More | Peter Cochrane

Cochrane History and Relationships

Motto: “A horse passant, argent”
Virtue et labore (By valour and exertion)

It is thought that the ancestry of this family began with a Viking warrior who decided to settle in Renfrewshire in the C9th. There are a number of theories as to the creation of the name this Viking’s descendants took.

The Cochrane Family Tartan

Links Beyond This Website:

Genesis

Different by Design

“If I remain inside the bubble of the norm my contribution to the progress of my species would be slight, but if I step outside and think and do the unusual there is a far greater chance that I might do something significant”

Throughout my life there have been many surprises and many changes. As a child I saw the arrival of electricity in my home, the eclipsing of radio by TV, a telephone in the hall, central heating, and the rise of affordable motor transport. My children variously saw the arrival of colour TV, VHS, and the PC along with mobile phones and the internet. With each step came life improvements including better food, clothing, housing and the opportunity to do new things.

At the same time populations were afforded new freedoms of movement, action and access to information; but as this process is fundamentally driven by a technological (positive) feedback, the rate of change accelerated and people could be placed into one of frur classes: The Drivers; The Copers; The Struggling; and The Lost…

               ...and so it is now all about 'the survival of the most adaptable'....

So it now falls upon the professionals to help and assist societies as they cannot live, thrive and survive without technology, whilst at the same time they struggle to understand and use it tlo best effect. This may turn out to be on of our biggest challenges!

Life Shaping

How do we get to where we are; what is it that shapes and molds us; can we even dimension all the components? No! All we can do is to compile a sample list of remeberances, realised and lost ambitions. Here is mine…and I am what I am!

Professional Life

With great responsibility comes A Code of Ethics

The burden of remembering

The joy of understanding

The delight of dicovery

The satisfaction of solutions

The gratification of building the new

The reward of seeing your team winning

And the emergence of outstanding abilities and individuals

Most Memorable Experiences

A loving family

A largely free and adventurous childhood

Summer holidays

Meeting my wife

Getting married

Being there when my children were born

Graduating

Watching my children graduate

My coincidental 25th wedding anniversary and 50th birthday

Understanding calculus and realising its significance

My ‘Prime 71st Birthday’ in 2017

Best Experiences

Working for and nurturing my family

Watching my wife and children succeed

Understanding things for the first time

Fly fishing with my wife

Sailing with my wife

Being with my children and their children

Flying a modern fighter aircraft

Teaching

Seeing my inventions and products being used for real

Doing things no one did before

Discovering things that no one understands

Working with enthusiastic and talented people

Building new teams to address pressing problems

Worst Experiences

Car accidents

Watching a loved one die

Seeing people starve or suffer

Witnessing the devastation of poverty

Watching the human race slaughter each other

Not being able to save a life and watching it slip away

Working among people who have lost all hope or do not care

Formula For Life

L = s.f.t 

Where: L = Life 

s = sex 

f = food 

t = technology

Favourite Places

My home

My screen

San Francisco

Colorado

Muir Woods

Derbyshire

Museums

Mountains, rivers and forests

Ambitions

To be: holistic, eclectic, successful

To make a positive contribution to human progress

To seek out and dimension those technologies essential to sustainability

To create creative and capable individuals to power the future

Overview

The unique insights and experience I bring to the solution of technology, people, and operational problems have been hard won over many years dealing with technological change and intensifying market pressures. As a consultant I am often employed as a last resort to tackle problems that have defeated conventional thinking. My international reputation is founded on an ability to craft solutions that are both practical and cost effective in the long term. This can involve everything from strategic threat analysis through to detailed technology, organisational design, and roll out. I am also in demand as a speaker at international conferences and events, with regular invitations to present at engineering and business schools worldwide.

Expertise

My extended education in science, engineering and technology was a seminal period of my life augmented by practical application and problem solving in industry. It also proved to be a key component of my professional career with decades of R&D, manufacturing, operational, commercial, management and board room challenges. In turn this developed my abilities in describing and presenting complex technology, systems and and management choices in a manner that leaders and people can quickly grasp and understand. Another key outcome is that I always focus on finding what will actually work in practice, rather some theoretical ideal.

