Global Agenda Council on Emerging Technologies 2012-2014

New technology is arriving faster than ever and holds the promise of solving many of the world’s most pressing challenges related issues such as food and water security, energy sustainability and personalized medicine. In the past year alone, 3D printing has been used for medical purposes; vehicles running on energy provided wirelessly by sensors in the ground were tested in South Korea; and drugs that use nanotechnology and can be delivered at the molecular level have been developed in medical labs. However, certain new technologies, such as genetically modified crops, have been greeted with scepticism by the public and media. The Council on Emerging Technologies has proposed that public perception, government regulations and investment flows play the greatest roles in effectively moving new technologies from the research lab to people’s lives.