SIEMENS

The very first issue of Siemens’ Pictures of the Future magazine was published a decade ago, at the turn of the new millennium. Since then our authors have researched over 1,000 articles to find out what trends and technologies will characterize the world of tomorrow. We have always tried to not only convey Siemens’ perspective but also to look beyond our own horizon and take the social and economic environment into account. After all, technical feasibility is only one of the factors that determine the success of innovations.

Customers’ wishes, social and political developments, environmental impact, the optimization of production processes, and collaboration in the global networks of partners, suppliers, and sales structures have at least as strong an influence.

The world has grown smaller since 2001. The process of globalization now encompasses more than just worldwide channels of finance and trade. Countries such as China, India, Russia, and Brazil have become much more than raw material producers, production plant locations or service providers — experts estimate that these four countries alone will account for half of all global economic growth by 2020. Moreover, they are also becoming extremely attractive research locations.

Dozens of new universities are being founded in India; an international research city is being built in Russia ("Heading for Russia's Science City"); and China today has as many university freshmen as the EU, the U.S., and Japan put together ("Emerging Markets Catching Up in Research and Development"). Within the last decade the number of Chinese applications for patents has increased sixfold. In the "Research without Borders" section of this issue of Pictures of the Future, we describe how research can be effectively pursued in our densely networked world, what role is being played here by the new social networks, and how to develop products that are perfectly tailored to the growing needs of developing nations and emerging markets.

Many of the developments that have taken place since 2001 could hardly have been predicted. The human race has had to cope with the fact that terrorists can attack entire countries and that hacker attacks can strike crucial blows to key elements of a country’s infrastructure. New security solutions must therefore be developed to protect infrastructures ("A Step Ahead of Intruders"). We are also learning how to cope with a growing number of natural disasters — earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, hurricanes ("The City Speaks") and ("Green Light for Vehicle-to-Infrastructure Communications") , heat waves, and floods, which have claimed thousands of human lives.

Two severe economic collapses — the bursting of the dotcom bubble and the recent global financial crisis — also occurred during the past decade. These events show us that the risks harbored by the global financial system need to be reassessed — just as the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and the destruction of nuclear power facilities in Japan remind us of the need to take a long hard look at the world’s energy production systems.

Many fundamental trends have been analyzed in previous issues of Pictures of the Future: the growing scarcity of resources, climate change, globalization, urbanization, demographic developments, and the tremendous influence of information and communication technologies on every area of life. I have summarized the most important conclusions we have reached in the first ten years of our research into the world of tomorrow in a new book called "Life in 2050".

In this issue of Pictures of the Future, we once again have our finger on the pulse of the times. We explain how the global energy system will change as the "New Age of Electricity" begins and electricity becomes a comprehensive energy carrier.

And in our "Collective Intelligence" section, we show how the rapidly expanding universe of data — from industry, traffic, energy, and the healthcare sector — can be transformed into actionable knowledge.

In the second decade of Pictures of the Future, which is now beginning, we will continue to look over the shoulders of researchers and developers who are inventing the future. For us, this topic has never lost any of its fascination. We share the viewpoint of Albert Einstein, who once said, “I’m more interested in the future than in the past, because the future