Key Notes 

The Programme Committee has succeeded in engaging top-flight speakers from home and abroad for the 2nd Dialogue on Science. We are pleased to offer you a brief overview of the relevant topics. The papers as well as further information about the congress are contained in the Newsletter no 3 / February 2004. Order under Documents.

Dr. Kathinka Evers, Assoc. Professor, University of Uppsala

Academia Engelberg promotes dialogue between science and society. Prof. Kathinka Evers, Director of Research in the Department of Ethics in Biomedicine at the University of Uppsala, will start with an introduction to the overriding theme of Academia Engelberg: science and trust.

We not only live in a world of science and technology, we are completely dependent on science and technology and are not capable of survival without them. It is not enough that this sense of dependence at times takes on threatening dimensions. Progress takes us a step further with its accompanying risks, which in some cases cannot even be estimated. A further source of insecurity is the fact that the experts are often at loggerheads. “Who can we trust?“ “How can we win and justify trust?“ This is a major challenge facing science and society.

Prof. Dr. Alois Ferscha, University of Linz

We are facing a new era in the information age: In the foreseeable future, the world will be full of invisible and at the same time ubiquitous computer systems, whose communicating sensors will allow them to detect their surrounding environment and even undertake independent actions (= Pervasive Computing).

The first quantum in this epoch "the connectedness of all things" is already well-advanced from a technological point of view. Challenges that remain are the "awareness" factor – creating mutual awareness between humans and connected things – and consequently the "smartness" of objects – the invisible, unobtrusive, intelligent activity of connected objects in the background.

The radical displacement of computer technology to a background position, embedded and concealed in everyday objects, and cultivated to engage in routine activities, preserves the hope of winning back "human lifestyles" through Pervasive Computing – at least from a technological point of view.

Prof. Dr. Gérald Berthoud, University of Lausanne

Technology is not just a neutral instrument to do things better, more simply, more quickly and more cheaply. Technology also changes the way in which people think, communicate and cooperate.

Railways, aeroplanes and cars have fundamentally altered our view of distances, and medical advances have changed our attitude to death, health and disease. The telephone, television and the internet have changed the way people communicate.

What consequences will Pervasive Computing have on society? On power and control structures? On values?

Dr. Reinhold Eberhardt, DaimlerChrysler AG

A naked foot, a few centimetres from stepping on an unseen drawing-pin. Underneath the words: “By now at the latest our cars would have warned you.“ This advertisement is being used by DaimlerChrysler to promote its vision of “accident-free driving“.

The German-American car maker is leading in the introduction of sensor and information technology in the car. Reinhold Eberhardt heads the Department of Communication Systems in Research at DaimlerChrysler. He shows how modern cars with Pervasive Computing should be made safer in the foreseeable future.

Dr. Heinrich Rohrer, Nobel Laureate

Dr. Rohrer sketches scenarios that could arise from the combination of nanotechnology and Pervasive Computing. The result is pervasive nanotechnology, which constantly and ubiquitously engages in gathering “input” and generating "output". Dr. Rohrer laid an essential foundation stone for nanotechnology with his discovery of the scanning tunnel microscope.

Prof. Dr. Elgar Fleisch, Institute for Technology Management, University of St. Gallen

Products and means of transport which identify each other can revolutionize logistics and trade. They can help to avoid empty racks, wrong deliveries, theft and forgeries, enables inventories to be made at the press of a button and sometime also make that tedious waiting around at checkouts a thing of the past.

This is one of the research projects on which Prof. Elgar Fleisch is working. As Professor for Technology Management at the University of St. Gallen, he is currently researching into competitive advantage based on Pervasive Computing in collaboration with the Swiss Federal College of Technology (ETH) Zürich and the global Auto-ID Center with headquarters at MIT.

Dr. Michael Friedewald, Fraunhofer Institute Systems and Innovation Research ISI

What is technically possible does not automatically sell in the marketplace. Michael Friedewald at the Fraunhofer Institute, Systems Engineering and Innovation Research, has examined what innovations of information technology are desired and accepted by consumers. On the basis of this “needs-driven innovation research“ he tries to estimate what applications of Pervasive Computing are promising and what are not so promising.

Krishna Nathan, Director IBM Zurich Research Laboratory

Over the past few years we have seen an explosion of handheld (mobile phones, PDAs, etc.) and other pervasive devices. It is estimated that these now outnumber personal computers. What will be the impact of this transformation? What will it enable and what should we be watchful for?

Prof. Dr. Joseph Weizenbaum, Emeritus Professor MIT, Cambridge

The spirited, Emeritus Professor of Computer Science at the MIT is not only one of the pioneers of Information Technology. He has also been a committed warning voice over the last 30 years pointing to the dangers of misusing the computer. “If there were only a few computers, trust would not be an important issue. But if the computer is everywhere, it is easy to cause immense damage.” Precisely because the computer is pervasive, the issue of trust is of the utmost urgency.

Prof. Dr. Friedemann Mattern, ETH Zurich

Old fairy tales are about flying carpets and magic mirrors, but today we use airplanes and TV sets instead. Will smart everyday objects and other promises of pervasive computing soon be realized and thus loose their magic and enchantment? Are today’s technological forecasts really better than the blunders of former futurists?