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The writer is an investor in tech start-ups at Samos Investments
The Institution of Engineering and Technology recently asked me to help shortlist the top 15 inventions of the past 150 years.
As a technology investor and founder of Mums in Technology, a coding school, I have a lot of experience in the industry.
As I started to narrow down the list, I was struck by how long it took for some inventions, like the refrigerator, to be adopted. Manufacturers have even devised new recipes for housewives to “cook” in the refrigerator to encourage their use.
It would have been impossible to predict how critical the refrigerator would become, moving from a means of storing perishable food to playing a vital role in medical research and enabling a global vaccine deployment.
After co-chairing the IET panel, I began to wonder which of today’s new technologies will become the foundation of humanity’s future.
The most obvious is artificial intelligence.
AI has become something that touches all aspects of our lives. Most of the companies I see have built an element of machine learning into their business.
Professor Jon Crowcroft, a general researcher at the Alan Turing Institute, predicts that in the next few years, biotechnology will converge with computer science and AI. This is already the case with mRNA, or messenger RNA, vaccines, which teach our cells how to make a protein to develop an immune response.
Without AI and computer tools to evaluate large volumes of data, researchers would not have been able to understand and predict protein structures so quickly. This is essential in the design of Covid-19 vaccines.
Indeed, with AI and machine learning, we have the potential to accelerate the understanding of how the body works, as well as to modify or develop treatments for diseases.
But I wonder if we’re looking in the wrong places for breakthroughs.
Many of the tools we use today will evolve into solutions that we cannot yet imagine. Sir Francis Ronalds’ discovery of the electric telegraph was initially dismissed as unnecessary. But without it, we wouldn’t have the Internet.
Breakthroughs start very slowly, says Azeem Azhar, author of forthcoming book Exponential: How to bridge the gap between technology and society. They may appear incomplete or look like toys – not many people use them and they tend to be niche.
This appears to be the case with sustainability-focused technologies such as apps that help us understand our carbon footprint. At the moment, few are using them, but I think that will change as we adopt tools to tackle climate change.
And while I’m concerned that much of the hype around the breakthroughs is focused on the frivolous elements, such as sending tech titans into space, it’s reassuring that a huge amount of resources are being spent on it. solutions that benefit society.
One company that fascinates me is Kheiron Medical, which Samos Investments has supported. Kheiron has developed a breast cancer screening AI called Mia (Intelligent Mammography Assessment), which helps radiologists decide whether to recall a patient for further investigation.
This technology is already being tested in the NHS and the company has made a conscious effort to include datasets on African American women.
Not all technologies will succeed. There have been many flops in the augmented and virtual reality industry. Considering that this technology did not make a return during the pandemic, when we were all desperate for experiences at home, I think it may be gone for good.
But viewing these efforts as failures is not fair, says Danielle George, professor of radio frequency engineering at the University of Manchester. Learning from mistakes to build something better in the future is a vital skill for life and work.
The government has a role to play in supporting new technologies, especially in funding Moonshot ideas. In February, the UK government announced the creation of the Advanced Research and Invention Agency, a funding body to support ambitious scientific research.
He will need a high tolerance for failure. If we look to the past, we’ll learn lessons long after these projects are over, and it may be decades before we know what breakthroughs will become the light bulb or x-rays of the 21st century.
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