{"id":82589,"date":"2016-01-13T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-01-12T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.richardvanhooijdonk.com\/three-trends-2016-robots-virtual-reality-nanotechnology\/"},"modified":"2016-01-13T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-01-12T22:00:00","slug":"three-trends-2016-robots-virtual-reality-nanotechnology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richardvanhooijdonk.com\/en\/three-trends-2016-robots-virtual-reality-nanotechnology\/","title":{"rendered":"Three trends for 2016: robots, virtual reality and nanotech"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>This article was originally published in Dutch in 2016 and has been translated and updated in October 2026.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Technological developments follow one another at breakneck speed. The best researchers, engineers and scientists are constantly working on new technologies for manufacturing, healthcare and energy supply. Robots, virtual reality and nanotechnology play an important role in all of this.<\/p>\n<h2>Robots have entered our lives for good<\/h2>\n<p>Robots can connect to all kinds of sources, and in the future they will look more and more like us. When this article was written in 2016, I expected that within ten years we would no longer be able to tell the difference between humans and robots. The factory robot Baxter could carry out simple tasks and learned by imitating people and other robots. My prediction at the time was that within five years very few people would still be working on a factory assembly line. We can bring down the high costs of healthcare, which were then rising by 5% a year, by introducing robots. Care robots such as Zora and Nexi were already being used in residential care homes and in schools for autistic children. They hand out medication to patients, play games and demonstrate exercises. They are designed for emotional interaction; they can behave in an almost human way and function anywhere. Numerous experiments had already shown that people get along with robots perfectly well.<\/p>\n<p>Then there are companion robots, or social robots. Take the virtual pet Tamagotchi: by the time this article was written, some 80 million had been sold since its launch 18 years earlier. And yes, sex robots such as Roxxxy exist too. According to experts quoted at the time, they could lead to fewer sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies. Some even predicted that by 2050 the red-light district would be staffed entirely by robot prostitutes, making human prostitution and trafficking in women a thing of the past.<\/p>\n<p>Read also:&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/blog.richardvanhooijdonk.com\/futuristische-robots\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Six futuristic robots that will shape our lives<\/a><\/p>\n<h2>Relaxing on the sofa at home and on a beach in Hawaii at the same time: virtual reality makes it possible<\/h2>\n<p>With devices such as HoloLens, Google Glass and the Oculus Rift, you can actually live through any kind of experience you can imagine. You no longer need to go anywhere. With virtual reality, emergency services such as the fire brigade can rehearse scenarios without physically turning up with vehicles and crews. Virtual reality also gives the army and air force excellent opportunities to train for combat and landing situations in many places around the world. The travel guide of the future is a pair of virtual glasses that lets you enjoy Hawaii while you sit at home on the sofa. In 2016 Apple was expected to join this market as well; in the end it took until February 2024 before Apple launched its own headset, Apple Vision Pro, which it calls a spatial computer. Watch this space!<\/p>\n<h2>Tinkering with molecules: nanotechnology makes it possible<\/h2>\n<p>We are now able to develop nanorobots that can be used in a variety of ways, for example in surgery. Nanorobots are as small as a tenth of a hair and could remove cancer cells and replace them with healthy cells. Using that same technology, combined with bioprinters that print living cells, we may one day be able to create living beings. In the future, they might also repair the ozone layer and clean up air pollution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This article was originally published in Dutch in 2016 and has been translated and updated in October 2026. Technological developments follow one another at breakneck speed. The best researchers, engineers and scientists are constantly working on new technologies for manufacturing, healthcare and energy supply. Robots, virtual reality and nanotechnology play an important role in all [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":44643,"parent":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2870],"tags":[],"article-type":[],"trends":[],"class_list":["post-82589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richardvanhooijdonk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richardvanhooijdonk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richardvanhooijdonk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richardvanhooijdonk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richardvanhooijdonk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richardvanhooijdonk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richardvanhooijdonk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richardvanhooijdonk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richardvanhooijdonk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richardvanhooijdonk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82589"},{"taxonomy":"article-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richardvanhooijdonk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article-type?post=82589"},{"taxonomy":"trends","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richardvanhooijdonk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/trends?post=82589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}