Happy 2018, colleagues!  Despite the doom and gloom of our breathless 24/7 news cycle, I see a good year ahead.

In the big picture, by many measures (life expectancy, GDP, the success of the Millennium Development Goals to reduce poverty and more), humanity is generally getting better.  Focusing in on technology, there are also many optimists, such as Deloitte.  Kevin Roose moves beyond the scandals and shenanigans of the tech world to highlight humanitarian uses of cryptocurrency and other smile-inducing stories.  Of relevance to the homeland security community, Visabot and Boundless are helping immigrants navigate the legal labyrinth of visas, green cards, etc.  A combination of online applications, chatbots, and human curators.

One theme I am watching in 2018:

Richard Feynman lectured on “There’s plenty of Room at the Bottom” in 1959.  It took another three decades for science to take on his challenge and ramp up the nanotech revolution.  In 2018, there remain many opportunities for nanomachines, nanoparticles, speeding up or slowing down processes, self-assembly, additive manufacturing and green chemistry.

Let’s get imaginative!