Background

During my working life I have enjoyed a wide variety of experiences as a TV repair man, cable installer, lineman, sytem technician, software coder, hardware designer, R&D engineer, manager and board member. This has included the design of the first Gbit chip set in 1982, the writing of machine code as well as high level software, the design of test equipment, laying optical fibre cables across the Atlantic; artificial intelligence, complex systems and human interfaces. I also enjoyed building and running of R&D and manufacturing operations. This all led to a considerable experience as a consultant across most economic sectors, and as an entrepreneur and investor I have also created and managed numerous start up companies. I have also participated in education & academic programs at an international level for over 30 years, and I am currently a full time Professor of Sentient Systems.

Guiding Principles

Technology should be our servant and not the other way around, but we have to be accepting of the change and advances it offers and be prepared to plot new routes to success. But in doing this we have to take care to inform and educate our politicians, leaders, managers and people as well as the wider populous.

This collection of quotes were mostly prompted by questions and observations when I was giving lectures and making presentations, but there are also a few that popped into general conversation and the occasional eMail. Enjoy!

Managers persuade people to do the mundane; but leaders get people to achieve things they didn’t realise they were capable of
There are no simple solutions to complex problems
Never approach your boss with a problem, always present management with a solution!
Our future survival depends upon a symbiotic relationship with robots and AI
Thermodynamics tells us that the human brain can never understand the human brain
We have damaged the planet and she is now in the process of adapting
Mother Nature is ambivalent - she cares not for the survival of any species including all humanoid strains
Science does not care what you believe
Our mathematical models and techniques are inadequate in terms of the non-linear problems we now face
We have to stop producing more and more for the few, and start supplying sufficient for the many
We need to define Sentience before Sentience defines us!
Things that Think want to Link, and Things that Think want to Link
Our strength is in our weirdness
Ask not what AI can do for you, ask what you can do for AI
It is no just that raw materials are running out, we are also running out of people, intelligences, and solutions
No country, no matter how big or powerful can muster all the resources that need to sustain their societies into the future
We have small data, big data, small information, big information, but little understanding and even less wisdom
Humans are mentally limited and challenged; fundamentally unable to cope with the complexities of a modern world and need the augmentation that AI can bring
Globalisation isn’t an option it is a necessity - the UK and USA have unemployment at 4.3% and millions of vacancies for tech enabled people
AI and Robots will not create mass unemployment but mass vacancies
AI and Robots are vital to sustainability and progress andtheir sentience will be amplified by the IoT, Mobile and Sensor Networks
Robots migrated out of their protective cages to navigate the shop floor as assistants to humans and so humans can become assistants to them
Industry 4.0 is a necessary step on the road to sustainable societies, but Industry 5.0 is necessary to achieve that target
All intelligent things are alive and all things that are alive are intelligent
Our relationship with AI(s) is vital and has to be symbiotic
We have to produce more with less material and less energy whilst recycling at neat 100% efficiency…and that can only be achieved by a combination of biotech, nanotech and AI
Some of the vital materials that will eventually run out may have to be mined in near space from Asteroids
If hand tools are muscle amplifiers, then AI amplifies human intellect
AI does not get tired, lose concentration or get distracted, it relentlesly pursues it objectives to out perform humans at what it does best
We employ people because they can do things AI and robots can’t
Nearly all financial reports are now written by AI
Nearly all short term trades are completed by AI
Weak (Narrow) AI is all we have today - it single task specific and therefore relatively easy to engineer
Strong (Wide AI) is not with us yet - it will be general purpose and may be realised by clustering weak AI’s to mimic biological intelligences
We need AI to help us solve non-linear problems way beyond human intellect
Forecasting technology futures is easy, but predicting what people will do with it, turns out to be near impossible
5G networks are not going to be the major force being projected by the carriers
The ratchet of technology goes one way and our dependence is total - there is no going back without a terrible cost
The IoT and small data will see the users becoming a part of the design loop for the first time
Managers who do not understand technology are now a liability and put their people and company at risk
Within 20 years more things will communicate directly one-on-one than those connecting via the internet
We have a moral responsibility to create new technologies that empower people to realise their full potential.
We have Big Data, but what we really need is Big Understanding
The half life of security solutions is getting exponentially shorter year-on-year
The Art of War (Tsun Zu) is more applicable to modern companies the The Wealth of Nations (Adam Smith)
Advances in Robotics and AI do not follow Moore’s Law - they are not exponential, but incrementally linear
For some ‘Artificial Intelligence’ looks like a bigger and better spanner, but for others it will spell the end of their industry and their career
The myopia go ignorance is probably the biggest threat to the human race
Power Point is a lot like pornography, it lacks the excitement and power of the real thing!
A peoples without science are quickly reduced to superstition, witchcraft, and belief systems that thwart any widely beneficial progress
The radio spectrum is scarce because of the analogue thinking of planners and users. Allocate codes instead of bands and it becomes infinite!
