Conclusion
Noll
From Poly Graduate and Bell Labs Engineer to Professor of Communications at USC
In Man-Machine Tactile Communication Noll wonders if,
Perhaps there is indeed much more truth than most scientists and technologists would admit in the claim that today's science and technology are only acting out a script written decades ago by members of the other culture. Perhaps the best visionaries in science fiction are really creative scientists and technologists
Man-Machine Tactile Communication A. Michael Noll July/August 1972 SID Journal
There is a tinge of dissatisfaction with science, scientists and technologists here. Or at least there is distance that is being created between his perception of who the average scientist is and what they do and who Noll thinks he is. It’s implied that Noll sees himself in the latter group, in the “visionaries in science fiction” or at the very least in the “creative scientists and technologists” group 1 . The implication here is that Noll sees himself as a visionary or creative scientist, standing in opposition to “today’s scientists and technologists” who don’t want to admit the reality that “today’s science and technology are only acting out a script written decades ago by members of the other culture.” This point of view is very consistent with Noll's interest in Arts and Communication Technology. In fact, this textual evidence supports Noll’s broader account of his life events. This makes his narrative even more coherent. This all suggests that Noll was originally somewhat of an outsider to the community of “hard scientists”. After all, Noll’s main interest when he was a child was Stereoscopy, which is a technological product that can be interpreted as more artistic and visual rather than mathematic or hard and scientific 2. The harder scientists and engineers of that time period might have been typically more interested in flight or radio or even older gears, levers, gas and fluid sort of technology. Considering that his dissertation was on a technology product that was so new and out there and might have been suited to the market of communication and entertainment rather than any other market 3, all these details all come together very nicely. Noll likely is an outsider, maybe he is different from those scientists who don’t want to admit the reality “today’s science and technology are only acting out a script written decades ago by members of the other culture.” Scientists and researchers aren’t well-known for being inclined towards the humanities since they spend most of their time trying to make sense of the Science or Technology they’re working on.
His turn towards Communication makes sense in this context because Noll likely from the beginning was closer to a “Creative Scientist” rather than a Hard Scientist. The role of the humanities and the arts, specifically of creating compelling images and movies is to make us feel deeply or think inquisitively in some way, and ultimately good art helps us communicate deep emotions and important ideas. The influence of good art can be incredibly powerful. Also, promoting new ways in which people can communicate with eachother is meaningful. Though it's clear that Noll was very interested in Engineering, it's not hard to imagine why Noll also found satisfaction and meaning in the field of Communication 4. Communication is one of the most influential and meaningful things we can do.
Noll's breadth of experience and interests is compelling. Noll and his work should feature in contemporary discussions about today's video conferencing technology like Zoom. He's held consistent opinions over decades about Video Conferencing Technology. In addition, he was a steady voice of reason who spoke out against putting money, time and energy into the Picturephone. New technologies like the PicturePhone need a lot to succeed. They need to be mature, have good economics, be integrated into people's workflows and be better integrated into human social settings. Yet, much of the time markets, investors, and consumers are just capricious. The market failure of the PicturePhone could be due to it lacking any of these key components.
Over his long career, he's no doubt seen lots of important technologies, people and companies in the field come and go. Noll's experience and his work spanning multiple decades gives us a great time tested perspective from a seasoned professional on Video Conferencing Technology. Nonetheless, Digital Technologies and Wireless Technologies continue to progress.
NYU Wireless
5G Technologies and new opportunities
NYU Wireless is New York University's research center for wireless technology, hosting the annual Brooklyn 5G Summit. The lab works on cutting edge Massive Input Massive Output (MIMO) technologies and milimeter wave technologies. These leading edge technologies will allow wireless standards to advance from 4G to 5G bringing vastly better data speeds. These data speeds will allow for even more immersive Communication Technologies as well as providing new commercial opportunities and challenges. In the next few decades, there may be a new generation Communication and Conferencing Technology in the form of Augmented and Mixed Reality that exist because of foundational research and inventions done at NYU Wireless. Augmented and Mixed Reality, just like the PicturePhone, will stumble for a very long time but it will find success.
1 There is an interesting connection here between Noll's opinion to his very public controversy with Digital Artist Lilian F. Schwartz, who was a contemporary to Noll. Their conflict, which even escalated to legal disputes, was mainly over what constituted Digital Art and who gets to be heralded as a Digital Artist. To be called a Digital Artist did they have to be right at the Computer Terminal doing the programming or could they produce art through the medium of the Computer without having to deal with the Computer at that level? Questions of who exactly gets to claim an identity is complicated. Nonetheless, it seems that a belief had been forming inside Noll’s mind, which had solidified by 1971, that there was a distinct bounds separating the continuum of “Scientist or Visionary & Creative Scientist or Artist that uses Technology.” .
2 Though studying and researching light and lenses is very much hard science, the dichotomy being made is still reasonable because Stereoscopy and the production of Stereoscopic images doesn't seem all that complicated once discovered and engineered. Stereoscopy uses two different images to create the illusion of depth.
3 His inspiration of the Feelies was after all from Alduous Huxley’s Brave New World, where the “Feely” was a device made that allowed users to view, hear and touch the movie screen. Planes and radio have more direct industrial, market or defense applications.
4 There is more to be explored. His interest in the market adoption of the Picturephone may seem to intially stem from wanting the PicturePhone to profit in the market but another equally compelling way of looking at this enduring interest of his is to view it from the perspective of a Scientist wanting to understand why such advanced and compelling technology never took off.