Giving Compass' Take:

• Bill Gates highlights five breakthrough technologies that will have an impact on global health and development. 

• What can donors do to help finance more tech in global growth and humanitarian aid?

• Read more about what technology can bring to global health. 

Bill Gates helped create Microsoft, one of the most profitable companies in modern history, but when asked to think about transformative technologies, his mind didn’t go to the circuit board or the internet.

Instead, he thought of plows.

“The plow — like many technologies, both ancient and modern — is about creating more of something and doing it more efficiently, so that more people can benefit,” he wrote in an introduction to his list of "10 Breakthrough Technologies" to look out for in 2019 for the MIT Technology Review.

The plow is in many ways emblematic of Gates' career shift from technologist to philanthropist and humanitarian.

“I think the big picture is that it’s better to be born today than ever, and it will be better to be born 20 years from now than today,” Gates said in an interview with the MIT Technology Review.

Here are highlights from Gates’ "Breakthrough Technologies."

  1. Blood Tests to Predict Premature Babies
  2. Custom Cancer Vaccines
  3. Sanitation Without Sewers
  4. Gut Probe Pills
  5. Carbon Dioxide Catcher

Read the full article about breakthrough technologies by Joe McCarthy at Global Citizen.