Ask HN: What will be the next big thing after “Big Data” and “AI”? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What will be the next big thing after “Big Data” and “AI”?

15 pointsgamechangr16 comments

It's already here: Blockchain and crypto.

The worst about this comment is that even I cannot decipher if I'm being sarcastic or not.

Bioengineering. Soon enough those AIs will be making better humans than we do..

Yep. Bioengineering and Bioinformatics, especially with recent gene editing technologies invented. We still don't know what gene patterns cause most of the diseases. Sifting through genetic data (with the help of computers) and finding the patterns responsible (so that they can edited out or modified) for these diseases is going to be a huge industry. As a result, diagnosis and medicine would become personalized to a certain extent.

It’s contentious but I think it’s clear that AI is the final big thing.

The existing big things are still getting bigger - chemical engineering, processors, websites, web infrastructure, apps, clean energy, nuclear fusion, AI, IoT, VR, AR, etc.

It's just that advances in one field unlocks a new level in an old field. AI has been around forever, but the changes in processing power and data brought in a new era. Electric cars have been around as long as gas cars, but the changes in batteries brought in a new era. Cloud... augmented by handheld computers that were easy to build programs (apps) for.

The next big thing will likely be some old thing. Maybe improvements in ML will make AR much more useful. Maybe blockchain would make IoT affordable. Maybe VR would make drones a hype again.

Beowulf clusters of AI scripted big data machine learning block chain crypto ledger.

If you are asking to figure where job demand will go its security. All of the emerging fields will create a tremendous need for security expertise, be it in AI, IoT, blockchain, bioengineering etc.

Optogenetic biometrics peg Proof of Self to blockchains mined on nanodrones.

gesundheit

It won’t be as big or as buzzy, but I think we’ll see more and more task specific ASICS as Moore’s law continues to slow down.

And, as it becomes quicker and easier to fabricate these things. But then, isn't the problem with this kind of innovation that, while it might be a revolution, it probably won't spawn a billion blog articles? Consider, for instance, the photocopier. It absolutely upended the office, putting millions of people out of jobs, upturning entire industries - and I doubt many articles was written about it. There are lots of inventions like stirrups, froth flotation, or barbed wire that don't really get much fanfare, but irrevocably alter the world. I think it's the same with tech.

It's probably just that the photocopier enabled offices to change but didn't allow many new fundamentally different companies to come into existence which only exist because of this new tool. The bloggy technologies (Internet, smart phones, better batteries) all enabled people like us to start new companies that depend on the tech.

In-store paiement / in-shop experience.

The fact that mobile are now / will very soon nbe used in every shops for paiement will open a huge new array of in-shop experiences. This is not a new idea, but wechat is proving time has come.

OP...

I went out to eat with friends and we were all arguing about the "next big thing".

It was basically between blockchain, bioengineering, and clean energy.

Curious what others think. (I went with Bioengineering).

After Big Data and AI? I’d say MEMS and MOEMS. Not as sexy yet but give it ten years.

Distributed ASCII.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com