good evening I would like to talk about
how technology can have a positive
impact on our lives and our society I’ve
been in the tech industry for 29 years
I started in 1989 and 94 a company was
called Compaq and I’ll talk about
compact later on it was the first
company that brought a portable computer
to the market during that same year I
was also a student and I was on the wall
in Berlin October 1989 and I saw people
with tears and fear in their eyes trying
to cross the border after 28 years of no
freedom and that positive historic event
was in many ways created partially also
by technology of course it was pushed by
the glossners program of Gorbachev the
mobility and connectivity technology
enabled that and you might think ok this
guy 29 years ago he started I mean was
there any technology in 29 years ago
right I can tell you at that time it
certainly felt like a really great
technology you know but of course it has
no resemblance to what you have in your
pocket or in your handbag ok but I can
absolutely assure you what you have in
your pockets today or in your handbag
will very much look like this in a few
years from now okay and that’s what I
want to talk about I want to talk about
very quickly about the history of
technology I will focus on computing
technology and then a quick peek into
the future I’ll try to avoid talking
jargon and but Ruggles but I will talk
about pizzas okay so stay tuned so just
before we before we start when you think
about us in this room our friends our
family our colleagues we’re all just a
mere blink in the eye in terms of the
evolution of mankind which took 55
million years and when you go back to
our ancestors the first ones that we
could find 10 to 15 million years after
the extinction of the dinosaurs we’re
really looking like squirrels we were
living in trees and
and when I look at the computer
technology first step and of course in
terms of transformation the technology
didn’t start 55 million years ago but it
went a little bit faster but the
transformational steps were also very
significant similar to the evolution of
mankind so probably the first date that
you can find that is important is in
1937 there’s a Bell Labs engineer with a
couple of lamp bulbs and a tobacco tin
who started the first prototype of a
computer ok the real first important
computer was built by the University in
in the US I forgot the name of the
university 1943 to 1946 they built it it
needed six hundred square meters wait 50
tons and used eighteen thousand vacuum
tubes that computer operated for 10
years until 1955 until lightning struck
and the thing was destroyed but when you
think about that first computer it did
more calculations than the entire human
race did until that very moment so a
very important step if we ran into a
next evolutionary step for humankind we
have to point to the Homo habilis Homo
habilis was stood a half million years
ago it was probably the first
technologist because it actually started
to use some stone tools ok so what’s the
first real technical guy or lady and I
would say here from a technology
perspective I would bring in this
company where I worked compact portable
the compact company and why was that
product net computer so is essential as
a transformational step in the
technology world well simply first of
all it was a computer that was able to
run software that no Mangin ears would
almost and ok but the most important
thing the thing wait 18 iPads ok it was
as big as a small child but it had a
handle it had a handle and that handle
made a computer portable okay so in many
ways that computer is the
great-great-grandmother of your
smartphone in your pocket ok if we move
swiftly on to the next phase
directors one and a half to 1.8 million
years ago what you start seeing here is
the dimensions of a human being of today
so you have the arms a little bit
shorter than the torso and the legs
normally a little bit longer than the
torso why that out of the trees on the
ground okay and we started to travel
around a little bit and roll around a
little bit from Africa to Europe the
next technology event that I would
highlight is 29 years ago March 1989 Sir
Tim berners-lee produced the first
concept for the Internet he wrote it
down and it was the basis of the open
Internet today unbelievable that that
Internet today is serving 50% of the
population and streaming searching
googling so many operations totally
dependent on that first start in the
internet and by the way the first
e-commerce transaction apparently was a
pizza okay it was ordered from Pizza Hut
and I don’t think we can prove that but
apparently it’s the truth but what is
more important than that first pizza is
the fact that during the same time we
start seeing mobile telecommunications
coming up 1g was in the 70s 2g was
really around this time when mobile
voice started to democratize and we
start seeing the combination the first
combinations of phones and the internet
then there was not a very good attempt
to bring the Internet to your smartphone
into your fingers which was called 3G ok
it was not a great technology some of
you may remember this Nokia WAP phone
and if when you try to order a pizza on
that on that thing it took you more time
and actually going to the restaurant and
getting it but what is important is and
that’s why what’s so such an important
transformation is for the first time we
start seeing the internet and
telecommunications converging and really
delivering on a lot of very positive and
important events in a society and most
important one that people who were
normally
not connected children elderly people
with diseases suddenly started to be
connected to a real Internet and be able
to communicate and improve their lives
the next phase is obviously the famous
Homo sapiens Homo sapiens in my view the
clear analogy here is moving from
hardware to software so we start having
in Homo erectus with a big brain right
and here from a technology perspective
the fact that suddenly we start seeing
companies producing incredible
applications in particular social
networking applications Ali Baba
Facebook Apple Google Microsoft you name
it you start getting these fantastic
capabilities that truly transform
industries and transform our personal
