1st Ever Transformative Technology Market Map and 2017 Overview
Transformative Technology is tech that can facilitate mental health, emotional wellbeing, and enhanced human thriving.
Our 3 Goals
Through the Transformative Technology Lab and Conference, we actively seek out and support companies that are working towards 3 things:
1) To support and enhance the mental and emotional wellbeing of humans
2) To provide a new mirror, through data, sensors, and feedback to better understand ourselves and others
3) To create new tools to shape our psychology, positively
The Evolution of TransTech
This year marks the third year of the TransTech Conference and the second year of the TransTech 200 List, where we highlight the key innovators working on technology that we believe will advance human wellbeing in the months and the years to come. The conference has grown from 350 attendees in 2015 to over 600 in October 2017 while the list has expanded to reflect the entire eco-system.
Key Drivers
TransTech will become increasingly important as:
1) Increases in health care costs move large institutions, private healthcare providers, and savvy individuals more towards prevention — which includes consideration of the effects of stress and anxiety on health.
2) The global upswing in stress, anxiety, depression and suicide motivates more people to seek or back accessible, scalable, and affordable means to support mental health and emotional wellbeing — which will leverage tech.
3) The continued advance of the information age and the rise in software and automation moves more of human activity from physical to mental, from do-ing to be-ing (i.e. Being creative, being collaborative, being communicative) — which TransTech will facilitate.
4) Advances in neuroscience, behavioral psychology and technology continue to fuel one another, giving greater and greater actionable insight into the brain and mind — which will inspire more TransTech products.
The Next Human Agenda
I believe that Transformative Technologies will be central to helping humanity to master itself, so that we can refocus on connecting deeply with one another, exploring widely, and solving some very real problems. In Homo Deus, Yuval Harrai (author of Sapiens) describes the next human agenda as longevity, happiness, and augmentation which I think is accurate given the global psych data, scientific progress, and our current tech trajectory. TransTech addresses the Happiness Agenda, which I think equates to the traits common to the world’s happiest people i.e. Fulfillment, Meaning, Belonging, Purpose, Self-Awareness, Self-Knowledge, and Connection. As a species, it is clear, we need something to help us grow and prosper mentally. (Read here for thoughts on awakening and technology).
Key Product Trends
Over the last 3 years I’ve seen several key trends begin, which I expect to expand in the next year:
1) Acceleration of psychological and emotional recognition (soon to be married to chatbots and voice assistants)
2) Consolidation of sensors into single everyday devices with programmatic overlays (i.e. subscribe to wellbeing, calm, happiness, focus etc.)
3) Migration of sensors into the background (ex: IOT and automotive cases)
4) Hands free and gesture navigation expanding the use of AR, VR and Voice allowing for more integrated-into-life TransTech products
5) Recognition of a need for ethics and privacy driving an interest in applying blockchain to non-medical psychological data
6) Arrival of focused capital to TransTech. Previously, open-minded investors were interested in TT as one area of their overall strategy, including leading firms like Obvious Ventures with their innovative world-positive priority. This year, Bo Shao announced a $100MN philanthropic fund, Joy Ventures established a $50MN fund, and many angels have announced a dedicated focus on TransTech (i.e. neurowellness, joytech, wellbeing tech, conscious tech, enhanced human, essential self tech, human augmentation etc.)
How to View the Market Map & Overview
This post is to introduce the 1st ever market map of the TransTech space. While not all the selections are obvious, every person or company on this list is working on technology that can be used to elevate the mental and emotional capacity of mankind. The list:
· Covers a great deal of ground, from improving our spaces to improving our meditation, sleep, and human growth and development.
· Recognizes the importance of AI, voice and behavior interfaces, and the host of technologies that facilitate the development and deployment of TransTech.
· Emphasizes innovative corporate programs which serve tens of millions of people with TransTech content and integrated products and are among the most important scalable players in transforming sickcare to healthcare.
Every product on the main list can be purchased or used today. The Up and Coming list has products in development that we think will be impactful and useful. The People and Influencers list includes the names that you need to watch as TransTech develops.
My intention with this article and map is to highlight the companies who are defining the space and to encourage entrepreneurs and investors to add their talent and resources to solving one of our greatest challenges — bringing self-empowered peace to the minds of humankind. The world needs you.
Take a look at the 2017 list here: www.transtech200.com
If this interests you, please reach out and connect here. I’d love to hear from you.
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