1 minute read time.
Renowned futurologist Brian David Johnson with IET Honorary Fellow Will.i.am, gave a talk on their view of the technological world coming our way. The evening was chaired by design engineer and 2012 IET Young Woman Engineer of the Year Yewande Akinola.


"It all starts with dreaming" discussed Brian and the need to dream a different dream -  it’s only at that point we know what to engineer. Will.i.am continued that he’s observed that with the amount of investment going into machine intelligence ( A.I ), if the same efforts go into Human Intelligence, like STEM programs, then we can ensure that minds are nurtured the right way  i.e. transformation of society which benefits everyone. Currently, Will's support for STEM programs are seeing an 80 % graduation of students going directly into robotics or computer science.


Another highlight of the evening, was listening to them talk about how they created themes when writing their book together to reflect the point that ' Wizards are real, robots from the future are here '. They both were asked many questions by teenagers, family members, teachers and professionals from the audience, including what the future holds for us all. Brian mentioned that sentient systems will be a strong reality - they will be aware, have the ability to think using personalised A.I methods and also be able to automatically action tasks for you.


We are already seeing many humanoid style robots on a commercial level coming into the market place, and perhaps already shaping our minds to accept ‘ life after IoT ‘ i.e. moving into the 'Sentient Of Things' without us even knowing it ( the robots will though ).


This was a very exciting event that captured the minds of the audience to actually think about the fact that the 'future' is perhaps already here and how you catch up – is your choice.


To read Brian David Johnson’s Biography, click here.

To read about Will.i.am's Honorary Fellowship to the IET click here.