Smart people worry about what they own as opposed to how much they own
Big Data is an almost unconscious outcome of the desire and need to sustain all peoples on a rapidly smaller looking planet
The only time we employ humans is when robots are too expensive When you own a boat there are two really good days; the day you buy it, and the day you sell it ! Thanks, Peter
Science doesn’t do superstition, witchcraft, wizardry, politics or political correctness! She is only concerned with the truth.
We have to stop making more and more for the few and start providing sufficient for the many
Censorship is a second order effect of surveillance - and societies respond by going underground to become invisible
We can always earn more money but we can never recover the time and energy expended on failure
Administration problems are never cured by adding even more administration
You don’t fill a hole by digging another one
We have moved from The Day of The Stovepipe to The Day of The Network
A broken administration cannot be fixed by more administration
Perfection is the enemy of ‘good enough’
The time it takes for companies to become evil, halves with every generation
Sociologists are really historians
The collapse of the Roman empire originated from their lack of materials understanding - especially iron!In the Dark Ages all you needed to be a scientist was a pointy hat
Climate change is the new religion - a belief system bigger than Christianity and Islam
Science is not a matter of opinion; it is a question of evidence
As a society we reward those companies and organizations that afford us greater freedom - not less!
I have no intention of growing old gracefully, it will be disgracefully or nothing!
Never underestimate the collective stupidity of large groups of people
Never underestimate the collective creativity and genius of small groups of people
Innovation is a rational act in only one situation…when it has succeeded!
Culture has inertia and momentum
IC technology is a race to the bottom
Never underestimate the power of vested interests
Reptiles have no grey matter - no neocortex - but they are still intelligent
The IT and Security Departments of all the big companies are going to go the same way as the Typing Pool for exactly the same reasons”
Perfection is the enemy of the good
We have to conquer complexity if we are going to make real progress
In all really big systems involving technology and/or people, over 50% of the resources are devoted to looking after the remainder!
There is no point bolting a spoiler on a duck - it won’t improve the performance. If you want a jet plane, you had better start by building a jet!
Most things in this life are conditional - love is an exception - it comes without strings attached!
I don’t believe in belief systems
Happiness is more valuable than all the riches in the world, and doing the right thing most important of all
Incrementalism always self limits
All complex problems have a simple solution that is invariably wrong!
Everyone has an inner geek
If it hurts stop doing IT
It is never too late to reset and restart
WiFi is cheaper than water, lighting, heating and air condition so why charge for it?
The world is divided into two kinds of people, those who spend a great deal of time trying to save money, and those who spend a great deal of money trying to save time
“In times of recession the Europeans become introverted, introspective, and ultra-cautious. The Americans on the other hand start planning for the upswing
As a general rule humans spend all their energy and time worrying about the least significant problems whilst totally overlooking or neglecting the really important and critical….
The real problem is the world at large doesn’t understand exponential functions. 2EXPn looks so damn innocent!
When markets get tough the businesses that survive and prosper are those that respond with even lower prices and even better quality and performance
The past century saw progress limited by the rate of technology development. This new century will see progress limited by our rate of technology acceptance. Ultimately, technology will not wait for us!
Peter Cochrane is flying London to Houston TX - no terrorist ever stopped me working, travelling, doing business, being with friends, or living a full life….” E-Mail signature from 9/24/01
Technology isn’t what we do, technology is what we are
Moore’s wall will see the end of our present strain of silicon technology around 2015. But on the other side their are even more options and technologies available to us than ever before
I see absolutely no evidence of convergence in IT! We have an increasing number of devices, operating systems, applications, networks and network types than ever before
AI & AL systems offer our biggest opportunity for future progress - and the biggest danger. We really need to invoke Azimov’s Laws of robotics, and to derive their AI & AL equivalents
Ordinary people … believe that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Software designers believe that if it ain’t broke, it doesn’t have enough features yet
One of the most redeeming features of our species is that of being able to see the irony of what we do and the funny side of ourselves…….
There is nothing quite as powerful as a good approximation - especially if you continually correct the errors with reality!
Nanotechnology will be dominant in 100 years time
Factories may only be 1 - 2m tall
We only use people when they are cheaper than machines
Robots already produce far more than people
Robots can manipulate atoms - we can manipulate nuts and bolts!
Soon you won’t be able to use your mobile phone without multi-media
Words and pictures are wholly inadequate to understand the complexity of the world we are creating. Without three dimensional animation, augmented by sound and tactile feedback our progress could become stilted
Biological systems save the species at the expense of the individual
Multi-media is just a stepping stone between cave paintings and our ultimate subsumption into a VR world and the technology itself
I am among the first generation of people to live with antibiotics all their life - and it is now the norm that the majority of children live - it used to be that the majority would die!
Organisations tolerate and generally celebrate their change agents - until they start to succeed
