Technology is replacing human labor – even in areas where until recently this seemed unthinkable. This is a key statement to arise from the scenarios envisaged by experts at the technology and innovation consulting firm Invensity for the years 2023 and 2030. To come up with their forecasts, the experts extrapolated existing trends into the future.

"Although much of this is foreseeable, it has not be given much attention by politics," warns Invensity CEO Frank Lichtenberg. Changes in the world of work are amongst the most significant developments, in his opinion: while smart factories will cost millions of workers their jobs, top-level executives can look forward to 25-hour working weeks. According to the forecast, these changes will also be core issues in the election campaigns of the future.

Invensity expects autonomous vehicles as well as the massive deployment of drones and delivery robots to be one of the major technological transformations outside of factories. In their forecast, the experts point out a common risk of these technologies: they are vulnerable to manipulation by cybercriminals. The technology consultants, for example, consider it likely that there will be a terrorist attack with a hacked autonomously driving car by the year 2023. Vehicles are after all regularly used to commit terrorist attacks . According to the Guardian , the FBI’s Strategic Issues Group has also investigated the possibilities of self-driving cars, both for the police in car chases and for criminals: "Autonomy […] will also open up greater possibilities for dual-use applications and ways for a car to be more of a potential lethal weapon that it is today."