Data analysis will drive Intel's future

THE FUTURE might not be all that different from the present but rest assured that chipmakers will still be relevant, according to Intel's chief futurist Brian Johnson.

Nearing the end of an interview with The INQUIRER, Johnson proclaims, "I'm currently working on Intel's 2019 chip." But as Intel's chief futurist, Johnson isn't working on silicon, rather he wants to make sure the silicon can do what users will want from computers in 2019.

For Johnson it isn't about process nodes, core counts or frequencies, but realising what computer users will want 10 or 20 years from now. Hearing Johnson explain his job, you could be forgiven for initially thinking the relationship with Intel's core competency of making chips is tenuous, but that soon changes.

Johnson describes his work as, "Basically experience modelling. What is the effect you want these [devices] to have. For most folks, it is about what it will feel like to be a human in the year 2020."

This is part of Intel's goal to understand how people are using technology, with high profile researchers such as Johnson and anthropologist Genevieve Bell working on learning and envisioning the answers. Both lead teams of researchers trying to understand how people behave around technology, what they expect from devices and how to abstract away the restrictions and complexities of technology.

As a futurist, Johnson is often asked when science fiction will become reality. Disappointingly he replies, "In 10 years time things will be pretty much the same as they are today." The reason for this, says Johnson, is that people rarely like significant change, meaning that the clean slate worlds that are often seen in science fiction films and futuristic marketing brochures are unlikely to become reality.

Johnson terms "the secret life of data" as a big research topic for Intel. Johnson explains the challenge by saying that thanks to the cloud and a rapidly growing number of sensors the volume of data is growing exponentially. He rhetorically asks, "What will it feel like for humans to live in a world with all this data?"