Future Human

For the last 22 years, David Neilson has studied light. As Group Leader for Optical Transmission at Nokia Bell Labs, he's seen the development of fiber optics transform communications and the internet. This unimaginable growth in speed and connectivity has given rise to the cloud, which today shapes our lives dramatically. But the cloud is just getting started. Thanks to innovation in optical transmission, the cloud will achieve – or even surpass – science fiction's most elaborate scenarios.

Budapest-based Péter Szilágyi, a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff at Nokia Bell Labs, thinks that despite the great technical advances we've seen over the years, technology makes us jump through too many hoops – especially when it comes to networks. His work on intelligent intent-based networking (I2BN) envisions a future where technology will have to adapt to us, seamlessly and intuitively. Rather than watching video on how to configure a wireless router or pulling our hair in frustration over a misbehaving app, we'll have networks that simply and dynamically conform to our desires.

Nokia Bell Labs researcher Sean Kennedy helps de-mystify Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, utilizing lessons from behavioral psychologist Daniel Kahneman to frame a responsible approach to innovation.

With so much focus on wireless and 5G, it's easy to disregard the massive wired infrastructure that runs through our cities and encircles our homes. But with so many transitioning to remote work - and in many cases retreating to heavily insulated steel cages that can hinder wireless signals - it turns out those same copper wires our forefathers plugged their rotary phones into hold previously unforeseen promise for the future of faster data rates, as long as we get the science right.

Presented in its entirety, here is the Shannon Luminary Lecture by Miguel Nicolelis, founder and co-director of the Duke University Center for Neuroengineering. Listen in as Nicolelis describes a future where brain-machine interfaces restore movement to paralyzed limbs and allow humans to manipulate their environments with their minds rather than their muscles. If you haven't already, then please check out episode 21 of Future Human for further insight into Nicolelis's groundbreaking work.

At the opening of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, 1 billion viewers watched as a paraplegic young man walked on to the field with the assistance of a futuristic exoskeleton and, against all odds, was able to kick a ball using only his mind. Miguel Nicolelis, the colorful Brazilian co-director of the Duke University Center for Neuroengineering, explains that this kick was the culmination of decades of research – and offers an intriguing glimpse into the ways that science will help us heal ourselves.

As remote work becomes the new norm in the face of our ongoing health crisis, we explore the technologies that enable us to stay productive and connected. Speaking to Bell Labs President and Nokia CTO Marcus Weldon, Stuttgart-based researcher Stefan Wesemann explains how massive MIMO technology will improve 5G capacity and be less taxing on our phones. And, more intriguingly, it may even help us live healthier lives.

The Vendee Globe – an around-the-world, solo sailing competition – is considered one of the most grueling sporting events of the modern age. As such, it presents an intriguing opportunity to solve one of the most vexing challenges facing technological innovation: the “remote problem.” AI, advanced sensing and automation are becoming commonplace in industrial environments, leading to huge boosts in productivity and efficiency. But moving those complex systems off of the factory floor and onto a solitary boat sailing in the middle of the ocean creates an entirely new set of challenges. Listen in as champion racer Alex Thomson and Marcus Weldon, President of Nokia Bell Labs and Corporate CTO of Nokia, discuss the potential of their unique collaboration. Future Human is a presentation of Nokia Bell Labs, produced by Audiation.fm.

So skilled is Harry Yeff - better known as champion beatboxer Reeps One - at his craft that he’s prompted one neuroscientist to note: “[he] can make at least three sounds simultaneously [with his mouth] -- and theoretically you're not supposed to be able to do that.” Having been the subject of scientific studies since 2012, Reeps One continues to hone his craft and explore the outer limits of what is possible with the human voice. Now, as a Bell Labs Artist In Residence and collaborator, he’s training a sophisticated deep learning artificial intelligence system to beatbox – setting the scene for a most unusual duet. We get the full, behind the scenes scoop in our latest episode. To learn more about Reeps One and this groundbreaking journey, check out the recently released, six-part web documentary entitled “We Speak Music.” Future Human is a presentation of Nokia Bell Labs, produced by Audiation.fm.

Presented in its entirety, here is the Shannon Luminary Lecture from Alex “Sandy” Pentland, a data scientist and serial entrepreneur who directs the Connection Science and Human Dynamics labs at MIT. If you haven’t already, please check out Episode 16 to get some behind the scenes insight and commentary from Pentland. Future Human is a presentation of Nokia Bell Labs, produced by Audiation.fm.

Alex Pentland, who directs the Connection Science and Human Dynamics labs at MIT, has been called “one of the seven most powerful data scientists in the world” by Forbes magazine. Now, he’s taking on what he considers the “one thing” that needs to change in our country: our tribal disconnection. Listen in to hear Pentland’s vision for something he calls “HumanAI”; along the way, he explains why org charts are useless, why where you buy your morning coffee matters, and most importantly, how we can all reclaim a bit of our precious digital privacy. Future Human is a presentation of Nokia Bell Labs, produced by Audiation.fm.

