After quitting Twitter due to the constant nonsense caused by Elon Musk, I decided to revisit my long-abandoned blog. It can still be used to share information with those who are interested.
Upon going through my account, I realized that I haven't used it in 13 years! It's crazy how time flies by, yet some things remain the same. However, I did stumble upon an old post from 2010 (see below) where I predicted what would happen in 2020. The post was in my drafts, and it was incomplete. I wanted to finish it up, but I must have abandoned the blog before publishing, or maybe I needed more time to think about it. In any case, I think my first prediction was pretty accurate.
Personal healthcare is alive and well in today's world, with people having blood pressure and medication monitors connected to the internet. Your watch and phone can measure your blood pressure, body fat percentage, oxygen levels, and much more. People can even hook up a blood sugar monitor to their phone. There is also an app on your phone where you can send your physician your health data. While there are no handheld bacteria analyzers available for home use yet, some devices are now available but are expensive. So, I wouldn't quite call those personal healthcare devices just yet. The paper just came out in 2018, so I suppose it takes a while before these things gain trust. Additionally, the state of the art is pretty clunky now, relying on the molecules fluorescing instead of some optical or image recognition analysis, which would make this more useful.
Just imagine if in remote villages, people could detect some novel bacterium or virus by using a microscope hooked up to their phone. We're not there yet, but with the advent of AI and its subsequent growth and incorporation into almost everything nowadays, we could potentially get there quickly.
In these uncertain times, I wouldn't dare make any predictions. So much change is happening now that in another ten years, we'll likely look back at this time and either consider it the Stone Age or the good times. In any case, I'll leave the predictions to the younger generation.
