A lot of Technology has been announced this year, mainly these items.
Meta's photorealistic calling
Starlink
Saudis desert city
Metaverse
This interview was done with podcaster Lex Fridman and Mark Zuckerburg (CEO of Meta) and honestly, the footage from this video call demo is scary realistic.
To think this is how business meetings would take place within this decade. In the video linked above, Lex and Mark are hundreds of miles apart, and using the Meta Quest Pro they're able to have a video conference call with photorealistic avatars. The headset can scan your facial emotions, blinks, lip and mouth movement and even pick up on the wrinkles that might appear when talking. It's insane and something you need to watch for yourself. Imagine a class of 30 kids from all around the world, different countries, continents even and they'd all be able to see each other's faces and facial expressions.
Starlink
Star links coverage is almost worldwide, granting places that have never ever had internet access before a chance to roam the web. The whole of Africa and even the whole of Australia would both get internet access anywhere, all that's required is a Starlink satellite. This is a huge deal for the growth of the internet and Africa's well-being. Education standards, living standards and health would all be improved especially in the very rural areas.
The Line
NEOMConstruction is the company responsible for building "The Line"
The line is an ambitious project to redefine what a city looks like, it consists of two massive hyper-reflective walls (To keep the suns heat out) with a livable city environment in the middle. The idea is that you can fit more people in a smaller profile with enhanced living standards and doing all this with no cars, 100% clean energy and all being self-sustained. We recently had an update from NEOM showing us the progress as well as the excavations going on, claiming about 20% of the foundation work is already complete.
Conclusion
With new cities, hyper-realistic video calls and the worldwide internet the future is looking a lot cleaner, more sustainable and easier for the newer generations. It's exciting to see all this progress in such a short time frame as well.