The most significant development in computing in the 21st Century? The spontaneous eruption of artificial life from a combination of massive computing power, huge memory capacity and interconnectivity, quantum uncertainty, and sensor networks. This will give us a third intelligence - beyond the human framework - and on a scale difficult for us to imagine
The future world of business will be chaotic - and continuous innovation will be a necessity and not an option
Cherish the quick and dirty experiment, and value the mistakes, because failure is a precursor to success
At home people buy everything without a business case
Smart people tend to ask a lot of dumb questions
If you want to write a book, do it fast, they may soon disappear
Mother nature is not at all interested in our beliefs - she has her own truths
Science is obliged to follow the data - no matter where it leads
The molecule is the message
In telecommunication networks electronics has to be replaced by photonics to achieve the ultimate hike in reliability and drop in cost.”
Half the world has yet to make it’s first phone call
Entrepreneurs create jobs - not governments
Cloning is not photocopying
Why would you want anything built or made by a human when you can get superior products made by a machine?
The single biggest improvement in the health of a nation was brought about by the provision of a clean water supply and the effective treatment of sewage. The next major advance is likely to be data mining
Today there are only three economies scale of importance: information, distribution, communication
We are often wrong but seldom in doubt
Market capitalisation is overtaking turnover as the key market measure
Microprocessors now outnumber people by over 2:1 on planet earth
We should engineer as we should farm - assuming we are going to live forever
If we wreck planet earth we do not deserve to survive
Having dominion over life does not mean you can do as you like
The difference between a newspaper and a lap top - no one takes a lap top into the toilet
It is time to stop bending people into technology and time to start bending technology into people
In theory the entire human race could have a simultaneous conversation, twice over, on single optical fibre as thick as a human hair
Ever since the flying doctor, people have expected mobile radio to be poor quality
It is as if the software industry is trying to build the worlds heaviest aircraft
The future is about instant gratification
In this information world you can opt out, but you can’t escape
We cannot work any harder, but we can work smarter
By the year 2015 the super computer equal to our human brain will be with us
By 2025 it will be on our desks, and by 2030 it will be wearing us
I no longer worry about dying, but I do worry about dying before my computer is proud of me
The AI community say - ‘Don’t anthropomorphize computers. They will hate it.’ Well I have been silicomorphized for the last 20 years and I don’t like it either! But the machines work for us - don’t they?
Emotional bits are the most important
We live on the edge of a strange attractor, on the edge of chaos and disaster, always just one step away from disaster - only our technology saves us
We have a responsibility to our families, friends, people, company, country, profession, and our species
Political, social and commercial systems are being outpaced and outmoded by technology
Artificial piece parts for every component in the human body are now feasible
Switch off the phone network and most of us would die. No communication, no logistics, no food!
Switch off the computers and robots and most of us would die. No food and goods production!
We have to stop burning hydrocarbons or we will suffer badly
Entropy is a celestial ratchet - it goes one way and eventually kills us!
The only people who like to travel are those who do not do it
Management is about promoting and anticipating change
The most important job we ever have - is to be good parents
We know very little, but are capable of a great deal”
We are at our best when things are at their worst
Companies are more than money making machines - they should have a soul - a responsibility to their people and the society they serve
Antigravity looks to be fundamentally impossible
Matter transport looks feasible
Over 1000 years ago - a god - looked like a reasonable hypothesis. Today it looks like a real long shot
Some central life force - based on fundamentally simple rules - looks to be an increasingly strong possibility
Good technology is beneficial and improves our life and condition
People are always the most valuable asset
I look forward to a future of man, woman and machine
Mathematics is fundamentally a visualisation tool
At school I was taught to solve problems by turning handles; at university I learned how to solve problems by thinking; in industry I entered the world of mathematical understanding and non linearity
Without mathematics there would be no science, engineering or civilisation
Only politicians would try to manage a 21st Century organisation with 16th Century methods
Security is an illusion and not an absolute, it is a relative condition
As I get older I find I enjoy giving prizes more than receiving them
It might just be that clarity and truth are always mutually exclusive!
No biological organism can survive in it’s own waste products
Writing a new book is easier than finding one that exists
When I was a young man I knew a lot about nothing, but as I get older I know much less about very much more
Time is our most precious commodity
Just because you are a technologist does not mean you have to be boring
In California dying is seen as an unnatural act
Healthcare has now reached the point where everyone expects to be cured - no one expects to be ill or die
Carbon life is the only life we know about
I don’t pay my plumber every time I flush the toilet
The way to make a network more valuable is to link it to another network
Large organisations employ large numbers of really smart people to do really dumb things
Humans have such a limited concept of dimension, that they are unlikely to conceive of the really key problems let alone their solution
The distance across the English Channel is greater than that across the North Atlantic
You have to fail to learn
We have to stop making more and more for the few and start providing sufficient for the many
300 years ago a god seemed a reasonable hypothesis, but from what we now know it seems increasingly unlikely