Presented in its entirety, here is the full Shannon Luminary Lecture from Dr. Benjamin Ebert – a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Chair of Medical Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, among many other vaunted positions. If you haven’t already, please check out Episode 14 to get some more insight from Dr. Ebert in conversation with Bell Labs President/Nokia CTO Marcus Weldon. Future Human is a presentation of Nokia Bell Labs, produced by Audiation.fm.

Cancer research is at an inflection point. While the disease is poised to overtake heart disease as the leading cause of death this century, massive strides are being made. Indeed, the US saw a 26% reduction in the cancer death rate from 1991-2015. Dr. Benjamin Ebert – a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Chair of Medical Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, among many other vaunted positions – recently delivered a Shannon Luminary Lecture where he laid out the current state of play with research, and how the quest to study pre-malignant patients has given rise to new insights that stretch beyond cancer prevention. Listen in as he discusses his findings with Nokia Bell Labs President and Nokia CTO Marcus Weldon. Future Human is a presentation of Nokia Bell Labs, produced by Audiation.fm.

Presented in its entirety, please enjoy the full Shannon Luminary Lecture from Vint Cerf – Google’s Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist, and a man considered by many to be a ‘Father of the Internet.’ If you haven’t already, please check out Episode 12 to get some more insight from Vint himself in conversation with Bell Labs President/Nokia CTO Marcus Weldon. Future Human is a presentation of Nokia Bell Labs, produced by audiation.fm.

When Vint Cerf talks, people listen. Whether it’s because he had a hand in creating the first commercial email system or co-developed the TCP/IP protocol - over which all Internet traffic flows – Cerf is considered one of the ‘Fathers of the Internet’. On this episode, Cerf, who now serves as Google’s Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist, gives us the scoop on his recent Shannon Luminary Lecture, in which he issues a rare and resonant call for how to make our future of connected devices – dubbed ‘The Internet of Things’ – more humane.     Future Human is a presentation of Nokia Bell Labs, produced by audiation.fm.

If – like me – your high school/college summers were filled with menial office work, flipping burgers or babysitting, well, you did it wrong. In this episode, we check in with a few fearless students who spent their summer on the Nokia Bell Lab campus in Murray Hill, New Jersey. Instead of slathering sunscreen on toddlers or beating a malfunctioning printer to death, these folks were: teaching robots how to navigate buildings; pressure testing materials that will enable factories to operate more efficiently; enhancing the capabilities of potentially life-saving wearables; improving the technology that powers facial recognition; and turning live concerts into a personal surround sound experience. And they’re just getting started. Future Human is a presentation of Nokia Bell Labs, produced by audiation.fm.

When Nokia Bell Labs launched their own Prize competition in 2014, its goal was simple but audacious: they were seeking proposals that ‘change the game’ in the field of information and communications technologies by a factor of 10. For the Bell Labs Prize’s 2017 winners, that sounds almost too conservative. Listen in as Bell Labs President and Nokia CTO Marcus Weldon decodes the philosophy behind the competition, and hear first-hand from the 2017 winners: Kaushik Sengupta; Jason Azoulay and Tina Ng; and Colm O’Dwyer. In addition to cash awards, each winner has the opportunity to collaborate with Bell Labs researchers to bring their vision to fruition, with amazing implications for the future of health care, wearables and much more. Future Human is a presentation of Nokia Bell Labs, produced by audiation.fm.

On the eve of the first major exhibition of NEW INC's artists' collaboration with Bell Labs researchers, Marcus Weldon, President of Bell Labs and CTO of Nokia, gives us a sneak peek at what to expect, and how you can view and participate. "Only Human," featuring works and performances by Sougwen Chung, Lisa Park and HAMMERSTEP, opens April 29 at 1PM, kicking off the Spring Open Season at Mana Contemporary arts center in Jersey City, New Jersey. It's Bell Labs' first public-facing event of its kind since the historic "9 Evenings: Theatre and Engineering" in 1966. The exhibit also includes two galleries full of audio-visual documents from that seminal event. On Saturday May 12, Mana will host a very special symposium entitled "Experiments in Art & Technology—Then & Now." To reserve your free tickets and get more information, go to: http://manacontemporary.com/onlyhuman Future Human is a presentation of Nokia Bell Labs, produced by audiation.fm.

“Our ability to share emotions at a distance using technology is non-existent, and we’re trying to build those aspects into what we do” – Domhnaill Hernon, Nokia Bell Labs. Why has the world’s preeminent communications research facility thrown in its lot with a crew of up and coming multimedia artists? On this episode, we’ll explore Bell Labs’ relaunch of the groundbreaking Experiments In Art and Technology (E.A.T.) initiative, and hear firsthand from some of the Artists in Residence about the work they’re creating. Turns out their collaboration with research teams across the company is yielding unforeseen - and entirely welcome - outcomes for all parties. For more information about the artists and to see and hear samples of their work, check out https://www.bell-labs.com/explore/experiments-art-and-technology/.  Future Human is a presentation of Nokia Bell Labs, produced by audiation.fm.

