SPEAKER: MICHAEL L. DERTOUZOS

Director, Laboratory for Computer Science, and Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology


What Will Be...for Techies

ABSTRACT:
What major problems should techies tackle in the years ahead? With information technology already at a tenth of the industrial world economy, some think that maturity, stability and lack of novelty are inevitable. Hardly! The ball game has just begun. Are we going to enter a gigabyte-infested cyberspace where equipped with magic goggles and haptic suits, and aided by intelligent agents we'll perform acts crafted to sound exciting in 1998? Maybe. But that's not where the big gains lurk. What then? During this opinionated and somewhat entertaining after-dinner talk we'll put in a salad bowl equal parts of forseeable technological and ancient human needs. We'll resist assigning primacy to either of two ingredients and we'll mix gently, while watching carefully for what may pop out.

SPEAKER BIO:
Michael Dertouzos is Director of the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science, where he is also a Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering. He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, the Athens Academy of Arts and Sciences, and is a Fellow of IEEE. Dr. Dertouzos is the author of seven books including: What Will Be: How the New World of Information Will Change Our Lives and Made in America: Regaining the Productive Edge. He is the founder or co-founder of several hi-tech companies and serves as an advisor to the U.S. and E.U. governments on Information Infrastructures. His interests focus on tomorrow's Information Marketplace. Born in Athens, Greece, Dr. Dertouzos received his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

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