Ethos

As a senior member of society, Professional Manager, Engineer, Scientist, Educator and Agent of Change, I endeavour to invoke a positive influence at every opportunity. In doing so I endeavour to always:

Respect the dignity and uniqueness of individuals
Embrace the diversity of cultures and belief systems across academia and the professions
Support and care for my students and employees as if they were a part of my family
Defend those in my gift, support those above, and help colleagues on all sides
Aspire to excellence and integrity in every endeavour
Always hold perfection as the target, but remember that, ultimately it is the enemy of progress
Consider current and future generations in every deliberation and decision
Assume and/or install leadership where it is lacking
Lead by example and never ask anyone to do anything I would not do myself
Maintain holistic perspectives as to people, organisations, resources, economics and ecologies

Responsibility

Perhaps the single most important thing we do in life is to bear and rear our children, to create a family. The second is to educate and employ people, create new technologies and companies, and contribute to progress the wider well being of our species and societies. In doing both we carry a responsibilty for individuals, and thereby some responsibility of care to their families, and we should treat them accordingly.

Decisions

We should make decisions as if I we are going to live forever, with an eye to our children’s children and their futures, not our very limited span in our one lifetime.

My Short Definition

“Ethics is about always doing the right thing - even if decisions and actions are disadvantageous to you personally”