Abu Dhabi: Intellectual capital is to become more prominent in the year 2020, replacing commodity capital, according to a world renowned futurologist.
Michio Kaku, acclaimed one of the top 100 smartest men in the world by the American media, told an audience in the capital on Saturday that the prevailing Moore's law will be less influential in the 21st century.
"At present, according to Moore's law, prices of computer chips are falling by 50 per cent every 18 months, which means that computers in 2020 will be virtually free," he said.
In his vision for the future, he forecasts that computers will disappear in the very fabric of our lies, with full internet capabilities installed on eye-glass shaped gadgets, with the youth setting the drive for developing new forms as they are the generation that always requires the new and innovative.
The music industry is poised as well for a dramatic change, taking the performers back to an earlier era when they toured the world in their quest for fame.
"With the internet providing the music for free, musicians and performers will need to exert extra efforts to get noticed," he said.
Changes will be countless and touch every aspect of our lives, including working places, homes, schools, transport. "With virtual reality, one will be able to see the movie Casablanca, only with his face, replacing Humphrey Bogart's, and his spouse's replacing Ingrid Bergman," Kaku said.
Cars will be driverless, accidents eliminated, with billions of chips installed in the streets, and a radar in the car's fender, where a computer will take over driving whenever there is a possibility of a human error that can cause an accident.
The medical field will cross new barriers with the progression in the science of genealogy, with doctors being able to prescribe a full individual owner's body manual for every patient. Many illnesses are to be obsolete including aging.
Last week, scientists at Cambridge University announced the discovery of the plastic chip, to replace the silicon chip, and according to Dr. Kaku, the nation that will discover the alternative to silicon will benefit the most, as computers in 2020 will be made in the size of a blood cell.
Addressing economic issues, Kaku explained that the jobs that will last are those related to intellectual capital, such as leaders and financial advisers, while those systematic and middle-men jobs are to be replaced by the machine, such as brokers and agents.
"China has discovered this shift from commodities to intellect, and now the Chinese are phasing their development to consume and exploit the economies of commodity, while developing the intellectual skills of the individual to cater for the needs of the next age," he said.
With abundance of intellectual capital rather than resources expected to become more important, Kaku advises oil-producing countries to invest heavily in this critical element.
