WEF2008.2.2 Innovation thru Convergence
January 24, 2008 by Chris | permalink
Sharp -
Aebisher - huge interest in Europe on the issue of Convergence. today the magnitude of convergence is huge - especially in the area of the life-sciences. this has been a real result of the genome mapping. systems biology, trying to simulate life, or micro-nanotechnology or metronics, devices to help the quality of life that might be even better than drugs, or micro-electrodes in the brain of a monkey walking on a treadmill are sent over the internet to japan to make a robot walk. another example is the blue brain project at the EPFL focused on modeling the entire 'CPU' of a human brain. you need a petaflop machine to do this right now. the model is almost ready. the real convergence is in the training of our new engineers or biologists.
Collins Jr - Metronic is the largest company in this area. one significant trend is Biotech + ICT. these devices can not only provide the therapy, but also do the analysis of the patient. ie the linking of insulin pumps with glucose monitoring. this allows the pump to deliver the right dose at the right time and the device can now be linked to a cell phone to alert of the crisis. they are working on sensors that will be implanted to alert of an extraordinary condition. the acceleration in the biotech area is also ramping up. the example is the site-specific delivery of a protein within the body. all of this very interesting, but also has problems for regulation. the regulators have had their nice clean niches and this convergence cuts across domains. the second issue is the aging of the population creating a dilemma of funding for later age care. the moral challenge will be
Brown - neuroscience - we are seeing the interesting iteration between engineering and biology/neuro. for example, the way in which information is communicated within the brain. the neuron changes properties every time a signal is sent down a neuron. the control of information is an engineering domain. these principles are being used to understand the redundancy and plasticity that the brain has.
Kotick - entertainment - [Activision] - using playstation3 arrays to make visualization. a big realization for us was that consumers are driving convergence. take a group of 26 year olds who make games for a living for our company. they have a whole lot of different perceptions of what convergence is. consider one game with millions of participants - World of Warcraft - which is also a very powerful collaborative tool.
Geoff Moore - tell us more about the metaphor of the brain.
the brain is essentially being explored gene by gene. we are not yet at the point where we can take one cell and understand what it does. we know that the brain is such a complex entity that they are taking it apart from the cellular level all the way to system level at MIT. on the other hand, the system of the brain changes as pathways are used. this is fascinating from a control and adaptive standpoint. the amount of data generated by neuro-scientific research is immense, thus we see the convergence with physics and numerical analysis.
THEN a neuroscientist from Oxford chimed in with such an academic argument/disagreement that went on and one and on and on......she embodied everything that is wrong with an academic out in the real world......lost perspective.
ALL MODELS ARE WRONG, AND SOME ARE USEFUL
World of Warcraft - currently mapping the 10 millions participants - observing their interactions and behavioural patterns. this is like a city of 10 million. how will this impact our understanding of how we will be interacting in cities in the future.
