Cisco visionary highlights the top IT trends of the coming decade

Networking firm's chief futurist says technology has taken over from natural selection

Cisco has outlined what it sees at the top IT trends of the next decade, heavily centred on the further development of the internet.

Presenting a keynote at the Cisco Live event this week, Cisco's chief futurist Dave Evans highlighted how there are already more devices connected to the internet than people using it, which he described as the Internet of Things.

"There are around 10 billion connected devices now, with up to 50 billion expected by 2020. That's almost seven devices per person."

He enthused that within a decade the entire planet will be covered by high-speed wireless connectivity, and that this networking capability is crucial to the functioning and utility of these devices.

The cloud was also featured in the presentation, with Evans saying that by 2020 about a third of all data will either be hosted in, or move through, the cloud.

He anticipates that more intelligence will be built into the cloud over the next 10 years. He drew a parallel with this and the high performance of the IBM supercomputer Watson, which went from winning US game show Jeopardy to becoming a healthcare provider, helping medical staff with decision making.

He argued that this intelligence could also enhance the internet search functionality: "What if you could put any question into the search box, and instead of millions of answers you just get one and it's always right."

He concluded with the vision that humanity has entered a phase of "self-evolution", where we are determining the future of the species through technology, rather than allowing natural selection to run its course.

He backed up his argument by referencing retina implants to allow blind patients to see, and 3D printing, which allows the creation of new human tissue.