Text/Huang Haifeng
Some time ago, Sohu CEO Zhang Chaoyang live-streamed a physics class, pushing the mass energy equation on the spot, netizens shouted strongly, but they could not understand it. Recently, there is also a figure in the field of mathematical sciences who has exploded on the Internet, he is Wei Dongyi, an assistant professor at Peking University, and netizens have sent him the nickname "Wei Shen". His research in the field of mathematics has reached the world's level, of course, his classes are also incomprehensible to netizens.
On April 27, at the 19th HAS2022 Huawei Global Analyst Conference, Zhou Hong, president of Huawei's Strategic Research Institute, gave a heavy speech, which also made many netizens and even PEOPLE in the ICT circle call out that they could not understand it, but they felt very powerful. What did Zhou Hong say?
The author noted that Zhou Hong shared an important phenomenon: many existing theories and technologies were proposed decades or even more than a hundred years ago, such as the Nyquist sampling theorem and Shannon's law in the field of communication, the theory of computability in the field of computing and the von Neumann architecture, Moore's law in the field of semiconductors, etc. The commercial application research based on these basic theories has encountered bottlenecks.
To this end, he made a sentence that impressed me: "All our imaginations of the future now may be conservative." Facing the future, only by boldly proposing hypotheses, boldly proposing visions, and daring to break the rules and regulations of existing theoretical and technical bottlenecks can we make great strides forward. ”
As we all know, Huawei is a technological innovation enterprise focusing on products and services in the ICT fields such as 5G, optical communications, IP networks, storage, cloud, and AI, especially consumer-facing mobile phones, watches and other products that everyone is familiar with. But this zhou hong's speech made us re-understand Huawei: Huawei is now not only focusing on innovation in the field of engineering application realization, but also attaches great importance to insight into the future, attaches importance to breakthroughs in basic science such as physics, and exerts efforts to explore the "no man's land" explored by scientists.
How to make a force? Huawei boldly put forward a vision and four scientific assumptions to drive breakthroughs, calling on world-class talents to work together to overcome ten world-class problems in the ICT field based on the "Pasteur Quadrant" innovation. We are curious, what kind of development problems exist in today's technological development such as ICT. Why is Huawei paying so much attention to basic science?
Insight into the future: Information technology will grow a hundredfold in ten years
Looking back, the bold innovations of technology have been changing our working lives. The emergence of the telephone has made the "tailwind ear" that only exists in the legend into reality; the emergence of live video has made people each have the magic power of "clairvoyance"; the birth of artificial intelligence has made the wisdom scenes in the movie come to life...
In the 21st century, mankind is moving towards a digital and intelligent world. Digital technology is transforming human society.
On the one hand, digitalization is changing people's production and lifestyle. For example, 3D face verification has achieved high-precision authentication, effectively improving the security of account and privacy life; a mobile phone touching the device identification card, the screen is immediately a patrol robot, etc., which is changing the working state of coal miners; the development of VR/AR technology makes it possible for people to experience virtual life. The metaverse of the fire at the end of last year has begun to integrate with real life.
On the other hand, the digital economy has become a new driving force for economic development. According to the data of the 2021 Global Digital Economy Conference, the total size of the digital economy in 47 countries around the world reached 32.6 trillion US dollars in 2020, an increase of 3.0% in nominal terms year-on-year, accounting for 43.7% of GDP. IDC expects that by 2022, 65% of global GDP will be driven by digitalization and the economy will be on the road to digitalization; from 2020 to 2023, direct investment in digital transformation will exceed $6.8 trillion.
Driven by demand, global digitalization is growing at an exponential rate. We can see from the perspective of network traffic that global mobile broadband data traffic, from 0.24 exabytes per month in 2010, to 60 exabytes per month in 2020, has increased more than 250 times in 10 years. Among them, China's mobile broadband data traffic has grown from 0.033 exabytes per month in 2010 to 13 exabytes per month in 2020, an increase of more than 400 times.
In this regard, Zhou Hong predicted that digital technology will grow at a rate of more than "ten hundred times", and digitalization will promote the accelerated development of people and society. In fact, human beings' pursuit of the digital world is endless. Similar to the Olympic spirit of "faster, higher, stronger", as the digital process advances, we need faster internet speeds, higher computing power and stronger storage power.
So how will digital technologies evolve in the future? From Zhou Hong's sharing, we learned that the current application of many theories and technologies has begun to encounter bottlenecks, and it is time to make major changes and usher in the new. So where should we start?
Mention four major scientific assumptions: pull industry breakthroughs
When gaining insight into the future development trend of the industry and choosing the direction of action, Zhou Hong chose to think from the perspective of a scientist. This has a lot to do with his personal experience.
It is reported that Zhou Hong graduated from Fudan University, joined Huawei in 1997, and has successively served as the director of the wireless product line R&D management department, the president of the Central Hardware Engineering Institute, the president of the European Research Institute, and the vice president of the 2012 laboratory (strategic docking).
