[chansiky]

I think for sure the rise of app and web economies have been the defining characteristic of this decade. They have had an unexpected monopoly on our attentions. From memes, to changes in consumer behavior, to social uprisings, to mass shootings, to instagram influencers, to determining elections, it would take a lot to convince me that there was not a single greater force that influenced us more in the past ten years than the side-effects of what came out of a few internet companies. Its almost hard to imagine what life was like before things like twitter, uber, spotify, youtube, and to think that they were either only a few years old or barely taking their first steps at the beginning of the decade is mind-blowing.

In hindsight, a lot of people might claim they saw it coming, but a lot of the things I see today are things I would have never predicted the "future" to be like, and were never things I ever heard anyone predict prior to the events happening. Seriously, all these amazon boxes everywhere? ... how many people saw that coming? For sure none of the real estate developers who poured millions into building all those shopping malls now lifeless like the coral reef on a warm 2019 summer day.

As for whats to come in the 2020's? clearly - flying cars, jet-packs, laser guns, self cleaning rooms, holograms, shiny pants, and robot servants. /s

[varjag]

> Its almost hard to imagine what life was like before things like twitter, uber, spotify, youtube, and to think that they were either only a few years old or barely taking their first steps at the beginning of the decade is mind-blowing.

All things you listed were founded in the previous decade, and indeed nothing in tech of this decade would be shocking to someone in 2009.

Based on this I expect the next decade will also see very little innovation.

[mettamage]

Sure, from the technology innovation perspective I 100% a gree with you. But IMO chansiky has a point with the social aspect of it all.

In 2008 it all felt new or at least new-ish. In 2008 I did not have a YouTube addiction or kicked off a Facebook addiction. Those things started happening at the beginning of this decade.

People are beginning to have more well-defined opinions about these big companies. I have non-techy friends who left FB, for example.

[imtringued]

The difference is that it is now part of daily life, even in developing nations. In the 00s it was mostly the early adopters in rich western countries that were using modern tech.

[varjag]

Not in 2009..

[randomsearch]

2020s = VR

[rhlsthrm]

Do you think VR will be more mainstream than AR? I tend to believe that once AR becomes really good it will be more mainstream than VR because it can integrate with your normal life and provide useful things like a HUD and also crazy cool things like interactive holograms.

[randomsearch]

I’m not an expert on VR, but it seems to me that the consensus is that AR will truly mature after VR. So maybe it doesn’t make sense to differentiate, because at that point AR will be “VR-lite” rather than VR evolving as “AR-heavy”.

My personal opinion is that full immersive VR will be more compelling, as it’s going to all be about people interacting and collaborating over distance, and VR will work better for that.

[buboard]

The web preexisted. The app economy is only $16billion and probably past its peak already. There is a rising saas economy, but also of dubious sustainability beyond a downturn