Sometimes the future shows up so fast it hits us in the face, like a brick wall in a VR headset. Other times the miraculous promises of technology—the rearrange­ment of our very DNA, the blockchain-­enabled toppling of Facebook—are frustratingly slow to arrive. But either way, the future is coming, and we should be ready. In the following pages we lay out a series of predictions, starting with some changes that are immediately upon us. Then, looking down the road, we get ever-bolder in our prognostications, year by not-so-far-off year. —The Editors

Sammy Harkham

Cyberattacks Will Hit a Power Grid Near You

Hackers who disable power grids and detonate gas pipelines have been the villains of popular cyberparanoia for decades. Until recently, they were as easy to dismiss as Die Hard’s Bruce ­Willis–thwarted infrastructural cyberpocalypse, circa 2007. But hackers are starting to catch up with Hollywood.

High Alert Over the past few years, each of these hacker attacks on infrastructure could have caused serious physical disruption or destruction. CrashOverride (aka Industroyer) This Russia-linked malware switched off up to a third of the electricity in Kiev. Its modular structure means it could easily be adapted to other countries—and potentially planted on many targets at once. Triton Designed to disable systems that regulate conditions in physical plants, this malware instead triggered a shutdown of an oil and gas facility in Saudi Arabia last year. Dragonfly 2.0 Russian hackers recently gained access to multiple US power utilities. The intruders tunneled deep enough into some networks to screenshot control-system interfaces. According to security firm Symantec, they could have started flipping switches. $71 Billion Potential cost to the insurance industry of a cyberattack on the US elec­trical grid.

In just the past year, researchers have uncovered two unprecedented pieces of malicious code that targeted industrial control systems. One, linked to Russian hackers, cut off up to a third of the electricity to the Ukrainian capital in 2016. Another, of more mysterious origin, shut down an oil and gas facility in Saudi Arabia last year. That second digital weapon had the ability to silently turn off safety systems, which could have led to a lethal fiasco. It’s been almost a decade since the NSA reportedly sabotaged an Iranian nuclear facility with malware called Stuxnet; now the rest of the world is entering the arms race.

Those recent incidents, along with dozens of other infra­structure attacks that used more traditional hacking tools, are part of an “extreme uptick” in government-sponsored hacker groups targeting industrial control systems, says Robert M. Lee, founder and CEO of security firm Dragos and a former NSA analyst. Last year, his analysts counted five new groups of nation-state hackers focused on infrastructure targets—including at least one Russian group that the US government believes gained deep access to a handful of US utilities. Digital sabotage of electrical grids, water systems, and petrochemical facilities can send threatening signals and test tools that might come in handy in future wars. As countries work to keep up with their adversaries’ hacking techniques, “there will be a rush for everyone to build these capabilities,” Lee says. “The losers will be civilian infrastructure owners.” Oh, and anyone who uses electricity too. —Andy Greenberg

Sammy Harkham

Robots Will Roam Abandoned Big-Box Stores

The retail carnage in America feels unstoppable, as empty malls turn the suburbs into a hellscape of bleak parking lots and shuttered buildings. But, if they haven’t yet gone bankrupt, a few big-box operators and mall stalwarts see a glimmer of light: They’re going dark. Instead of abandoning nonviable stores, though, these companies are thinking about turning them into warehouses and fulfillment centers. Because we’ll still require stuff in our mobile, I-want-it-now, same-day-­delivery future, and that stuff requires logistics. After closing 63 of its outlets this year, for example, Sam’s Club has begun converting around 10 of them into distribution centers for its ecommerce operations.

3 Shades of Dark Store Black Full conversion to a warehouse. This option accepts that the future of shopping is largely online. Gray Some stores could pull double duty. By day, they’re open for business; by night, robots and packers fill online orders. White Chieh Huang of Boxed sees a far-off future in which—if physical stores survive at all—robocarts operate alongside shoppers and employees. Workers could help with the ecommerce in between stocking shelves and assisting customers. It would eliminate the need for nighttime pickers— so long as customers don’t kick over the robots. Or vice versa.

Many of these retailers are considering using robots to assist with the picking and packing. Amazon already has its somewhat reliable warehouse bots, and competitors are experimenting with their own setups. Boxed, a wholesale ecommerce startup, has built autonomous guided vehicles, essentially robot carts, that roam its warehouse aisles while a crew of humans pick items from shelves. When a Boxed cart scoots up to an item it needs and flashes a red light, a worker drops the object onto the cart. These picker carts have led to “extreme savings on capital expenditures,” such as acquiring permits and installing traditional conveyor belts, says CEO Chieh Huang. Legacy retailers have asked to license the technology, but Boxed has demurred.

Other startups are building similar tools, including Kindred, an outfit that makes warehouse robots and is piloting its system with Gap. And former executives of Kiva Systems, which Amazon acquired in 2012 to create the robot system it uses today, now have a new startup called 6 River Systems, which has developed a rolling warehouse robot named Chuck—the personal shopper you’ll never meet. —Erin Griffith