Presented in its entirety, please bask in the tour de force that is Stephen Fry’s Nokia Bell Lab’s Shannon Luminary Lecture. If you haven’t already, please check out Episode 7 to get some more insight from Stephen himself and Bell Labs President/Nokia CTO Marcus Weldon. Also, you can watch the video of the lecture here: http://bit.ly/FryShannon. Future Human is a presentation of Nokia Bell Labs, produced by audiation.fm.

Actor, author, activist, playwright and student of technology Stephen Fry – a wryly self-described ‘all round national treasure’ – gives us a glimpse into the thinking behind his show-stopping Nokia Bell Labs Shannon Luminary lecture. With his guidance, we’re able to see how the myth of Pandora, the invention of chess, and the imminent singularity are all of a piece, and whether we have a fighting chance against the robots. Future Human is a presentation of Nokia Bell Labs, produced by audiation.fm.

Revered cancer researcher Stephen Friend has a message: not only do we need to take more agency in our own healthcare, beyond the “priestly experts” we entrust, but we need to reclaim “endangered experiences” where we have a dialogue with ourselves. Bell Labs’ Marcus Weldon calls this lecture “the bravest talk I’ve ever seen.” Listen to this episode to understand why; then, listen to the full lecture in Episode 6. Future Human is a presentation of Nokia Bell Labs, produced by audiation.fm.

We’re excited to present the full Shannon Luminary Series lecture by renowned cancer researcher Stephen Friend: “The Future of Human Agency: Exploration of the Role of Art and Technology in Determining Risk, Awareness, and Free Will.” Check out Episode 5 to hear why Bell Labs’ President Marcus Weldon called this “the bravest talk I’ve ever seen.” Also, you can watch the video of the lecture here: http://bit.ly/FriendsWarning. Future Human is a presentation of Nokia Bell Labs, produced by audiation.fm.

Claude Shannon. “Father of the Information Age.” Inveterate tinkerer. Restless polymath. His work made digital computing possible. Yet he refused to rest on his laurels, always turning his attention to solving the next “problem that interested him most.” Two spiritual descendants, neuroscientists Henry Markram and David Eagleman, are relentlessly focused on uncovering the workings of the brain – perhaps even improving on it. Future Human is a presentation of Nokia Bell Labs, produced by audiation.fm.

The latest chapter of the Bell Labs relaunch of Experiments In Art and Technology – E.A.T., a 50-years long collaboration between artists and engineers – features a first-of-its-kind album premiere: Beatie Wolfe performing live in one of the quietest rooms in the world, as the imagery and lyrics of her songs come to life around her via Augmented Reality. Forget about a “lyric video” – this is like waking up inside a song. Could this be the future of how music artists perform? We check in with various experts to get the scoop. The songs from this episode are featured on Beatie’s just-released new album, “Raw Space,” available at: https://www.beatiewolfe.com/music/ - music-raw-space-section. Also mentioned: Firstage.com, the Augmented Reality concert company; DigitalDomain.com, a leader in digital effects, virtual humans and VR; “Raw Space” visual design crew http://design-io.com/; and engineering and design firm arup.com. Future Human is a presentation of Nokia Bell Labs, produced by audiation.fm.

This episode of Future Human takes us from one of the world’s quietest rooms – Bell Labs’ anechoic chamber – into the voluminous history of sound innovation and the amazing potential of music-based therapy. This episode features the song “Need Somebody” by musician Beatie Wolfe. Find out more about her groundbreaking music and dementia project here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4C3sPtaw9ew and check out more of her music at beatiewolfe.com. To learn more about the inspiring work of Dr. Connie Tomaino, please check out the Institute For Music and Neurologic Function at http://musictherapy.imnf.org/. To hear more about Bell Labs’ anechoic chamber, check out the episode of the Radiolab podcast entitled “Hallucinating Sound” (http://www.radiolab.org/story/91792-hallucinating-sound/). For a heartwarming glimpse of how music reawakened an inert, elderly patient named Henry, take a look here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyZQf0p73QM (have some tissues on hand). Future Human is a presentation of Nokia Bell Labs, produced by audiation.fm.

Welcome to Future Human, an exploration into the human potential of technology. In the series debut, we examine the origins of E.A.T. (Experiments in Art and Technology) – an unlikely pairing of artists and engineers in the 1960s which heralded some of the most impactful technological advances of the last century – and uncover the motivations for the recent reinvigoration of the program. For more information about E.A.T., check out https://www.bell-labs.com/explore/experiments-art-and-technology/. Future Human is a presentation of Nokia Bell Labs, produced by audiation.fm.

Welcome to Future Human, an exploration into the human potential of technology. Much of the technology we take for granted has been hatched over decades, forged by an ongoing and unlikely collaboration between emerging artists and the keenest engineering minds in the world. As the science fiction of days past becomes everyday reality, where will the next great ideas come from? Listen in as today’s most adventurous artists, musicians and creative thinkers inspire their scientific peers to unleash a more connected world.