Macroscopes

Description

David Nield:

"Thanks to satellite imagery, being able to see a bird's eye view of anywhere on Earth feels normal - but Google Earth is just the beginning.

IBM predicts that "macroscope" systems - like microscopes, but at the other end of the scale - are going to combine "all of Earth's complex data together", so we can analyse it from all kinds of new perspectives.

Not only will this technology provide us with more data from satellites, smart sensors, and weather stations, it will offer much better ways to organise and sort through it all.

This technology wouldn't just apply to natural processes on Earth and beyond - all kinds of devices, including our lights and fridges, could be studied using macroscopes of the future to predict everything from climate change trends to the best ways of distributing food to various communities around the globe.

From remote-controlled lightbulbs to 'smart' speakers that can record your shopping lists and look up Wikipedia for you, many more devices in homes and across cities are getting smarter and more connected, so imagine the potential of being able to sift through all that data in a more intelligent way." (http://www.sciencealert.com/these-are-ibm-s-predictions-about-how-we-ll-be-living-in-2022)