Story  ______  ETRI President Delivers Keynote Speech at Software Convergence Symposium 2017

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Future with IDX Era, Transformation to Digital Organisms

Interdisciplinary convergent technologies have become extremely important. At a time when the communication of technologies from entirely different areas, instead of a single discipline or industry, is regarded as significant, a number of convergent technologies have begun to exert notable influence over the industry. As the Fourth Industrial Revolution emerged as a global issue, the prospect of new technologies as a driving force is now an important task for researchers. On January 19 and 20, the 7th SWCS (Software Convergence Symposium) 2017 was jointly held by ETRI, Korean Institute of Information Scientists and Engineers, and Korea Electronics Technology Institute. At this event designed to discuss the directions for the future convergent technologies and industries, ETRI President Sanghoon Lee delivered a keynote speech titled 'Arrival of Era of IDX (Intelligent Digital Transformation).'

History of Earth vs. History of ICT

The prominent figures in academia, research communities, and industries in Korea gathered at the Software Convergence Symposium 2017. The event was held for the purpose of identifying the changes in the era of ICT (information and communications technologies) and discussing what to prepare for the new era.

Throughout the two-day event with four keynote speeches, two invited lectures, and 20 session presentations, experts from various sectors exchanged information about the future technology industry. In this keynote speech on January 19, President Sanghoon Lee of ETRI introduced a discourse on the new era about to arrive.

Under the theme "Arrival of Era of IDX (Intelligent Digital Transformation)," President Lee emphasized the digital organic ecosystem as a strategy to drive the Fourth Industrial Revolution. At a time when the wave of ICT is sweeping the world, he noted that it is all the more important to accurately recognize that all things are interconnected and affect each other within the ecosystem.

Pointing out language as the greatest revolution in the history of humankind, President Lee emphasized that "language enabled knowledge to pass from one generation to the next." He continued to highlight the importance of language by adding, "Some people called such evolution ‘the moment people obtained independence from the tyranny of time.’"

President Lee stressed the significance of language because it was the driving force behind the First, Second, Third, and the most recent Fourth Industrial Revolution. Written records conveyed the past experience to the present, thereby accumulating human experiences and bringing a remarkable experience to human progress. In other words, the accumulated experiences gave birth to the ICT revolution after the three phases of industrial revolution.

"Compared to the history of the earth, the history of ICT only represents a split second," noted President Lee. "That split second, however, is enough for a change we would have never been able to imagine in the past. And that happens very fast. The wave of ICT is expanding to encompass digital instead of analog, as well as the cyber world, mobile big bang, IoT, big data, and artificial intelligence."

to Bring Humanity to Digital Organic Ecosystem

The noteworthy concept here is "digital organic ecosystem." "The development of the Internet connected every object and helped the emergence of a digital ecosystem," President Lee emphasized. "This laid the ground for various objects to combine with artificial intelligence and transform into super-intelligent organisms that keep becoming smarter." This implies that, just like the human body, nature, and the entire universe are connected as an organism and construct the world as we know it, ICT is also connected not only to cyberspace, but also to the physical space to form a single organism. For instance, the online homestay network Airbnb provides an illustrative example of commercial trade and connections on the Internet penetrating the real world.

"When we cannot utilize information, the vast volume of information in cyberspace is simply rubbish. As the concept of big data emerged, however, such information underwent a process of alchemy and became valuable jewels, just like alchemists in the Middle Age created gold and silver. This resulted in the birth of Airbnb and Uber, an online transportation network service. Just like human intelligence, information becomes more intelligent when used by more people."

With the advent of a hyper-connected and super-intelligent society, "People in the future era will have increasingly more difficulty in separating cyberspace from physical space, and we need to prepare for the IDX era against such backdrop," President Lee noted.

President Lee described the IDX era as "a digital planet born as a combination of physical and cyber planets." Predicting that a sweeping transformation will arrive in the global economy, society, culture, employment, and the labor system in addition to the conventional industries of manufacturing and service, President Lee repeatedly emphasized that Korea has to join the major economies around the world in efforts to create a variety of strategies to prepare for the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The solution would be the collaboration of the government, industrial sector, and the research community.