Our wildest dreams are coming true

T HE ever-accelerating evolution of technology keeps making real the stuff of science fiction.

T HE ever-accelerating evolution of technology keeps making real the stuff of science fiction.

Just 30 years ago, cellphones, the internet and GPS were predictions. Now we carry instruments in our pockets that can do all those things, and more.

Technology predictions for 2014 give us a tantalising glimpse of what's in store - and some of it is mind-boggling.

1. The internet of everything

This is the idea that, eventually, every device in the world can be connected to every other device.

You already have aspects of the internet of everything in your life, such as synching your calendar across devices. But imagine every machine that affects your life synching with each other, so that when you get into your car it knows where you are going (it is synched with your calendar), how to get there (it is synched with the traffic and navigation app), how long it will take and so on. In the not-too-distant future, the car will drive you there, too. The human-computer interface will change fundamentally.

2. Apps, apps, apps

People are increasingly turning to apps as opposed to websites. Apps can improve services, find us information, improve our user experience, and improve our lives.

But we want more. We want apps to talk to each other and integrate into one source of everything. So we want an application that will book an air ticket, map the best route to the airport and check us in, all on one platform.

3. The cloud

The cloud is exploding in terms of usage. As the capabilities of devices, particularly mobile ones, increase, so will demand on networks - affecting bandwidth management, connectivity and the cost of networks.

IT research company Gartner says these demands create "incentives, in some cases, to minimise the cloud application computing and storage footprint, and to exploit the intelligence and storage of the client device" - stepping away from the idea of the cloud because of a lack of capacity. But Gartner also predicts that as mobile users demand more of their devices' technologies, the higher the need will be for server-side computing and storage.

4. The personal cloud

Our dependence on devices can be disastrous. We lose a large database of numbers and information when our cellphone is stolen, for example.

Synching helps, but it uses data, can be slow and is not always possible across devices. Having a personal cloud means being able to access your own digital world any time, anywhere and on any device. This will draw us away from devices and towards services.

5. Software-defined anything

Software-defined anything (SDx), or software-defined networking, has a connection to both the internet of everything and cloud computing and refers to giving software systems greater control over different kinds of hardware.

SDx is about replacing the physical world with the virtual one and simplifying networking by having software running everything. So instead of a company having a physical server, it will have a virtual one.

6. Smart machines

Machines are evolving from simply doing automated tasks to being able to learn and do sophisticated jobs. This raises questions. Will smart machines cost the world millions of human jobs? Will we be able to adapt to smart machines?

The potential for technology-focused companies is indisputable in designing automating processes for industries such as car manufacturing, petrochemicals and mining, as well as process integration and bespoke IT systems.

We live in the realm of science fiction. The question is how readily we embrace technological advancement and what we do with it.

Oosthuysen is Altron Group Executive: Strategy & Technology