"We should study Science Fiction in order to understand what someday could become Science Fact." This is the time of year when everyone makes his or her predictions for 2018. I have my predictions as well, but wanted to do something a bit more fun. So I thought I'd look backwards to the state of technology 50 years ago to gain some insights that we can use to make projections about 2018. That is, what "predictions" made in the 1950's might tell us about 2018.

This story was first published at The Aleph Report. If you want to read the latest reports, please subscribe to our newsletter and our Twitter. Those that follow technology closely have noticed a significant trend in the field, China. The more you read, the more you encounter increasing coverage on China's tech dealings. In the last few weeks, we've seen Tencent's market capital surpass that of Facebook; Venture Capital activity reach US VC levels; LinkedIn's Chinese rival MaiMai, outperform LinkedIn in the country and the amount of Chinese Women in Tech pass that of the US.

This story was first published at The Aleph Report. If you want to read the latest reports, please subscribe to our newsletter and our Twitter. Those that follow technology closely have noticed a significant trend in the field, China. The more you read, the more you encounter increasing coverage on China's tech dealings. In the last few weeks, we've seen Tencent's market capital surpass that of Facebook; Venture Capital activity reach US VC levels; LinkedIn's Chinese rival MaiMai, outperform LinkedIn in the country and the amount of Chinese Women in Tech pass that of the US.

The Visakhapatnam chapter of the Computer Society of India (CSI) is organising a two-day national seminar -- Impact 2018 -- here on January 5 and 6 in association with RINL's Visakhapatnam Steel Plant. The topics include internet of things (IoT), machine learning and artificial intelligence, predictive analytics, block chain technologies and cyber security. Prabir Ray Chaudhury, Director (Commercial), RINL, and Chairman of the Visakhapatnam chapter of the CSI, said CSI had decided to organise the event here this year, as the city is emerging as a major IT centre. "These technologies will have a major impact in the next decade or so and there is a need to create awareness about them. Experts from all over the country and abroad will deliver lectures on these topics," he said.

China is planning to build a 13.8 billion yuan ($2.1 billion) technology park dedicated to developing artificial intelligence (AI), state-backed news agency Xinhua reported Wednesday. The campus will be constructed within five years and situated in the suburban Mentougou district in western Beijing. It will cover 54.87 hectares, Xinhua said. The technology park will be home to around 400 businesses and is expected to create an annual output value of about 50 billion yuan. High-speed big data, cloud computing, biometrics and so-called deep learning, a strand of AI, will be the focus of the new park.

Edward D. Hess, Professor of Business Administration & Batten Executive-in-Residence – Darden School of Business, and co-author of Humility Is the New Smart Technology will continue to advance much faster than the business world will adopt and much faster than the social and governmental sectors will adapt. The two big areas that will practically lead the way in 2018 are The Industrial Internet of Things and Global Politics. Global industrial Incumbents who are ahead now in technology adoption and who are building AI-Cloud based platforms to serve an ecosystem will continue to advance and ultimately that will lead to massive global industry consolidations leading to large reductions in the number of human employees. The power of large AI-based platform organizations will be the story of the future. The impact is still 3-5 years out but, when it hits, it will be big. The dominant Future of Work issues in 2018 will be political. How will China advance toward its goal of becoming the AI global leader and who will contest that? What happens in the mid-term elections in the United States? And will Germany's to be formed new government continue to exhibit the leadership needed in Europe and globally?

Japanese scientists have create a creepy machine that can peer into your mind's eye with incredible accuracy. The AI can study electrical signals in the brain to work out exactly what images someone is looking at, and even thinking about. The technique could theoretically be used to create footage of daydreams and to help patients in permanent vegetative states to communicate with their loved ones. Scientists in Japan have developed an AI that can decode patterns in the brain to recreate what a person is seeing or imagining. The breakthrough relies on neural networks, which try to simulate the way the brain works in order to learn.

Language Understanding Intelligent Service (LUIS) enables developers to build smart applications that can understand human language and respond accordingly to user requests. Let's first try to understand why we need LUIS. In a web application, you search for a functionality in the menu. The menu, menu items, screen layout, and navigation vary for each application. Before you use any application, you need to familiarize yourself with the menu items and the navigation. The same functionality may have different names in different applications.

From advances in 5G research (including a $370 million development pledge by tech giant Ericsson) and the rise of AI capable of beating human poker players, to the launch of exciting new AR-ready products such as the Apple iPhone X, 2017 certainly didn--t disappoint where tech development was concerned. But the question is, can 2018 follow in the tech footsteps of 2017? In particular, will technology in potentially very lucrative areas, such as IoT, AI, AR, robotics, space continue to advance? Here are our tech predictions for the next year. Although many people predominantly associate the Internet of Things with smart home technology, that's not to say it isn't making waves in other areas.

AlphaGo defeated Go world champion Sedol in the first of five games of the Go contest.