Edinburgh Science: AI, Cybersecurity and Data

Edinburgh Science: AI, Cybersecurity and Data

While most people know Edinburgh for its castle and its arts festival, there’s a whole lot more happening in the city, and for the past two weeks it has been Edinburgh Science (formally known as the Edinburgh International Science Festival). In one of the most educated cities in the world, and where the schools are often overflowing with the scientists, engineers and business leaders of the future, it seems natural that the city acknowledges its place on the world stage for its contributions to not only the arts, but, also to science and technology.

And so, last night, I presented to a packed audience in the Auditorium at the Edinburgh Museum. I was in my home city and presenting on something that I love. I spend many a happy hour in the Museum, and to present there — in my home city — was in deed an honour. That’s Edinburgh — I jump on a bus and be at a venue in 10 minutes, and where there are people there who are eager to learn new things.

The other great honour was that I was presenting the lecture in memory of Sidney Michaelson — and hosted by BCS Edinburgh — who was the first Professor of Computer Science in the UK. For this humble start, Edinburgh has become one of the leading cities in the world for its AI, data science and cybersecurity. No city should ever forget those who built its foundation, and it is to Sidney for building these virtual foundations build on computer science.

For my talk, I painted a potentially scary world of our worship of “The Cloud”, and of the rise of the machine:

Metropolis — filmed over 100 years ago — truly painted a world where we were enslaved to the machine, and perhaps we are moving into a world where the machine takes over and controls our every second on the planet. In George Orwell’s 1984 book, the citizens were tracked for their every move, and their every thought:

The talk was part of the Sidney Michaelson Memorial lecture, and when we look back to his time we see how much things have changed, and where the host in the photography is pointing to a 50MB (MegaByte!) hard disk, and where I know have a TeraByte of data in my hands:

And will some point to an amazing future of our smart cities and IoT devices, we must worry that every single second of our existence on this planet will be watched by the machine. This is a fun sign, but perhaps highlights our future world, and where your face may be scanned as you enter a toilet, and then your “deposits” are then matched to your identity:

And you just can’t avoid the rise of the machine — and this time it is an intelligent machine — especially as they move towards matching our cognitive abilities:

And you basically can’t hide from The Cloud anymore, as it knows your face. Within an instance, it has measured the key parameters of your face, and knows you are there:

It’s always nice to end of a bit of audience participation, and I had a couple of masks to give away as a prize, so we had a bit of fun in spotting the robots:

It was a whole lot of fun, but serious fun, as AI, Data and Cybersecurity affect us all, and, it is your data that companies are using for their profit.

And so, if you are in Edinburgh, go see some science (and technology):

The National Museum of Scotland on Chambers Street is one of my most favouriate places to visit in the world, and I continue to go back and find new and interesting things. So forget the castle and the Palace, go an educate yourself in a very special place.

When I first came to Edinburgh all those years ago, I used to shelter from the rain in the Museum, and I had no idea that I would eventually be presenting there, and to a packed audience. Edinburgh — as a city — has given me everything that I could have ever have imagined, and I have never regretted living and working in this amazing city for one second. If you are into technology — and want to live in an amazing city — then Edinburgh is for you (or perhaps Glasgow, too) — come and make the city your home.