Peter Cochrane on ...

... Royal Mail

Does it have a future? As paper mail declines, perhaps postal workers might move into part of a logistical chain which is about shipping the atoms that have been prompted to move by the bits. Why doesn't Royal Mail deliver groceries from the supermarket? The nature of retail is going to change; the nature of shopping for food might go back a little way to how it was when I was a kid and my mother would go to Marsden's and hand in a piece of paper, and there was no public transport so a kid would come out on a bike and deliver it.

... employment in telephony

I don't think the traditional telephone company will survive. There's not much money in information; there's more in information about information. In the US, the people who make the money are the ones who produce the programme guides, not the ones who produce the programmes. There is a raft of opportunities to provide the service which actually gets the information you want. In a way BT is a huge system integrator, in the same way that Boeing doesn't manufacture aircraft, but assembles them. BT brings together many components to provide new things. I would like to see BT spinning off companies, creating new jobs. To create wealth we have to use the ability of every person to their very best.

... trade unions

Unions are as dead as a dodo if they continue doing the same things which they have done for the last hundred years. The nature of the problem has changed: it is not 'the workers are oppressed and necessarily need a voice'. There is an opportunity for mediation. There are lots of people who need looking after. They have got abilities, but one of them isn't the ability to sell and market themselves. So, how do people find work, how do people with work to offer find people. All I have to sell is what you see, my brain. This is true of all of us. Some people will need representation and assistance. I don't know how you do it, but the trade unions have certainly got to transform themselves into something else.

... work

Any organisation dumb enough to count keystrokes deserves what it gets. It becomes very evident who is working hard and who isn't. People must have freedom to change and adjust their workstyle to meet the demands which are placed on them. We are not all the same; some people are tremendous nuts and bolts people, some are visionaries, some are good at just managing really complex operations. I think in terms of how do I get the best skills in the best job for them, for the company.

... the state of Britain

I think the UK is in good shape, far better that the rest of Europe. Telephone calls are a fifth of the price, we have more computers per capita. The single biggest threat to any company is a chief executive or board member who denies technology. Major British institutions seem well ahead of the game, but it is not such a happy story in the small business sector. The potential for creating jobs in the UK is enormous. Our ability to create and deliver content is phenomenal. We are a major hub for Europe, we have got a tremendous amount of creative people.

... technology

I gave a public lecture in Yorkshire and someone challenged me and said life is made worse with technology. I said to him that when I was a child there wasn't enough food, there wasn't enough clothing, when I got up in the morning there was ice on the inside of the window. Someone at the back shouted: "Ee, lad, tha' were a toff. We 'ad no glass." Life now is infinitely better. Look at child mortality, the length people are living, clothing, warmth, quality of life. It all seems to me to be better. Of course, there are some downsides, but that is not, generally speaking, a function of the technology -- it is generally a function of people and what they choose to do with the technology.

... the political process

Are we really going to manage this country with a Sixteenth Century process where people form queues and file through two doors and are counted like sheep; and then they get the numbers wrong and it takes three or four hours to make a simple yes or no decision -- or are we going to use an electronic democracy. And, if we have an electronic democracy, are we going to let everybody vote.

... politicians

I can't think of a politician that I would say fully understands the implications of technology. I think it is a bit of an uphill struggle for people not using it every day to understand it. We held a conference in Westminster and invited politicians. Two hundred said they would, at the last minute that was down to fifty, and in fact five turned up. The other notable feature is that if you invite a politician to a technological conference, they come along and say what they've got to say and then disappear before they have learnt anything.

... one liners

I no longer worry about dying, but I do worry about dying before my computer is proud of me.
If your only tool is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.
We cannot work any harder, but we can work smarter.
Over a thousand years ago, a god looked like a reasonable hypothesis; today it looks like a real long shot.
No biological organism can survive in its own waste products.
People are always the most valuable asset.
Just because you are a technologist does not mean you have to be boring.

Uploaded 2 June 1997

Trekking in Suffolk's future world - an interview with Peter Cochrane
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