lives and more importantly also actually
trigger big events in a society and the
most important example of that is
obviously the Arab Spring uprising that
really was triggered by a social
networking capability and all of that on
a 4G network which is also very
important to point out so here we start
getting a fast internet to all devices
enabling new applications in particular
visual applications like video and TV so
where are we now so now we double our
data in our network every 15 months and
we start seeing really interesting new
applications and I can’t talk about all
of them but the one that I think is
really essential in our lives moving
forward is robotics and AI robotics when
you start seeing what there is today you
have the funny robots right you have the
Sony AIBO the Robo dog you seen it or
the skier in the Winter Olympics in
South Korea a robot right and the one
that I really like is the robot that
cleans your barbecue ok although nobody
really knows how you clean the robot
after that work but it’s an interesting
robot but maybe more importantly than
these I would say more
it’s the fact that robotics has the
potential to really train change
healthcare we start seeing already today
the two most clearest examples are the
replacement of limbs robotic limbs that
people have and they don’t have and zero
ones and and the second key example is
of course support early elderly which
you can start seeing in Asia where
robots help in that in that space but
that’s today and when you project that
to tomorrow I think the secret sauce in
connecting robots and enabling some of
the things that were talked about before
is a technology called 5g it’s a new
telecommunications technology and what
is 5g
I mean 5g is first of all promises to be
10 times faster than 4G but more
important than the speed difference is
the fact that the response time of 5g is
much much better and let me explain that
needs 40 milliseconds to tell my finger
when it’s in a cup of tea together get
out of that cup of tea before I get a
blister okay 40 milliseconds the 5g
Network promises to be 40 times faster
to deliver on one millisecond that
effectively means or that prompt makes
makes it possible to get robots machines
flying taxis to interface with each
other to act and react to each other
that’s the key interesting part of that
technology
the second key thing about 5g is
according to the World Economic Forum it
has the opportunity because of the
latency the speed and capabilities in
combination with software to
fundamentally trigger a fourth
Industrial Revolution a revolution where
countries that do not have the
traditional industrial infrastructure
are more on a level playing field as
these technologies will change the
production cycles and the end-to-end
processes and I think that’s a really
cool positive thing if we can get
countries that do not have stuff today
to be more on a balancing point with the
West a key issue though with 5g is the
rollout is quite challenging in
particularly in this country in
Switzerland because of regulation but
technically it’s hard because it works
with airwaves that have a lot of
interference they’re sensitive to
interference so they wouldn’t for
example will be able to easily get into
this building they would be you know
interference from lambs trees cars etc
so that is a real technical challenge
that the community the industry tries to
resolve now when you look at all those
technologies and you think a little bit
more forward where does that leave us as
human beings
in fact when I look back at the
technology revolution over the many
that I’ve been in the industry and has
always been triggered by the
individualization of tech the reason
that you like your phone in your pocket
and not your fixed phone at home is
because you have it in your pocket
because it has all your data because it
has your context it is more intrinsic in
your life and that’s the predominant
evolution in tech over the last years
and that will continue so my view is
what could happen is that we end up as
Homo OTO zoo home auto zoom Latin means
lazy man alright all this tech doing
everything for us you maybe have seen a
mil of movie of woolly I mean it gives
you a very good picture
I don’t think so though I do believe
that we will become a more homo
digitalis and not in the sense I mean
some of you who are in my age they know
this remember this movie the fly the fly
was a famous movie where an engineer
turns into a robotic fly it all ends
terrible and very badly okay that’s not
what I want to talk about when I say
homo digitalis what I mean is that
through that latency of of 5g the new
applications in robotics we will be able
to improve our capabilities quite
significantly starting very simple with
physical capabilities there is already
today in the planning from Hyundai a
vest that you can wear which allows you
to lift much more than how much kilos
without any problems okay it’s about of
course health care limbs that are maybe
lost at you that you replace it’s about
becoming more efficient in your work
through extra intelligence and a faster
reaction time through that there are
even companies or it’s actually
university so the other company
University of Berkeley working on on
neural dust which are sensors
intelligent sensors connected sensors
that are so small and thin that they can
interface with your body in your neural
system they can motor your health they
can monitor your neuron and they can
probably
repair problems that you may have and
you have a more simple example and I’m
sure you have seen it already there are
literally people already walking around
with sensors to pay to open doors and
they have actually implanted them in
their body okay but I hope you know that
the combination of that artificial or
robotic intelligence with our biological
intelligence which makes is
fundamentally more smarter and more
resilient it shouldn’t be only about
healthcare it should really be about our
intelligence so that with that
intelligence we can start solving
real-world problems poverty saving
species dealing with the energy problem
the waste problem etc wouldn’t that be
the ultimate freedom that we can achieve
with technology thank you [Applause]
