21 Technologies for the 21st Century

Chapter 1. 21 Technologies for the 21st Century

“Welcome to the 21st century,” I wrote last week, making the case that the COVID-19 crisis marks the true beginning of a cascade of changes that will reshape our future as certainly as two world wars, a worldwide depression, and a host of technological innovations reshaped the 20th century. In this companion series, consisting of four essays, I focus on some of the technological innovations that I expect to be most important in the coming decades, the skills that will increase your ability to take advantage of them, and resources from the O’Reilly learning platform that will help you to acquire those skills.

Riffing on the title of Yuval Noah Harari’s book, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, I’ve broken the series into 21 sections. These are divided across the four essays:

Table Stakes

Skills that are fundamental, and should be part of any robust strategy for dealing with the changes that lie ahead

The New Normal

Established technologies that are still in the early stage of adoption but are accelerating into the mainstream.

The Future is Knocking

Market opportunities that have the power to utterly transform our economy. What will be the next Silicon Valley?

Wild Cards

Technology breakthroughs that could open up new opportunities that, at present, are just the stuff of science fiction.

Six fundamental skills that underlie all the others are discussed here. Part Two, The Future is Knocking, will be published next week.

Table Stakes