8.6.2010

"SCIENCE NEEDS GROWTH"

"No growth is not an option," says one of the Millennium Technology Price Laureates, Professor Sir Richard Friend regarding the recent global campaign for degrowth.

"No growth means no jobs. Just the efficiency that technology brings to business life leads to that we need 2 percent growth to keep the jobs that we have now," Friend said in an interview. "Of course we need to redefine growth and redefine wealth and build our economies towards sustainable future."

Professor Friend reminds that no growth means also no research and development: "The toolkits that we have to solve the problems of the world have not yet been defined. Our work is a good example of that. A technology that was on nobody's roadmap a few years ago has now a very promising future."

Room to improve

Professor Friend also said that there is a lot of room to make better use of the technology we already have.  Electronics is not used on the best possible platform: "Many of the ways in which we use electronics is modified by the undesigned nature of semiconductors."

Another laureate for the Millennium Technology Prize, Professor Stephen Furber, father of the ARM microprocessor used in millions of cell phones and other mobile devices, says that like the human brain is not used with its maximum capacity, same goes for microprocessors.

"They have the capacity to run well beyond that they are used now. But there are of course also some limitations, like power consumption. For example simple phones have already excellent energy efficiency, but smart phones tend to need daily recharge."

Professor Furber knows something about the brain capacity too. His recent work at the University of Manchester is an attempt to build a new kind of computer that directly mimics the workings of the human brain.

Pekka.virolainen@technologyacademy.fi