Computer chips made of plastic. Artificial limbs that receive messages directly from the brain. Robots that build more powerful robots. It's hard to say for sure what the next big thing will be, but these items made the list of ten emerging technology trends that will change the world, according to the January issue of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology magazine Technology Review. Technology Review has named ten emerging trends that it asserts will change the world:

• Brain-machine interfaces
• Flexible transistors
• Data mining
• Digital rights management
• Biometrics
• Natural-language processing
• Microphotonics
• Untangling code
• Robot design
• Microfluidics

"We were looking for things that were just emerging now and [which] over the next five years would begin to have a major impact," David Rotman, the magazine's deputy editor, said Thursday. Some of the items, such as biometrics and speech recognition, have been on the verge of widespread use for quite some time. Others chosen by the MIT magazine editors are topics that most people have never heard of, such as microphotonics and microfluidics. The magazine focused on developments in three areas: information technology, nanotechnology and biotechnology. One significant area in biotechnology, the magazine highlights, is work on brain-machine interfaces that could someday allow people to control artificial devices that replace lost functions. Today, research is more limited, with scientists able to take signals from individual neurons in an animal's brain and send them to a robot that can turn the signals into motion. But the potential is huge, according to Duke University neurobiologist Miguel Nicolelis. "Imagine if someone could do for the brain what the pacemaker did for the heart," Nicolelis told the MIT journal. In the purely digital realm, the magazine suggests that the field of robotics could be poised to move beyond the niche market of performing simple, highly repetitive tasks. "Robot builders make a convincing case that in 2001, robots are where personal computers were in 1980, poised to break into the marketplace as common corporate tools and ubiquitous consumer products performing life's tedious chores," writes Technology Review senior editor David Talbot. Until now the problem has been that robots have been costly and difficult to design. One approach that the magazine highlights is the work of Brandeis University researcher Jordan Pollack, who builds robots that can build other robots. Take me to Pt II/ The ideas are there Take me to ZDNet's Christmas and New Year 2000-2001 Content Schedule. Take me to ZDNet's 2000 Roundup index. Have your say instantly, and see what others have said. Click on the TalkBack button and go to the ZDNet News forum. Let the editors know what you think in the Mailroom. And read what others have said.