3 Technologies Big Corporations Don't Want You to Know About

Energy, transportation, and finance are all systems which govern nations. These devices are, as most of us regard them, little more than pieces of paper or gallons of gasoline. Very few individuals ever find themselves in such a circumstance that would give way to the perspective of how these commodities affect nations when considered in as a whole.

Some Quick Perspective

Much debate on the course of technology is, perhaps indirectly, married to the ideals of our collective evolution. In other words, we develop technology as the demands of the masses dictate. No commercial enterprise has ever pioneered successful technology in the face of zero consumer interest. Even exploration R&D projects are financed by the hopes of commercial application eventually. Many would-be revolutionary websites discuss government conspiracies of free energy withholding, natural resource diminishing, and financial market manipulation. While this article isn’t meant to argue for the lack of government complacency it sidesteps many issues that most of us will likely never see resolved.

consumer technology that, if adopted en-masse, would disrupt international markets and industries in such a way to terrify governments and likely wreck a fair amount of lives

For example; does the U.S. Government have secret underground cities where isolated scientific communities pioneer technology unsafe for mass consumption? Have those underground populations been our first liaisons to the extra-terrestrial? What are non-terrestrial agents that sometimes slip onto expense reports? These are the questions that, if you were to learn the imagined truths, not only would no one believe you but you’d also be able to affect little change with that knowledge. This article focuses on consumer technology that, if adopted en-masse, would disrupt international markets and industries in such a way to terrify governments and likely wreck a fair amount of lives.

Electric Scooters & Cars

Electric scooters and electric cars aren’t a new idea—they’ve been around for decades. The crux of such technology has been, and continues to be defined by, the efficiency of battery technology. Electric vehicles of the past could offer performance to reasonable degrees but often only while strapped with large banks of batteries containing liquids such as lead-acid combinations.

These batteries are much less environmentally sound that new technology and tend to be more susceptible to consumer mis-storage. Now, use your imagination for a moment, and pretend that 1 of every 2 people you know began riding an electric scooter to work in the morning or driving an electric car. If an entire country did this, it’d mark a 50% drop in consumer oil consumption. Markets shift and adapt but such a tremendous adoption of a gas-free transportation substitute would cripple many Western economies as well as many Middle Eastern ones.

Asia-Pacific economies, notably Japan and China, would see surges in demand for consumer lithium ion batteries and enter into a new era of economic prosperity. So, when you bitch about how the government is supressing “free” energy sources remember that if they weren’t—China and Japan would become an ecomonic Master to the oil-dependant West.

Solar Technology

Solar power is one of the most sluggish industries as far as producing catchy consumer headlines. When one reads “such-and-such researchers devise new solar cell with a 5% increase in efficiency” one doesn’t really pop open the champagne. Nonetheless, every percentage increase in solar efficiency is another percentage that traditional energy providers stand to lose.

Not to say that plug-and-play consumer tech capable of replacing the energy grid—just that widespread adoption might make a much larger dent than most people realize. Take, for example, cell phones—those little power-drainers we all have to plug into the traditional power grid each night. What if there were to be a solar option, which charged during the day, and re-charged phones by night that hit the market by storm? While this might seem like minutae at first, one should consider that in the United States alone there are nearly 150 mm smart phone users.

That’s roughly 150mm x 5 kWh per year of electricity consumption that could disappear over night should the right consumer level product hit at an opportune time. Now, consider that smart phones are among the most energy-efficient devices found in the typical household. What if consumers started running the rest of their appliances on solar energy? Well, Tesla seems to think they should. Again, there wouldn’t need to be any miraculous “free” energy device to change the energy sector—just a bunch of people willing to suffer a slight inconvenience in how they charge their Facebook boxes.

Machine Learning

This one is a bit of a gimme since it has far-reaching implication in nearly every market and industry across the globe. For our examples here, we’re discussing machine learning as it applies strictly to finance and economics. Back in the good ‘ol days, if you wanted to invest in a market, you’d likely consult with a broker who’d tell you all about the companies that were on his radar, and then buy some public shares of the said company and cross your fingers. Sure, there were corporations and professional traders that traded in mass volumes but, believe it or not, the pace of the market was largely dictated by morning papers’ reporting of trade prices. Today, over 90% of all global market trades are placed algorithmically by machines.

A fair percentage of these trades are conducted by platforms such as eTrade or TD Ameritrade which are largely dependent on user input. For example, a computer might automatically sell off some shares in an account if a lower limit price were reached, as defined by the account holder. This type of trading is convenient, but nothing special. Where things are truly beginning to change are when computer analysis is done on massive amounts of data to identify profitable trading opportunities that no human could ever recognize. We’re talking—100 different trades within a 30-second window for an increase of .08% net holdings.

All the big players are doing this, and no government office, private trader, or would-be Warren Buffet Jr. has the mental capacity to ever compete with such computational resources. The short story is; our financial markets are inertially-dependent on hands-free trading. Sure, man-made events like bankrupcy announcments, wars, or earnings reports can trigger these types of trades, but once in motion, there’s no turning back.

Think Local

All these technologies and emerging trends are evolving alongside us regardless of what the average citizen thinks about it. If you don’t want your 401(k) to be traded alongside the same momentum of every other a-hole’s you better learn how to read fundamentals.If you want not to be personally dependent on gasoline or the resources of other nations, break into that solar technology or electric car you’ve been too scared of your neighbor’s judgment to try. The truth is that, while so-called suppressed technologies are often headlined as having the most potential for market disruption—the actual potential lays in the mindset of the average consumer.