Biography

Brian David Johnson is known for 21st Century Robot, Down As We Go (2011) and A.W.O.L (2006).

He is a 'futurist' at Intel Corporation whose role is to develop an actionable vision of what computing will mean by 2020. A pioneer in reinventing TV, he has worked in the fields of artificial intelligence, robotics and the uses of science. He has also directed feature films and is an illustrator and commissioned painter.

I always get questions from people about when will we be putting a chip in our heads. It usually cuts between 80 per cent and 20 per cent, with the majority who say it with a chuckle and a grimace , who kind of say 'Ew'. They're a little worried that I'm actually going to do it. But there is a 20 per cent group who come up to me and say, 'Dude, where do I sign up? Is there a list? Because if there's list I want to get on it.'

Right now [2012] the size of meaningful computational power is moving to zero. In the newest phones, the thickness of the device has nothing to do with the silicon inside, nothing to do with the chip. For decades the size of the computer was dependent upon cooling the chip, because the chip ran so hot. Bot because of Moore's Law we've gotten it so small and so power-efficient that it's not about that anymore, and that again makes it about the experience. Essentially we can soon turn anything into a computer, and we will be living in a world where we're surrounded by computational intelligence.

There's been some research recently that human beings seem to be 'apocaholics' - always seeing something right around the corner that's going to kill us. I understand it. As human beings we're hard-wired for a world where, if you hear a twig break behind you, you jump and have a physical reaction. That was okay when that snap was a sabre-toothed tiger, but we don't live in that world anymore. Now that reaction blocks us from coming up with the really great ideas, so I'm on a crusade against fear, because being afraid of the future means we're giving up our power.

Technology is simply a tool, just a hammer - and a hammer you can use to do stuff, to build a house. Now it should also be said, to be pragmatic, you can also use a hammer to bash someone's skull in. That's why this is actually more about the people, not about the tool. Let's just make sure that we're having an ongoing cultural conversation, not just one, because there's always going to be unintended consequences with our tools.