Top 10 technologies of the decade

[#1]

I was asked by a co-worker about the top 10 technologies of the decade. I thought about it a bit and came up with nine:

1. GPS – Global Positioning devices make it possible to track everything from your car to your dog. It has been incorporated into numerous devices, including almost every mobile phone sold and is now being used it business as well as personal lives.
2. Home broadband – Although dialup network connections to the Internet were popular since the 90s, the ability to have a high speed connection to the home was the springboard for social networking. It’s changed the way people find information about everything from current events to how they are going to entertain themselves tonight.
3. Genomics – Although the human genome project was completed early in the last decade, the ripple effects will be felt for decades to come as the triggering mechanisms for genes are understood and adjusted, changing some areas of healthcare at a fundamental level. As we live longer, we have a greater chance of needed the outcome of this research as chronic illness becomes normal.
4. Memristor – This is an area of research where HP created a new fundamental electronic device that was only theoretically possible. Its impact may not be apparent yet but memristor-based technology has broad applications from static memory to logic circuits and will change computing and electronics for decades to come.
5. On demand multimedia – The capabilities of broadband in the home has allowed for the movement of video and audio from CDs and DVDs to streaming. The ability to access almost any content at any time has changed entertainment and how it is provided by both professionals and amateurs and has almost eliminated structuring our lives around when content is available.
6. Wireless mobile networking – Although there was some wireless networking available before 2001, the advent of wireless access to the Internet through 2G, 3G and now 4G capabilities has had at least as much impact as broadband networking. It has changed the way people spend their leisure time and settled many arguments before they could start.
7. Social Networking – Broadband and wireless networking have changed how people interact at a fundamental level. It is now possible to know where someone is as well as what they’re doing on a moment by moment basis – changing the very definition of privacy.
8. Materials – The use of carbon fiber and other new materials have changed the way products are created, making them stronger, lighter and more resilient. These technologies have changed the way products are built and perform ranging from airplanes to swimsuits.
9. Nanotech – This innovation is the ability to manipulate matter on the atomic scale. Carbon nanotubes are one example of nanotech and they are working their way into objects ranging from electronics to healthcare and materials. Since materials behave differently at the nano-scale, research in this area allows for modification of fundamental characteristics like hardness, color, conductivity and chemical behavior. This area of research will change nearly every industry in the coming decades. HP is doing research at using nanotech to create new chemical sensing technologies.

What one would you add?