MARK BARNES: Prepare for virtual living, robots and few quiet moments
Never mind the obvious, such as implants replacing cell phones, what about traditional, there-forever businesses?
In 25 years any number of our well-established, even global, companies will have disappeared. Cheeky upstarts, whose reason for being is not yet clear to us, will have replaced them. As investors it’s as important to predict future failures as it is to identify that next unicorn. As customers we don’t have to really care. It’s about us, and the next-generation winners will have worked out what we want, for us, and give it to us. Never mind the obvious, such as implants replacing cell phones, what about traditional, there-forever businesses? What will be gone? Banks as we know them will be gone. They will neither be a repository of people’s savings nor a source of personal credit. Vendors will supply credit and individuals will be sophisticated investors, all of them. Public services, but for absolute essentials, where there is no profit motive, will have all but disappeared. It’s happening already, in public transport, security, healthcare, education, you name it. Regulated financia...
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