Zhou Hong's rich experience in the past gave Zhou Hong the opportunity to communicate and discuss with nobel prize, Turing award, and fields medal winners, discuss many challenging issues and frontier exploration progress, and think about the possible development direction of society in the future. For the future development of the industry, Zhou Hong proposed to apply cutting-edge technology to the business field, and finally open up scientific assumptions and business visions.
To this end, at has2022, Huawei put forward four scientific hypotheses and business visions for the future, hoping to explore together with academia and industry to carry out future-oriented research. These assumptions and visions have attracted much attention from the industry, but what are they?
Hypothesis one: expand the boundaries of cognition, matter and energy, phenomena and laws.
Zhou Hong believes that through the exploration of cutting-edge physics theories, we will be able to better innovate onlooker devices, technologies and methods, and realize the commercial vision of inventing new substances, energies and methods, molecules, catalysts and devices. For example, quantum storage can produce hundreds of wavelengths of tunable lasers at the same time, and eventually bring a hundred times more capacity in the commercial field than today's optical communications.
Hypothesis two: Expand the limits of perception to better understand the world and humanity itself.
People are continuously extending human perception through technological means. Zhou Hong said that digital technology is realizing the business vision of promoting physical health and building a digital world from approaching to surpassing human perception, from alternative perception to extended perception, from human perception to machine perception.
For example, in terms of visual perception, spiders far surpass the human eye in object contour calculation and motion calculation, and the concept of "spider eye" and event calculation cameras can be applied to automatic driving technology. In terms of the body's own perception, the device that better sees the distribution of the human lymphatic system can improve the safety of surgery; the new sensor can diagnose health indicators such as blood pressure and blood sugar in real time and without perception.
Hypothesis 3: Explore new computational models and implementation methods to understand the world and solve problems.
With the development of digital technology, computing power is the foundation. Zhou Hong believes that exploring new computing models that adapt to the goal and environment can realize the development of efficient computing architectures and the invention of new computing components.
In the case of AI computing, if it does not adapt well to the environment, or lacks common sense in discovering and dealing with problems, not only is the adaptability and interpretability poor, but the energy efficiency is far less than that of the organism to achieve fairly intelligent energy efficiency.
Zhou Hong believes that the industry can optimize the theory of computability, expanding from traditional solvers to creative ideas, no longer limited to designed, fixed architectures, components, algorithms and software code.
Hypothesis Four: Break through the assumptions of Shannon's law and develop information communication in a larger space-time.
The foundation of information theory , Shannon Information Theory – constructs the cornerstone of modern information. Entering the digital age, all things are perceived, everything is connected, especially in the 5G era, Shannon's theorem has reached its limit. Many industry experts also said: "There is no G after 5G".
For example, AR/VR and even holographic communication, the call bandwidth is 1.9Tbps per second, the delay is 1-5ms; autonomous driving technology, the current 12 cameras of self-driving cars, can generate up to 4Tbit of data per day, 5G technology is difficult to solve.
Zhou Hong believes that in the future, it is necessary to break through the limitations of Shannon's 1/2/3 law, explore information technology in a world with prior knowledge, and in a larger time and space, so as to realize the business vision of building a global direct communication capability and enabling machines to be ubiquitous.
Pasteur Quadrant Innovation: Solving 10 Fundamental Science Problems and Challenges
These four assumptions are very bold and difficult to support the realization of business visions. However, don't worry, Zhou Hong also put forward the channel of hypothesis and vision, Zhou Hong divided innovation into five major links: hypothesis innovation, vision innovation, basic science breakthrough, engineering technology innovation, and business innovation.
Know that the closer you get to the back-end business, customers, and users of innovation, the more noticeable the effect, and the closer you get to the front-end assumptions, vision, and basic science, the more patience is required.
At present, the vast majority of technology companies pay attention to back-end business innovation and do not consider being an innovation leader, because it is easier to imitate and follow, while back-end basic research is invested and risky. In this regard, Zhou Hong said that facing the future, "we must dare to seek answers from front-end basic research."
In fact, everyone knows the value of breakthroughs in basic scientific research, but when it encounters difficulties and retreats, can there be a way to "have both fish and bear paws"?
In terms of basic scientific research, the author noted that Zhou Hong mentioned the Pasteur quadrant. Pasteur was a famous French microbiologist and one of the founders of microbiology. His Pasteur Quadrant refers to basic research that is both curiosity-driven and application-oriented.
Pasteur's Quadrant differs from the Bohr Quadrant for Basic Research, driven purely by curiosity, and also from the Purely Application-Oriented Research Edison Quadrant. The study of Pasteur Quadrant, which takes care of the needs of society, reduces risk, and in turn drives basic technology research through social values.
Focusing on the "Pasteur Quadrant" innovation around the previous four scientific hypotheses, Zhou Hong said that Huawei has refined two basic science problems and 8 cutting-edge technology challenges, a total of 10 directions (pictured).
The author found that these problems cover a number of ICT fields closely related to people's lives and work, such as network connectivity, artificial intelligence, intelligent computing, data storage, materials science, scientific health, basic manufacturing, and digital energy. How do I resolve these issues? We see that Huawei's multiple measures are created with an open mind and with partners around the world.
First, Huawei plans to launch the online Huang Danian Tea House on April 30, building a channel for scientific and technological exchanges and opening up to the whole society. At the Huang Danian Tea House, Huawei will summarize and refine the challenges and invite outstanding talents from around the world to explore innovation together.
Second, Huawei continues to increase investment in basic science research and development. According to Huawei's 2021 financial report, Huawei invested 142.7 billion yuan in research and development, a record high, and the cumulative investment in research and development in the past decade exceeded 845 billion yuan.
Most critically, Huawei spends 20%-30% of its annual R&D investment in basic scientific research, with thousands of the world's top mathematicians, physicists, and chemists. Recently, Huawei has recruited talented teenagers with five times the salary to break through the above problems together.
Third, Huawei has chosen to actively cooperate with universities and research institutes. In terms of basic theory, Huawei has signed strategic cooperation agreements with more than 10 universities, including Ocean University of China, Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, and Huazhong University of Science and Technology, to cooperate in talent training, scientific research, achievement transformation, and cutting-edge scientific exploration.
Taking the strategic cooperation between Huawei and Huazhong University of Science and Technology as an example, You Zheng, president of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, said at the signing ceremony that the two sides have carried out comprehensive cooperation in talent training, scientific research and achievement transformation, and achieved good results. In the future, we will jointly position the research direction and continue to march towards the breadth and depth of science and technology.
Fourth, Huawei has set up some awards to encourage elite talents in colleges and universities to break through industry problems. In order to promote breakthroughs in the field of basic technologies, Huawei has set up the "Olympus Award" million red for the problems in the field of data storage. At the end of last year, Professor Shu Jiwu of Tsinghua University led a team to participate in the competition, and won the "2020 Olympus Award" and 1 million yuan in prize money for the results of "Persistent Memory Storage System Construction and Key Technologies".
The bold innovation of basic science, promoted by only a few enterprises and a few universities, is obviously impossible to achieve. We need more representatives of all parties from industry, academia and research to cooperate sincerely, with an open, inclusive and collaborative innovation mechanism, to bring together the wisdom and innovation ability of all mankind to meet the needs of human development and solve the problems faced.
As Zhou Hong said at the end of her speech, I hope to work with academia and industry to reconstruct basic theories, reconstruct architecture, and reconstruct software, and jointly explore and create the future.
The author observes: basic science is a short board, breaking the shackles, bold innovation
There are too many uncertainties in investing in basic scientific research, and it is impossible to quickly obtain commercial results. The industry has invested heavily in basic science, which can be described as positive and bold, and it is under a lot of pressure. Therefore, it is clear that basic scientific research has become our short board, late in exertion, and insufficient accumulation. This is also why the huge market capitalization of enterprises in the ICT field is mainly European and American enterprises, and the right to speak in the development of the industry is mainly in the West.
But infinite scenery is at a dangerous peak, and we must break through basic scientific research. As a leading enterprise in the ICT field, Huawei is expected to make new breakthroughs in the industry, and it is also at the forefront of the pressure brought by the complex international situation, and needs to make efforts to basic science.
Go alone fast, go far. What to do? I remember that Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei once proposed during a visit to Peking University, Tsinghua University and other institutions that the development of science and technology should "break the sky upwards and root downwards" when visiting Peking University and Tsinghua University. He also mentioned that "universities should still be more scientific theories and focus on discovery; enterprises should focus on technology, engineering, and invention, and combined, the power will be stronger."
It is not difficult to find that Zhou Hong's concept of future development is the specific practice of combining production, education and research proposed by Ren Zhengfei. When the field of science and technology is slightly impetuous, the development of the industry requires basic scientific innovation and the reconstruction of business models. Zhou Hong's speech undoubtedly explores the direction for the future development of digital technology and illuminates the way forward for the development of science and technology enterprises, universities, research institutions, etc.
The good news is that we see more and more enterprises and universities attaching importance to basic scientific research. For example, Huawei has a 2012 laboratory, Ali has a Dharma Academy, tencent has an AI Lab; and the three major operators have increased investment in research and development and increased the introduction of high-tech talents in the past two years; Chinese universities have also paid more and more attention to basic scientific research and promoted curiosity-driven research from "high walls and deep courtyards" to society.
The greatest force is synergy, and the strongest wisdom is the wisdom of the crowd. The author believes that the innovation of the "Pasteur Quadrant" makes everyone put aside their worries and realize the integration of basic and applied research, which will be able to overcome world-class problems. The industry needs to dare to put forward hypotheses, dare to break the shackles of existing theories, and dare to promote the coordinated development of cutting-edge technology and commercial applications. We hope to see in-depth cooperation between industry, academia and research, jointly promote breakthroughs and innovations in digital technology, and promote digital applications to the future!