HP Innovation Journal Issue 09: Spring 2018 | Page 9

how robotics, IoT, and AI will work together to completely
reshape manufacturing—ushering in an era of small-batch,
made-to-order, more energy-efficient production at micro-
plants located near customers. This will bring to an end the
far-flung supply chains developed over the past century
and eliminate many of the costs and pollution generated by
today’s practice of transporting people and products—an
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activity estimated to utilize more than 27% of the world’s
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energy and oil resources, resulting in 6.6 gigatons of
CO2 emissions.
Beyond Human
With a growing population and changing demographics
that skew older, our societies and economies will increas-
ingly depend on technology to drive productivity, tackle
health challenges more cost-effectively, and improve our
overall quality of life.
In 1950, the average person in the United States lived
for 8 years after retirement. Today, the average person
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lives for 18 years . As technology continues to improve
health spans around the world, to sustain growth, we are
going to need to increase the longevity and productivity
of a proportionately shrinking workforce. To enable this
aging labor base to compete, workers may increasingly
augment their bodies with bio- and cyber technologies to
increase wellbeing and efficiency. This will likely lead us to
go Beyond Human, augmenting our abilities and helping
us overcome limitations and obstacles.
HP is already leveraging its microfluidics technology
used to power Inkjet printing to help reinvent drug discov-
ery. Our bio-dispensing systems enable drug research labs
to improve the speed, efficiency, and precision of in-lab
drug trials, so scientists can more rapidly develop opti-
mized drug mixes and doses to combat diseases.
But this is just the beginning. Thanks to new classes of
implants, prosthetics, exoskeletons, and remote robotics,
we are pushing our physical boundaries and augmenting
our bodies. In the future, we will even be able to supple-
ment organ and body functions.
And it’s not just our bodies that we will be augment-
ing. Our minds will also benefit from this bio- and cyber
convergence. We are already seeing the development of
software tools and interfaces, ranging from AI assistants to
augmented reality that improve our access to information,
knowledge, and our ability to make decisions—bringing
our minds and computers closer together.
Taken together, these revolutionary approaches will
transform how we make things, how we sell things, and
how we work and live. In the process, they will drive rad-
ical increases in productivity and efficiency—changing
everything we know. Creating an opportunity for every-
thing we need; reinventing our future and our world.
To learn more about these converging trends and tech-
nologies, see the series “Growth in a World of Resource
Constraints” starting in this issue of the Innovation Journal.
The 2018 HP Megatrends Report is based on the extensive
research of HP’s global technical community. Particular
thanks go to Jonathan Brill, Greg Blythe, Otilia Bar-
buta, Anita Rogacs, Viktor Shkolnikov, Jim Stasiak, and
David Murphy.
1. United Nations 2. Brookings 3. Brookings 4. United Nations 5. United Nations
6. Professor Jorgen Randers, University of Cambridge 7. Professor Jorgen Randers,
University of Cambridge 8. OWID based on WORLD BANK & MADDISON 9. OWID
based on WORLD BANK & MADDISON 10. U.S. Geological Survey 11. Uppsala
University 12. Seeker 13. IIASA 14. IIASA 15. U.S. Center for Disease Control
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