Shane Wall spoke on the impact of 'megatrends' at a Department of Management Public Lecture
Shane Wall, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at HP, revealed the way our lives will change due to global trends and new technologies at an LSE public event chaired by Dr Carsten Sørensen.
Painting a future consisting of rapid urbanisation; changing demographics; increased globalisation and accelerated innovation; Shane explained how we can harness these ‘megatrends’ to provide a positive existence for humanity.
Among the new technologies discussed were automation at work, human gene editing, cryptocurrencies and more. But Shane – who also is Director of HP Labs – emphasised that it’s not the technology nor trend that matters, but the impact they have on society, using the self-driving car as an example.
“The real impact will not be the self-driving car, it will be what happens because of self-driving cars,” Shane said. “All aspects of society will be impacted. How do we design roads? What defines insurance? Who should pay for it?”
Taking questions from Dr Sørensen, Shane described the potential threats and ethical dilemmas that come with rapid innovation in technology.
“How do we deal with that world in which you lose 50 percent of your employment?” Shane asked, when addressing the issue of artificial intelligence replacing humans at work. He emphasised the responsibly of society and governments in “establishing policies that start consciously thinking about this”, as well as the need for regulation in gene editing.
For more insights, download the audio podcast or watch the event video online.
Thursday 25 January 2018