In 2020 the world s top 10 breakthrough technologies will be released with quantum and artificial intelligence occupying two seats respectively

quantum hegemony, artificial intelligence (AI) screening molecules, digital currency, hyperpersonalized drugs This is a cutting-edge technology that may have a significant impact on human society and life. It is also a report on the commercialization and influence of technology.

MIT Technology Review, a well-known global science and Technology Review Magazine, recently released "the world's top 10 breakthrough technologies" in 2020. Since 2001, the journal has come up with a "top 10 technology list" every year. This list has played an important role in accurately predicting the rise of many popular technologies such as brain computer interface, smart watch, cancer gene therapy, and deep learning. It is not only a collection of scientific and technological innovation with a sense of future and practicability, but also a vane in the field of investment and technology application.

Quantum and artificial intelligence occupy two seats respectively

in the 2013 list, deep learning was selected. At that time, the development of artificial intelligence accelerated. The judges thought that it was a breakthrough technology of that year, and accurately gave the outbreak period of three to five years.

In the 2020 list, the two technologies are related to artificial intelligence, showing a trend towards practicality and miniaturization. In September 2019, the University of Toronto, Canada, and an artificial intelligence drug research and development company, icilico pharmaceutical company, found a variety of candidate drugs through the synthetic artificial intelligence algorithm, which has the characteristics of fast speed and low cost. In addition, the development of micro artificial intelligence makes the equipment realize intelligent operation without interaction with the cloud, which is expected to make medical image analysis and automatic driving New applications such as cars are possible, but also conducive to privacy protection。

What is more noteworthy is that quantum science also occupies two seats this year. Among them, the team led by Google in the United States announced in October 2019 that it had successfully demonstrated "quantum hegemony". It took about 200 seconds for a processor containing 53 effective qubits to complete the computing task that the current strongest supercomputer can only complete in 10000 years. Although IBM has questioned Google's claim, it is still a milestone. Another is the anti hacker Internet built by the team of Delft Polytechnic University in the Netherlands using quantum technology, which means that the Internet is more and more vulnerable to hacker attacks, and quantum networks will not be able to be attacked by hackers.

Who is more eye-catching than personalized medicine or "longevity medicine"

biomedicine is always the most concerned field.

Two drugs on this year's list have attracted attention. The journal editor created a scene for people, in which a patient was tortured by a very rare and fatal disease. Not only was there no ready-made specific drug for this disease, but even the scientists who studied it could not find a drug to try. But thanks to "tailor-made drugs for individual genes," this desperation could change - if a particular DNA defect leads to an extremely rare disease (which has so far occurred in thousands), then there is a chance to repair the gene.

The team at children's Hospital in Boston, USA, has designed a drug for Mila Markowitz, a little girl with a unique gene mutation, which proves that hyperpersonalized drugs can provide new treatment for rare diseasesBut at the same time, it also led to the discussion of the cost of research and development and testing of such drugs.

In addition, the first wave of new anti-aging drugs has begun to be tested in humans. In June 2019, unity biotechnology released preliminary test results of the drug in patients with mild to severe knee arthritis, and the company is also developing similar drugs to treat age-related eye and lung diseases.

"Longevity drugs" work by eliminating certain cells that accumulate with age. Although they can't really prolong their lifespan, they are expected to treat specific diseases such as cancer, heart disease and dementia by slowing or reversing the basic aging process.

From space satellites to your privacy

2020 is known as the relay point of the new decade and the old decade, and this year's list of both "precipitation" and "prediction" also includes these technologies:

the "star chain" Satellite Internet, which is being built by SpaceX, can make the high-speed Internet "without dead ends" Covering the world, but at the same time, it can also turn the earth's satellite orbit into a "minefield" full of space debris.

Facebook's blockchain based cryptocurrency, Libra, has been strongly resisted. In October, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg promised the U.S. Congress that it would "expand America's financial leadership and democratic values around the world."Ability to influence and monitor. ".

"Differential privacy" technology to better protect citizens' privacy in the census -- in 2020, the U.S. government will complete the census of 330 million U.S. residents and keep their identity data confidential. This extremely difficult task may be solved by this technology, which can build trust mechanisms and be used by other countries.

This high-precision computer simulation, which can more accurately identify the impact of climate change, compares how the world would be different if climate change had occurred or not. It made people more clearly understand how climate change makes weather worse, and what preparations we need to make for it.