mean people will live longer, healthier lives. Conclusion? There's going to be a lot of energetic, healthy people with time on their hands -- even more than at present. So there will be many future opportunities in the areas of entertainment, computer games and trav…
>>There's going to be a lot of energetic, healthy people with time on their hands -- even more than at present.
To some extent its correct.
But by and large there will be a lot of energetic, healthy people who will want to make more money with that extra time on their hands.