Derrick de Kerkhove (CDN)
Director of the Mc Luhan Program in Culture and Technology.

Ars Electronica has exploded thanks to electricity.
– the first stage of electricity is “analog”, it carries, light, energy, signals,
– the digital one was reached when electricity became intelligent, begun to think, to create information. This stage is already nearly over,
– we are now entering in the era of quantum electricity.

de Kerkhoeve went on listing the silly things he might have said. Quite amusing since it was a series of commonplaces one can hear in these conferences (he had remembered that topos also means “a commonplace”)

Since the topic of the panel was the world of art, technology and society within 25 years, he objected that the task assigned to them was too big “No way, we can at most have an idea of the next five years”. So he finished by saying which should be the themes of the next five years of Ars Electronica:
– Identity,
– Sousveillance,
– Spimes,
– Quantum Technologies,
– “I’ll let the last speaker choose the last one!”