Information, innovation and meaning

Photo by Steve Wheeler - Entrance to the Hotel Salomon de Rothschild

Last week you would have discovered me in the cellar of a French palace - the stylish Hotel Salomon de Rothschild, not a stone's throw from the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. The classic old building was transformed into a hi-tech conference venue for European Innovation Day. In a stark contrast spanning three centuries, technologically futuristic images and large screen technologies were projected onto, and embedded within, the fabric of the 230 year-old building, and this melding seemed for all the world like a metaphor for education.

And yet this transformation was tastefully executed, with the two eras joining seamlessly to provide a fabulous, evocative venue for the conference. And in this way, the Huawei sponsored one-day event showcased a spectacular array of possibilities and probabilities for all our digital futures.

Frankly, the speaker line-up was something of a curate's egg - good in parts. For the jaded assembly of tech hacks, it was often 'yep, heard that before.' Journalists are not easily impressed, tech writers less so. But some speakers stood out above the rest.

Photo by Steve Wheeler - Merouane Debbah speaking at #HCE2019

I paid close interest to the presentation by Mérouane Debbah, a researcher, tech entrepreneur and professor at Centrale Supélec who presented a far-sighted and futuristic, if somewhat techno-romantic view of the world.

Debbah joined Huawei in 2014 where he founded the Huawei Mathematical and Algorithmic Sciences Laboratory in Paris. It focuses its work on mathematical sciences applied to wireless, optical and networking communications. Today the lab has 100 researchers and has made a major contribution to our understanding of the fundamentals of 5G technologies. The centre also explores new and innovative uses of Artificial Intelligence for telecommunications.

In an articulate and accessible style, Debbah spoke of the technologies that will transform our lives in the near future. He explained the potential of developing AI trends such as deep learning and artificial neural networks, and painted a bright technological future for all sectors of society.

Photo by Steve Wheeler - European Innovation Day

New and emerging technologies such as holoportation which can give users the ability to 'jump' into someone else's reality, are ways we will connect with each other in the near future. They have the potential to enhance and amplify our actions and our collaborations across distance.

Smartphones with advanced sensing and sampling capabilities, for example air pollution levels, x-ray penetration of solid substances, infra red vision and aspects of the quantified self (blood pressure, temperature, heart rate) are also on the horizon, or already here. Their use, for example in the teaching of science, will add new dimensions and possibilities.

Other emerging technologies such as DNA based digital storage (which is capable of subverting Moore's Law) will expand our capability to store and retrieve huge amounts of data very quickly.

But none of these technologies will reach its full potential without the communications infrastructure to make it work optimally, and Debbah believes this is 5G (and eventually 5G+ and 6G). This was all fascinating to listen to, but for me the most significant contribution he made during the day is when he predicted these technologies will not only convey information, but also meaning. Truly, this is something all of us will require in the coming decade.


Information, innovation and meaning by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Posted by Steve Wheeler from Learning with e's