This morning, MIT Technology Review published its 18th-annual 10 Breakthrough Technologies list, and it includes some fascinating entries. (I picked six of the more interesting ones below.) By “breakthrough,” the publication means “a technology, or perhaps even a collection of technologies, that will have a profound effect on our lives.” Simple, right? Now that we have our definitions out of the way, let’s take a look at some of the technologies that our kids will probably see as old-hat, but that we’ll consider truly innovative.

3D Metal Printing

With the possibility of using metals as well as plastic, composites, and other materials, 3D printing companies will make it easier than ever for businesses to print replacement parts, or even all-new ones. And that means they don’t have to keep huge inventories of things they might someday need. The technology also enables the creation of stronger parts, and more complex shapes than what is possible with traditional manufacturing methods.

Artificial Embryos

Researchers at the University of Cambridge have already grown mouse embryos using nothing but stem cells. Now scientists at places like the University of Michigan and Rockefeller University are looking into expanding on that work and making artificial embryos based on human stem cells. There are obvious ethical questions, but as MIT puts it, doing this would be a big step forward, as it would allow researchers to study events early in development, not to mention employ things like gene editing.

Smart Cities

Toronto is the site of what could be the most exciting digital city initiative: a waterfront neighborhood known as Quayside that is being reclaimed and rebuilt from the ground up with the latest technologies.

Things like policy, design, and technology will be based on information gleaned from a wide network of sensors–measuring air quality, noise levels, people’s activities, and more, MIT writes. Plus, all vehicles there will be autonomous and shared. Robots will do menial chores–like mail delivery–and the systems powering everything will be made open so companies can layer services on top of them.

AI for Everyone

While artificial intelligence is largely in the hands of big tech companies, cloud-based AI could democratize it, MIT believes. Ironically, though, it’s the tech giants–Amazon, Google, and Microsoft–that will develop the cloud-based AI platforms that will make it possible for smaller companies to get in on the game. The hope is that a wide variety of new industries–such as energy, manufacturing, and medicine–could take advantage of the technology.