Top 5 Emerging Technologies

Here is what I believe to be the top 5 emerging technologies of today and the reasons why...

Electric Cars - Due to global warming, and the reliance of our economies on oil. It has become apparent for individuals, businesses, and governments to provide a cleaner mode of transport, and rid its dependance on oil.

Wireless Energy Transfer - This emerging technology can and will have substantial impact on how we power our devices at home, and work.

Quantum Computing - Will be able to solve certain problems much faster than the traditional computer, and will impact all industry as this types of computers could become mainstream.

Nanotechnology - Being able to do things at the nanoscale has huge amounts of impact in medical fields, computer fields, military etc etc.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) - Artificial Intelligence has been used in a wide range of fields including medical diagnosis, stock trading, robot control, and scientific discovery and toys

Emerging Technology Definition

So what is an emerging technology?? According to Wikipedia (2010) 'Emerging technologies' are those technical innovations which represent progressive developments within a field for competitive advantage. However, the opinion on the degree of impact, status, and economic viability of several emerging technologies can vary.

Emerging technologies are not just restricted to one individual field but it is many. Also newer technologies can have a substantial impact on other fields as well.

Here is a long list which states out some of the emerging technologies for the different fields today
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_emerging_technologies

Introduction

Well this is my third year of masters in IT, and am over the hump of a four year distance degree. I'm looking forward to this subject and seeing what other emerging technologies are out there which are influencing businesses of today.