how technology can have a positive
impact on our lives and our society I’ve
been in the tech industry for 29 years
I started in 1989 and 94 a company was
called Compaq and I’ll talk about
compact later on it was the first
company that brought a portable computer
to the market during that same year I
was also a student and I was on the wall
in Berlin October 1989 and I saw people
with tears and fear in their eyes trying
to cross the border after 28 years of no
freedom and that positive historic event
was in many ways created partially also
by technology of course it was pushed by
the glossners program of Gorbachev the
mobility and connectivity technology
enabled that and you might think ok this
guy 29 years ago he started I mean was
there any technology in 29 years ago
right I can tell you at that time it
certainly felt like a really great
technology you know but of course it has
no resemblance to what you have in your
pocket or in your handbag ok but I can
absolutely assure you what you have in
your pockets today or in your handbag
will very much look like this in a few
years from now okay and that’s what I
want to talk about I want to talk about
very quickly about the history of
technology I will focus on computing
technology and then a quick peek into
the future I’ll try to avoid talking
jargon and but Ruggles but I will talk
about pizzas okay so stay tuned so just
before we before we start when you think
about us in this room our friends our
family our colleagues we’re all just a
mere blink in the eye in terms of the
evolution of mankind which took 55
million years and when you go back to
our ancestors the first ones that we
could find 10 to 15 million years after
the extinction of the dinosaurs we’re
really looking like squirrels we were
living in trees and
and when I look at the computer
technology first step and of course in
terms of transformation the technology
didn’t start 55 million years ago but it
went a little bit faster but the
transformational steps were also very
significant similar to the evolution of
mankind so probably the first date that
you can find that is important is in
1937 there’s a Bell Labs engineer with a
couple of lamp bulbs and a tobacco tin
who started the first prototype of a
computer ok the real first important
computer was built by the University in
in the US I forgot the name of the
university 1943 to 1946 they built it it
needed six hundred square meters wait 50
tons and used eighteen thousand vacuum
tubes that computer operated for 10
years until 1955 until lightning struck
and the thing was destroyed but when you
think about that first computer it did
more calculations than the entire human
race did until that very moment so a
very important step if we ran into a
next evolutionary step for humankind we
have to point to the Homo habilis Homo
habilis was stood a half million years
ago it was probably the first
technologist because it actually started
to use some stone tools ok so what’s the
first real technical guy or lady and I
would say here from a technology
perspective I would bring in this
company where I worked compact portable
the compact company and why was that
product net computer so is essential as
a transformational step in the
technology world well simply first of
all it was a computer that was able to
run software that no Mangin ears would
almost and ok but the most important
thing the thing wait 18 iPads ok it was
as big as a small child but it had a
handle it had a handle and that handle
made a computer portable okay so in many
ways that computer is the
great-great-grandmother of your
smartphone in your pocket ok if we move
swiftly on to the next phase
directors one and a half to 1.8 million
years ago what you start seeing here is
the dimensions of a human being of today
so you have the arms a little bit
shorter than the torso and the legs
normally a little bit longer than the
torso why that out of the trees on the
ground okay and we started to travel
around a little bit and roll around a
little bit from Africa to Europe the
next technology event that I would
highlight is 29 years ago March 1989 Sir
Tim berners-lee produced the first
concept for the Internet he wrote it
down and it was the basis of the open
Internet today unbelievable that that
Internet today is serving 50% of the
population and streaming searching
googling so many operations totally
dependent on that first start in the
internet and by the way the first
e-commerce transaction apparently was a
pizza okay it was ordered from Pizza Hut
and I don’t think we can prove that but
apparently it’s the truth but what is
more important than that first pizza is
the fact that during the same time we
start seeing mobile telecommunications
coming up 1g was in the 70s 2g was
really around this time when mobile
voice started to democratize and we
start seeing the combination the first
combinations of phones and the internet
then there was not a very good attempt
to bring the Internet to your smartphone
into your fingers which was called 3G ok
it was not a great technology some of
you may remember this Nokia WAP phone
and if when you try to order a pizza on
that on that thing it took you more time
and actually going to the restaurant and
getting it but what is important is and
that’s why what’s so such an important
transformation is for the first time we
start seeing the internet and
telecommunications converging and really
delivering on a lot of very positive and
important events in a society and most
important one that people who were
normally
not connected children elderly people
with diseases suddenly started to be
connected to a real Internet and be able
to communicate and improve their lives
the next phase is obviously the famous
Homo sapiens Homo sapiens in my view the
clear analogy here is moving from
hardware to software so we start having
in Homo erectus with a big brain right
and here from a technology perspective
the fact that suddenly we start seeing
companies producing incredible
applications in particular social
networking applications Ali Baba
Facebook Apple Google Microsoft you name
it you start getting these fantastic
capabilities that truly transform
industries and transform our personal
lives and more importantly also actually
