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EXPONENTIAL technology is one of those buzzwords that is at once simple and yet complex.

The term isn’t just about technology for technology’s sake. Rather, it refers to technology that changes the way people do things and pushes society forward in ways previously inconceivable.

As Fast Company puts it, “These ‘exponential technologies’ have an impact that extends beyond the limited notion of commercial success, or even shared value.

“They allow us to do more, learn more, and earn more than ever before. They transform our usual ways of thinking, behaving, and relating to one another. They empower and enrich the lives of many people, not just an elite few.”

Genovasi Malaysia recently hosted a talk by Dr Clarence Tan on how exponential technologies can be used to impact society and industries in a big way.

At the sidelines of the event, #edGY spoke to Tan about what exponential technology means to the man in the street.

Tan is the Asia-Pacific ambassador for Silicon Valley-based think tank Singularity University. He is also the founder of Bond Wireless, an Australia-based wireless software application and services company.

#edGY: What is exponential technology? Can you explain it in layman’s terms?

Basically, exponential technology is any kind of technology that is accelerating at a very fast pace. It goes slowly then suddenly shoots up really quickly.

It’s things like 3D printing, synthesis biology, nanotechnology, Internet of Things and so on. These technologies can be utilised towards humanity’s progress and to solve some problems that the world faces today.

Why does the term seem complex?

The problem is that most people don’t have the ability to comprehend how fast technology is moving. We are very linear in our thinking, so we are always thinking of Phase 1, then Phase 2, and so forth when in fact, things are moving so rapidly.  

Moore’s Law states that technology doubles every 18 months in terms of power, miniaturisation and lower costs. In practical terms, you may notice that the price of a hard drive is getting cheaper by the day.

For example, right now, there are about 2.5 billion people connected to the Internet. By 2020, there will be five billion people on the Internet. So, that is a massive acceleration in growth.

Take mobile phone technology. Earlier, the predictions were that there would be more than one million mobile phones in use but what they did not predict was how phones were getting smaller and smaller.

They kept predicting that mobile phones were going to grow at 10% per annum when it would actually double. For example, African countries had 2% mobile phone usage in 1990, but now, they are at 18%. This is what we mean by exponential growth.

So how can these technologies help humanity?

Technology can bring a bright future. The problem is that with most people, our human brain tends to look for key things like food, a mate and protection from danger. So, we still have a ‘danger’ thing.

When we see technology we don’t understand, we get scared. This is unfortunate, and I’m trying to explain to people that there are good things about technology.

There are tech companies with projects in the areas of health, security, food, environment and so forth.

At Singularity University, the mission is to try and train people, future leaders, to use technology to solve these problems and impact billions of people within 10 years.

There are a few companies that we are working with. One of them is Modern Meadow, which is going to 3D print beef and leather from stem cells.

So in the future, you don’t have to kill animals for their meat. They have invested US$14 million in this company.

That’s interesting. Is it safe to eat 3D printed food?

It actually tastes almost the same as normal beef. Eric Drexler, in his book Engines of Creation, says a cow is nothing more than a machine that converts grass and water into steak. If you can make a machine that is more efficient than a cow, you don’t need the cow (laughs).

It all comes back to perception but the thing is, it’s all about molecules. It’s going to be no different than the actual cow. I always get into an argument with people who say ‘God created cows for us to eat, why do you have to go on and create a synthetic cow?’

But cows are the most polluting animals. They contribute to the greenhouse effect. It is also cruel to kill an animal but now you don’t have to kill another animal. You can just print its meat or whatever you want.

Organic food isn’t sustainable. It tastes good but not everybody can have it because it is expensive to grow and it’s not sustainable.

What else is there?

The other thing is energy and resources. Lots of wars happen because of the lack of resources. Now you see oil prices dropped because of what? Solar. Solar energy’s prices have come down so low that it costs about five cents per kilowatt to produce. The problem is how you store energy.

A technology is being developed so you can paint your walls with a material and turn your whole house into a giant battery.

The self-navigating car is going to be a big thing soon.

We have a lot of companies now exploring Mars or going to the moon to look for platinum or minerals. On earth, most of the precious metals like gold and platinum are extraterrestrial. On the moon, there’s no movement so [technically] it’s cheaper to mine it.

What can these technologies do for the human body?

When it comes to paraplegics, now we have stem cells that can help build exoskeletons to help them and there’s 3D printing.

At Singularity University, they recently showed us how 3D printing can produce organs like a heart. So, they took a rat’s heart, washed it with detergent and you get the scaffolding, and they injected it with stem cells.

In two weeks, it became a heart. They shocked it and it was beating. They are saying they don’t need a rat’s heart anymore, they can 3D print the scaffolding.

You can 3D print hundreds of materials right now, organic or non-organic, but they are still working on that right now.

Another example is programming your genes. What if we can programme a bacteria or synthetic machine to kill cancer cells? We could do all these things in the near future. But there’s the fear of the negative side, right? They say if we can kill cancer cells, we can also kill other human cells. That’s the negative side of things, right?

When I tell people that, they get all takut and they will probably say ‘It can kill all of us’. But we already have technology that has been killing humans, like atomic bombs and what not.

If you want to kill people, you can. But if you believe in the good in humanity, technology allows us to do a lot of things we can’t do before.

All this technology sounds very exciting. Where do humans fit in this future?

When it comes to jobs, if you can be replaced by a machine, you will be replaced by a machine. It’s not a matter of if but a matter of when. But in other ways, it will create more jobs.

Before, 92% of Americans were farmers and today, it is less than 5%. So what does it show? That people are doing nothing? Of course not. New jobs will come out.

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This article first appeared in #edGY, The Edge Malaysia Weekly, on January 5 - 11, 2015.

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