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Reg old foe becomes expert in another field

From the destruction of mankind to hard disk storage in one fell swoop

Professor Kevin Warwick - an old favourite here at The Reg - appears to have his switched his specialism from end-of-the-world rantings about cyborgs to the less sexy world of storage technology.

For those unaware of Professor Warwick of Reading University, he became a high-profile figure here in the UK, talking about the inevitable destruction of human beings as modern technology made them inefficient. By gaining national publicity through a series of bizarre and improbable experiments, Kevin even made it to the front page of Wired magazine (this time claiming telepathy with his wife through what was essentially a two-inch reed switch). We took exception to such nonsense and so did much of the UK's academic community.

Commenting on BBC online about the latest disk technology, however - now capable of storing 1Gb per square inch - Prof Warwick said: "It is funny that whilst thousands of years ago they appear to have had a much longer term plan about buildings and structures and information, now we seem to be going for a much shorter timescale. The lifespan of things has really speeded up and you have to ask the question are we leaving much for posterity?"

Apart from the interesting concept of lifespans speeding up (getting shorter, no?), there's not much to get excited about you may think. But then considering Kevin had set himself up as "the leading prophet of the robot age", it does seems a little out of his remit.

And, of course, the fact that The Reg outed Prof Warwick as a fantasist, thereby decimating his media appearances, is a source of pride for us. We have nothing personally against Professor Warwick, but we are glad to see that philosophical comments now end with a question mark rather than a publicity led, publicly funded experiment. ®

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