Surprising, provocative, PR stunts, innovative solutions, here are 5 topics that fascinated me this year:

I have to admit that keeping up with 2017's wide array of developments and progressions across so many domains - most of them on the back of technological innovation - has spun my head and sprained my neck. 

• Bitcoin and crypto-currency 

still baffle me - and not for lack of study either.  I know a guy who became a $ millionaire within 18 months - and quit his job and bought a new house within the same week...  he was my business coaching client.  We had lunch, and he summarized his 'astuteness' as: "I think I knew just enough to hurt myself, but I took the plunge and I'm really grateful that I didn't get hurt.  It really could have gone either way."

• ICOs...  

Coindesk estimates the total ICO investment at about $3.8 billion. The bulk of that was in 2017.  Still, that number seems a little low to me, given all the attention (hype??) that ICOs racked up - and the crazy number of articles that were written.  With that said, I want to move from experiencing this as an analytical/ pseudo-academic bystander who never got his hands dirty, to someone who embraced some tactile learning experiences and who (by this time next year) speaks from experience.

• Sophia acquiring citizenship 

is WAY MORE than a publicity stunt.  It's the earliest fringe evidence of the imminent mainstream.  

Sophia is a sign post to citizenship in the same way that Prince (among others) was a sign post to music; in the same way KIT (the talking car in the 80's hit series 'Knight Rider) was a sign post to autonomous vehicles; and in the same way that movie 'The Matrix' was a sign post to computer programmers creating/ manipulating a world in which the rest of us get our rear-ends handed to us (without the silver platter) by lines of code.  

The UAE appointing a Minister of Artificial Intelligence is (in the same way) a sign post that America is no longer the smartest kid in the political class - and that it's time to enroll in some extra lessons.

•  Progress in Robotics are moving quickly.

 From bionic animals, to warehouse droids, to healthcare robots, to life companions, it seems only a matter of price until these technologies become pervasive to our lives... 

•   And what about Industrial and commercial applications of drones? 

Dubai showcased  a drone taxi as well a police hover-bike. PR or real?