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Tomi Ahonen
25%of Korea’s
population drive
imaginary cars in
KartRider
INTERVIEW
|
THE CHANNEL
THE CHANNEL
|
JANUARY 08
|
49
economic engines to drive Korea.
They focused on digital
convergence, the information age,
ubiquitous computing, etc. Then
the govermment provided
legislation and regulation support,
enthusiastically supported
international conferences and
information sharing. And then the
government fostered cooperation
with academia and the industry, so
the whole society worked very
closely together. Korea also
promoted competition as the
driving engine. Rather than forcing
all to use only one technology,
Korea tends to want all rival
technologies to co-exist, so that the
country and the industry benefits
from all those techologies. For the
end-user this means the widest
choice of near rival technologies.
In places your book sounds like
science fiction – household
robots reading bedtime stories
to kids? Where is South Korea
heading?
I like to think of technology
becoming invisible, just doing its
job. Think of the microprocessor. In
the 1960s this was NASA science,
put on the space missions, to get
computers onto rockets. Then the
technology spread and by the 1980s
we had several microprocessors in
our cars. Today's cars have dozens
and we don't think of the
microprocessor any more.
South Korea is now heading to a
world where connectivity is
everywhere, not just computing. So
we get the intelligent floor. A
hospital with an intelligent floor
will have the ability to monitor the
patient who has an accident and
falls, for whatever reason – maybe a
dizzy spell or a heart attack, or
slipping on a floor that was just
washed. But if the floor senses that
someone fell on it, the floor can
alert a nurse immediately.
This is the future that is
emerging in Korea. Not only the
science-fiction-esque robot in every
home - which will happen in Korea
first - but also the more obscure
intelligence out of computing and
connectivity that is built into our
lives everywhere. So it's not just
that we can pay for our parking by
our cellphone, but if the car can tell
me where the nearest available
parking place is, that is real value to
the user. And this technology is
already being trialled in Korea.
Work won’t
go away but we
can domore fun
things, inmore
fun ways
“
”
Finally, the pessimist's and
optimist's view of the digital
future?
I'm the eternal optimist! But yes,
good question. The pessimist
would say it's an all-pervasive, all-
intrusive "network" that doesn't let
us sleep well at night for all the
messages interrupting us, various
real and virtual employees, bosses,
colleagues etc bothering us at all
hours. The blurring of work and
rest so badly that we all become
neurotic and depressed. Virtual
theft, identity theft, invasions of
privacy etc will only get much
worse…
Optimist? Work won't go away,
but we can do more fun things, in
more fun ways. Our services will be
more fun. The way we consume
things will be more fun. I think we
will look back at the dawn of the
Connected Age and think that the
world back then was horribly
complex, unpleasant, difficult,
unfriendly, intimidating. But that it
became a lot of fun along the way.
Tomi Ahonen, thank you.
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