trigger big events in a society and the
most important example of that is
obviously the Arab Spring uprising that
really was triggered by a social
networking capability and all of that on
a 4G network which is also very
important to point out so here we start
getting a fast internet to all devices
enabling new applications in particular
visual applications like video and TV so
where are we now so now we double our
data in our network every 15 months and
we start seeing really interesting new
applications and I can’t talk about all
of them but the one that I think is
really essential in our lives moving
forward is robotics and AI robotics when
you start seeing what there is today you
have the funny robots right you have the
Sony AIBO the Robo dog you seen it or
the skier in the Winter Olympics in
South Korea a robot right and the one
that I really like is the robot that
cleans your barbecue ok although nobody
really knows how you clean the robot
after that work but it’s an interesting
robot but maybe more importantly than
these I would say more
it’s the fact that robotics has the
potential to really train change
healthcare we start seeing already today
the two most clearest examples are the
replacement of limbs robotic limbs that
people have and they don’t have and zero
ones and and the second key example is
of course support early elderly which
you can start seeing in Asia where
robots help in that in that space but
that’s today and when you project that
to tomorrow I think the secret sauce in
connecting robots and enabling some of
the things that were talked about before
is a technology called 5g it’s a new
telecommunications technology and what
is 5g
I mean 5g is first of all promises to be
10 times faster than 4G but more
important than the speed difference is
the fact that the response time of 5g is
much much better and let me explain that
needs 40 milliseconds to tell my finger
when it’s in a cup of tea together get
out of that cup of tea before I get a
blister okay 40 milliseconds the 5g
Network promises to be 40 times faster
to deliver on one millisecond that
effectively means or that prompt makes
makes it possible to get robots machines
flying taxis to interface with each
other to act and react to each other
that’s the key interesting part of that
technology
the second key thing about 5g is
according to the World Economic Forum it
has the opportunity because of the
latency the speed and capabilities in
combination with software to
fundamentally trigger a fourth
Industrial Revolution a revolution where
countries that do not have the
traditional industrial infrastructure
are more on a level playing field as
these technologies will change the
production cycles and the end-to-end
processes and I think that’s a really
cool positive thing if we can get
countries that do not have stuff today
to be more on a balancing point with the
West a key issue though with 5g is the
rollout is quite challenging in
particularly in this country in
Switzerland because of regulation but
technically it’s hard because it works
with airwaves that have a lot of
interference they’re sensitive to
interference so they wouldn’t for
example will be able to easily get into
this building they would be you know
interference from lambs trees cars etc
so that is a real technical challenge
that the community the industry tries to
resolve now when you look at all those
technologies and you think a little bit
more forward where does that leave us as
human beings
in fact when I look back at the
technology revolution over the many
that I’ve been in the industry and has
always been triggered by the
individualization of tech the reason
that you like your phone in your pocket
and not your fixed phone at home is
because you have it in your pocket
because it has all your data because it
has your context it is more intrinsic in
your life and that’s the predominant
evolution in tech over the last years
and that will continue so my view is
what could happen is that we end up as
Homo OTO zoo home auto zoom Latin means
lazy man alright all this tech doing
everything for us you maybe have seen a
mil of movie of woolly I mean it gives
you a very good picture
I don’t think so though I do believe
that we will become a more homo
digitalis and not in the sense I mean
some of you who are in my age they know
this remember this movie the fly the fly
was a famous movie where an engineer
turns into a robotic fly it all ends
terrible and very badly okay that’s not
what I want to talk about when I say
homo digitalis what I mean is that
through that latency of of 5g the new
applications in robotics we will be able
to improve our capabilities quite
significantly starting very simple with
physical capabilities there is already
today in the planning from Hyundai a
vest that you can wear which allows you
to lift much more than how much kilos
without any problems okay it’s about of
course health care limbs that are maybe
lost at you that you replace it’s about
becoming more efficient in your work
through extra intelligence and a faster
reaction time through that there are
even companies or it’s actually
university so the other company
University of Berkeley working on on
neural dust which are sensors
intelligent sensors connected sensors
that are so small and thin that they can
interface with your body in your neural
system they can motor your health they
can monitor your neuron and they can
probably
repair problems that you may have and
you have a more simple example and I’m
sure you have seen it already there are
literally people already walking around
with sensors to pay to open doors and
they have actually implanted them in
their body okay but I hope you know that
the combination of that artificial or
robotic intelligence with our biological
intelligence which makes is
fundamentally more smarter and more
resilient it shouldn’t be only about
healthcare it should really be about our
intelligence so that with that
intelligence we can start solving
real-world problems poverty saving
species dealing with the energy problem
the waste problem etc wouldn’t that be
the ultimate freedom that we can achieve
with technology thank you [Applause]
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