As a major driver of global wealth, the advance of technology is paced by various forces including new discovery and human inertia. In this keynote, Peter Cochrane, the highly esteemed and engaging techno-futurist, delivers a fascinating analysis of change in our increasingly smart, networked world. He points out that technology can sometimes offer solutions more quickly than people and organizations are able or willing to adopt, until they have no choice.
Beginning with the rise of the internet, our first network with truly exponential properties, ubiquitous connectivity and network effects will increasingly shape our lives. Short term predictions are possible because most products coming to market in the next five years are already in the lab. It's harder to look 10 or 20 years out. Visions of the future can sometimes be clouded by the failure to recognize important factors for success. For instance, Cochrane notes, video conferencing technology has sputtered because it has thus far failed to capture the emotional essence and human qualities of communication.
Cochrane sees several disruptive forces operating now as digitization, connectivity and intelligent networks shift control from companies to consumers, and work from office to home. Cochrane predicts that positioning systems will become the big driver in the world economy as GPS, RFID and artificial intelligence combine to create position-nets and sensor-nets. Robots and machine-mediated decision making will also become common place. Together, the falling costs of bandwidth and the rise in mobility make traditional telecommunications and network business concepts obsolete. Paradigm shifts of this magnitude call on us to let go of familiar assumptions and be open to new ways of looking for opportunity.
Peter Cochrane is a futurist and strategist for technology-driven business who invests his own time and money as an agent of change and creator of new ventures. Cochrane is brilliant at explaining the impact and opportunities of new technologies and their applications to both technical and non-technical audiences. An internationally sought after speaker, Cochrane has authored over 600 papers and articles and numerous books on business, management, technology, the future, and living with rapid change. His latest book, Uncommon Sense: More Tips for Time Travelers, describes the impact on business, society, and individuals of the current shift from a stable and linear world to one that is non-linear and chaotic. Cochrane co-founded ConceptLabs, a new style laboratory/incubator firm that identifiies and helps develop new technologies for commercial applications. In the past decade, Cochrane has been involved in the creation and deployment of new technologies, the transformation of major corporations, and the starting of twenty new businesses, including eBookers, the largest EU on-line travel agent. Other starts include operations in entertainment, defense, logistics, data management, electro-optics, training, and healthcare.
A seasoned professional with forty years of management and hands-on technology and operations experience, Cochrane has worked as a technician, engineer, educator, manager, innovator, technology prophet, creator of new business, and an angel. In his career at British Telecom, he progressed from linesman to head of Research and chief technologist leading a 1000-member team. Cochrane was responsible for manufacturing programs that installed the first undersea fiber cable system between the USA and EU in 1986 and the universal deployment of systems throughout the UK. From 1996 to 2000, Cochrane built BT's new Research and Consultancy Business. His own consulting clients include a broad range of companies and governments in the EU, Turkey, China, India, and USA.
Cochrane's academic career is equally distinguished. He is the UK's first professor for Public Understanding of Science & Technology at Bristol. He has won numerous awards. He manages and serves on the board of six companies in the UK and USA.
Resources:
This free podcast is from our Emerging Telephony Conference series.
For The Conversations Network: