next platforms

Candidates for next platforms after PCs, phones, and tablets:
  Virtual reality
  Internet of things
  Wearable computers
  Cryptocurrencies / blockchain
  Self-driving cars
  Drones
  Brain-computer interfaces
  3d printing
  Augmented reality
  Open data
  Synthetic biology
  Satellites
  Injectibles
  Nanotech

I'm hoping 'mind control' is immediately deemed illegal and thus not emerge as a platform. Would be interested to know your take there.

Are some of these stretching the meaning of the term platform? Seems a mix of things, services, and platforms?

Yeah "platform" is used a little broadly here. I think of a platform as something for which 3rd parties can build applications. Things like "open data" might be stretching the definition.

"Mind control" - seems like it depends? For example, letting disabled people control their environment might be a great application.

I took "platform" to mean anything that other people can build on top of. So "drones" could be anything from gaming, to communication, delivery of goods, etc.

"Bitcoin" would really mean "decentralized crypto platforms" or something. For example, I'm waiting for someone to build a "Bitcoin-like stock exchange" with no central authority, no gatekeeper, and no transaction fees.

Etc.

Distributed autonomous organizations.

(Crowdfunding, app tokens, software-mediated governance, ad hoc community-forming, 'firms' with diverse missions and lifespans, strained interfaces with traditional jurisdictional incorporation. What happens when hashtags have bank accounts?)

What about Soylent and any other potential ways that reimagine how we fuel our body?

Yes, quantified food. I guess the platform aspect is people hacking their own recipes and diets a la http://diy.soylent.me/

Self-driving cars seems like the obvious near-term big one - If it pans out it'll totally upend the economy. How you build apps for a self-driving car, however...In the "Internet of things" category BTLE makes for highly context-aware user experiences but we're still heavily constrained by the phone as the delivery device. Glass is at least an attempt to break that down but it's too damn goofy looking for gen pop... Interested to hear the thinking around "Injectables" not even sure what that is..."chip in your arm" sort of a thing?

I think we have a long way to go before we think of injectables/synth biology as the next platform after the phones. I think mobile phone will stick for at least another 20 years or so simple because not everyone in the world is so tech savvy. People are still using cheap 20 dollar nokia or samsung cell phones everywhere in the world. So when we start using implant like devices in next 5 years, most people will be transitioning to smart phones. My point is the next generation of devices won't simply crush and make smart phones vanish.

I think mobile will most certainly dominate until 2020, and after that we'll be using wearables mostly. But they will co-exist. Watches, glasses. GPS-enabled beacons in form of necklaces etc.

I think you may have left out a big one, it's not as sexy sounding and some of the other companies there but is it fundamentally changing, starting to change, Internet infrastructure, DevOps, sites "hosted" or simply running in ... Containers... @docker