THE ADVANCE of computer technology is going to bring changes, and not all to our liking. "We need a hefty dose of humanity to moderate all of this," suggests Prof Michael Coey.
"People should be aware what is coming on stream," the Trinity College Dublin physicist says. Technology will give people unprecedented access to information, images and entertainment.
"The flipside of this is the accumulation of all this data being corralled and delivered very cheaply is being marshalled by people whose interests may not be our own."
These and other consequences of our digital age were explored yesterday evening in a talk by Prof Coey, Tales from the Nanoworld, Billions of Magnets for Billions of People. From its start, the computer industry was built on twin pillars - the use of semiconductors and the use of magnetic materials to store data - he said in advance of the lecture.
Prof Coey's research centres on the development of next-generation magnetic storage devices, with technological advances making it cheaper to store data.
The cost of copying data has fallen from the €1,000 that might have been the true value of a page handwritten by an Irish monk to today where a page costs tiny fractions of a cent, he says. "The fact that we can copy information essentially for free is going to change a lot of things."
For one thing we may see a "death of privacy", he believes.
And a few individuals will wield tremendous power. He cited as an example bank traders who have "the facilities of the information age at their fingertips and can bring down a bank".
Prof Coey is the inaugural recipient of the RDS and Intel Ireland Prize Lecture for Nanoscience, an award that is supported by The Irish Times. As part of his award, Prof Coey was invited to give last night's free public lecture describing aspects of his research work. The event took place at the RDS Concert Hall in Dublin.