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Get Four
|  | AUGUST 25, 2004
Where the Fantastic Meets the Future [Page 2 of 2] Q: Where are the most promising areas of innovation? A: There are a lot of them. One is nanotechnology. Semiconductors are getting smaller and are already in the nanotechnology regime, which is basically the size of atoms. We are just on the verge of being able to create materials and devices that don't exist in nature but are modeled on biological principals. There are already nanodevices that are reaching the size of atoms, where things become quantum-mechanical, and we need to do a lot of research in science and engineering to get them to work effectively. I'm running a conference on [another innovation which] will take 20 years to develop. [The conference is] on the things that are at the interception of biology and physical machines. These will be important for medicine and, of course, society. Another thing that is important concerns the right education of the 21st century engineer: [teaching them] flexibility and a systems focus, and an understanding of complex systems and how to model them using massive amounts of computational power. [Bell Labs is involved with] telecommunications and networks in particular. There are things [in the works] like very broadband wireless pervasive networks. Things are getting cheaper, smaller, better, more efficient, using less power, and we understand how to pack more bits into spectrum, for example. [A promising area of innovation is] efficient wireless spectrum usage and how to build, design, construct, and manage a worldwide network which is high-bandwidth. [The network must be available] to everyone all the time, and [needs to know] where you are all the time. It will be there in 10 to 20 years, depending on the market. Q: What innovations will be available, near-term? A: In the near term, service providers are running, on average, seven networks each. All [of the networks] are going to converge into one big global network. This is called network convergence, and it's a big word in the industry, but actually how to do it is nontrivial. How do you manage this and how do you go from where we are now to where we will be is a very interesting challenge and requires a lot of innovation. Also, in the near term, are location-based services. By 2007, cable-modem broadband that you can get in your house today will be available on your PDA. This technology involves a lot of innovation too, because the network will need to know where you are because it is your lifeline. For example, if you dial 911, the police will need to have the knowledge of your position to know exactly what highway you're on [to provide help]. Commerce will also be revolutionized by this technology. There's another huge revolution, which is with our health technology. For example, a doctor can do a diagnosis a continent away. Using broadband technology, all the medical records, video of the surgery, MRI scans etc. [can be sent to] the world's best specialist. Nanotechnology devices in a person will beam out diagnosis. This will be possible because of communications, nanotechnology, and computers. There's a huge amount of innovation here. We're learning so much more about what's going on in living systems, and there will be a huge revolution. Q: In what areas is the U.S. leading and in what areas are other countries ahead? A: Right now the U.S. is leading in pretty much all of science. We are doing very well with biology and medicine, but we are beginning to fall behind in the physical sciences and engineering, although we're still leading. Right now, we have the world's best graduate education programs, and foreign students still come to the U.S. But there are many countries -- all of Europe, China, India, Japan, Taiwan -- that are absolutely focused on getting into high-tech industries and improving their science and technology educations. They are catching up with us, and that's both good and bad. It's good because the world is producing more scientists and the global economy will rise. We just have to deal with the fact that we're living in a rapidly improving global world, and we've got to keep ahead of it if we want to have our economy strong.
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