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The term “futurist” normally brings to mind something along the lines of Johnny Carson’s old Carnac the Magnificent routine. But I was pleasantly surprised to hear futurist Jack Uldrich present at this week’s National Fluid Power Association Annual Conference in San Diego. Uldrich stressed that there are about a dozen transformational trends that are changing the world now and will continue to shape things in the coming years, especially for manufacturing.

It was interesting to hear about these trends together, as it became clear that they’re not happening in a vacuum, but there’s a lot of symbiosis happening, where the advancement of many areas affect others. Here’s a look at a few of the trends that deserve your attention.

1. Wearable technology. It’s easy to say that Google Glass has been a failure, especially given how Google has pulled back a bit on the product. But the company is actively looking at workforce applications. And consider how the first e-books were failures about 15 years ago, but are everywhere today.

2. Additive manufacturing. Five or six years ago, 3D printers cost $100,000 and today you can buy them for well below $1,000 (though industrial grade machines are still several magnitudes more expensive). NASA has launched the first 3D printer into space. GE is printing a fuel injection nozzle that used to be comprised of 86 parts—now it’s one part. It’s projected that aircraft engine parts will be 3D printed by 2017.

3. Oculus rift. These virtual reality glasses and similar products will change product design. You can now have an idea in your head, create it in virtual reality and then print it out (see #2).

4. Nanotechnology. It’s a $10 billion industry now. We’re now nano-structuring materials and giving them some fascinating properties like self cleaning. Material science will profoundly transform our world. What if you could charge a car in 1 minute and not 4 to 8 hours? What if the cost of desalinization went down by orders of magnitude?

5. Robotics. The soft exoskeleton models being pursued may allow soldiers to lift heavy weights. But it also affects myriad industries—think of nurses being able to lift patients with ease. Industrial robots like Baxter can be purchased for $20,000, allowing small and medium manufacturers to afford them—this may help jobs back from low cost foreign countries. Self-driving cars will change our world in astonishing ways in the coming decade.

6. Sensors. Maybe you’re already tired of hearing about the Internet of Things. But now, only about 20% of the global economy is really connected to the internet. Industries from manufacturing to oil and gas to healthcare aren’t connected for the most part. But by 2020, they will be. Uldrich calls this a $19 trillion business opportunity. I read s story this week about a group of Georgia Tech students who are using sensors to determine when fruit trees on public property in Atlanta are ready for harvest. Now volunteers can go pick that fruit that would otherwise go to waste, and donate it to food shelters.

7. Genomics. Seven years ago, it cost $150 million to sequence a human genome. But this technology doubles in capacity—and the price halves—every four months. Currently, the cost is about $1,000, and by 2020, Uldrich claims it will be more expensive to flush your toilet than to sequence your genome.

8. Artificial intelligence. This is supplemented by increasing processing power—Siri may get 1,000 times smarter in the coming decade. Our phones may be able to tell us what we want to know before we even know we want to know it. On day soon, nanosensors in our bloodstream may send you a message that you’re about to have a heart attack.

9. The sharing economy. Uber could not have existed 10 years ago. Airbnb is now bigger than Hilton Hotels. Apps allow people to share things like snowblowers, so every house on the street doesn’t need own one.

You need to consider what these rapidly changing technology trends mean in your particular industry—and think about how your business may be altered in ways that might be uncomfortable. But better to think now about how to adapt than to find yourself working for an industry niche that may cease to exist because technology’s found a better way.