David Farber is often asked what the future holds for technology.
He always responds with the same answer -- "I don't know."
Although the former Federal Communications Commission chief technologist can't predict the future of technology, he said that society ultimately has control over its implementation.
Technologists "are capable of monitoring everything, [but] what we do with it is not what technology dictates, it's what society dictates."
Farber, the Alfred Fitler Moore professor of Telecommunications, Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, spoke yesterday to about 30 people in Houston Hall as part of the Provost's Lecture Series. The theme of his talk was "Predicting the Unpredictable: Computing Here, Computing There, Computing Everywhere."
Farber spent a good portion of yesterday's event speaking about his experience at the FCC, an independent government agency that regulates the communications industry and reports to Congress.
Farber believes that the debate over the Internet boils down to three concerns -- security, availability and censorship.
But Farber was quick to mention the advances that technology brings.
He said he believes "we are at the beginning of a great change.... The next 10 years will be as wild as the last 25."
Farber referred to the dramatic but simple change that may occur when technology goes "into the light world."
Essentially, the "light world" is a new system that will allow for the faster communication of large amounts of information, allowing it to travel faster than it would inside a conventional computer.
Farber not only thinks about new ways to improve and create better communication -- he is also responsible for teaching this information to the next generation -- students at Penn.
In fact, Farber believes universities are responsible for teaching the general public about technology, as well.
It is "the job for universities to translate [technology] for the public because they are the teachers," he said.
Although adults dominated yesterday's audience, the few students who attended the event had mostly positive things to say about Farber's discussion.
Frannie Wellings, a first-year Communications graduate student, said the lecture was "really interesting and less technical than I thought it was going to be, and I was appreciative of that because I was able to understand it."
Others wanted to hear more about Farber himself.
"He's really famous, a mad genius or something," Engineering sophomore Bryan Chao said.
Last fall, Farber received suspicious items in the mail that prompted Computer Science employees to take antibiotics to protect against a possible anthrax infection.
