Conscious Engineering: How to really innovate while safeguarding humanity
Part II interview with Biman Liyanage, serial entrepreneur, researcher and inventor of world’s first smart condom, smart pollution mask recognized by World Economic Forum and more
Conscious engineers or human beings understand a very simple human rule “I’m not going to use this for evil.” That means they judge themselves by the impact of their actions and the results they create. — Biman Liyanage
As the second of a two-part series, we interviewed Biman Liyanage, an emotion AI and wearables inventor and serial entrepreneur with over 20 patents in his name who keeps pushing the boundaries of what is possible. Having founded several advanced technology development ventures established in Beijing, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Sri Lanka, he has steered his team’s focus during Covid to create a low cost, biodegradable smart PPE mask recently recognized by the World Economic Forum.
We sat down with him to discuss his thoughts on responsible innovation, a core principle of Humanity in Tech. He believes inventors, creators and technologists should measure their success based on the results they create not just on what they create. And whoever creates a given technology bears the responsibility of starting a conversation about its possible negative consequences and misuse. Biman has coined a term to describe this: “Conscious Engineering.” He shares how to translate this to a company’s engineering culture and cautions us to prioritize our attention towards constructive technologies rather than deconstructive ones.
Have you wondered whether companies can move fast and break things AND make sure they are not creating technologies that, down the road, might be harmful for humans? Biman is proof that this is truly possible. This is a must-read for people in technology, busisness, social entrepreneurship and anyone looking to learn more about the role of technology and its impact on society.
Tania Dias and Alex Artiach: You have this incredible concept called Conscious Engineering. Could you tell us more?
Biman Liyange: Conscious engineering simply put is not just looking at one part of the equation but at all parts. You are conscious of all things and decisions you are responsible for and all things in between. In other words, you are aware of the problem, the solution and whether the solution can create more problems.
Let’s take Oppenheimer who created the atomic bomb. He never fully thought about how it could be used for destruction. The joy of inventing was so big that he announced his discovery without understanding its depth. He spent the rest of his career advocating for pacifism .
Another example is Facebook which has become a gigantic platform that spreads fake news at a rate we’ve never seen. The rate of fake news to go through Facebook is much faster than the amount of effort being put to shut it down. But the truth is when Zuckerberg created it, he didn’t even think about being able to bias elections or spread fake news.
We need conscious humans creating technology. And if the technology is powerful, you should only give conscious human beings access to it. Because when you put technology in the power of unconscious people it causes massive pain.
TD & AA: How can someone become a conscious engineer or human being?
BL: Conscious engineers or human beings understand a very simple human rule “I’m not going to use this for evil.” That means they judge themselves by the impact of their actions and the results they create. They believe in causality. If I do X, I’ll get Y. I understand that if I do good, I do good. Their intentions are pure.
For example, 5G is an amazing thing. But it also means you’ll have higher accessibility to the dark web and higher accessibility to download the wrong content. Imagine I use technology to create a deep fake of something you said that you know you didn’t say. And then I use 5G to send it through social media to billions of people. Now it takes me a fraction of the cost and time. And by the way, this can be done already.
But the thing is just by getting access, it opens other evil doors. So you need to have the technology to block those evil doors just when there is a capability of opening them.
For example, if our browsers were built with good security, privacy and had data protection, then introducing 5G would make sense. We are protected. We know kids won’t be watching things they shouldn’t be watching. We know we’ll get a red alert pop up that tells us not to watch something because it is fake.
But this technology isn’t popular enough in society so it is getting developed at a slower rate.
TD & AA: Do you see this as an inventor’s responsibility?
BL: When the universe was made there was light and there was darkness at the same time. The creator sees the same thing. When you bring something into this world, you need to look at yin and yang. The same person working on the positive thing needs to equally look at the negative thing also, because he’s the one who’s creating. For example, inventors when they start building the technology for deep fakes, need to start building how to fight deep fakes.
Right now, because of marketing, branding, intelligence, we talk about the positive impact and hype it up. But we are not looking at the negative side effects. When people bring this up, they are accused of not liking growth, of being too traditional. But you need to have this mentality.
TD & AA: Do you feel like you manage to do this at your company?
BL: Our team has a very conscious mentality. And we have an engineering culture that is non-subtractive. That means most of the time we don’t have people on the team just giving their perspective on the problem. We don’t just brainstorm for hours. Instead, people go out and prototype first. They use the most advanced technology that is available to prove their point.Then we evaluate our ideas based on results not theoretical thoughts about a problem. Our conversations aren’t hypothetical.
When you come into a conversation, you bring in your personal experiences, your biases. Everything becomes part of the equation. But when you actually test it, do it, come up with answers, that is very different. Basically, the person who asked the question should also do the work.
For example, right now we’re building smart anti-pollution masks. This means that no line of code, component, testing process, assembly process can go wrong. If it does, it could blow up in someone’s face.
So we have to be very conscious from the top down. That means you need to communicate with your supplies, your engineers, your designers, management, investors, everyone. That you are doing the right thing for the right reasons because you have the right intentions.
TD & AA: But aren’t intentions different from consequences? How do you manage to keep your intentions pure?
BL: My company has zero marketing and zero sales. So we get projects by working as a vendor from a list. This might be the wrong approach but the way I look at it is that through Sales you fall prey to believing in lies. You start off by selling something. But since there is competition you need to start building more things. You find a justification for what you are building because you need to sell.
As the justifications get bigger and bigger, there comes a point where your initial intentions have been changed by external pressures and investors. You end up creating something you didn’t intend to.
For example, let’s take the Facebook “like” button. It started off as an idea to appreciate and praise people. What happened? It has created the world’s worst psychological phenomenon. People are now “hungry” for “likes.” It almost feels like if you don’t get “likes” you aren’t accepted by society. So the intention of creating a “like” button has become something very different.
When you translate that back to an engineering culture, your engineers need to be conscious. They need to be asking the right questions. It can’t be a guessathon. You need to be proactive. You need to learn from those around you, not try to beat them.
TD & AA: So how do we make sure people create technology with the right intentions?
BL: At the end of the day, I’m one of those people who believes humans are the problem. And the only way to fix this is to make humans more aware and conscious of what they are doing. Then they can correct their actions.
Before humans do anything that impacts someone else’s life, they have to think- am I doing the right thing? Is this the best way I can do it? Can I find a better way? The goal of a leader is to push people to ask these questions themselves. If we successfully manage to do this (asking questions), then we will have a breakthrough in human engineering. Any time someone is going to write a bad code or tries to build a bomb, they will ask themselves “does this align with my ethics, my principles and my morals?”
Bottom line is we currently treat humans as humans. We need to treat humans like robots. We need a light that goes off saying “think twice”, “think twice” “think twice.” You know, I think the conclusion here is we’ve tried to fix the problem the wrong way (with a laugh).
TD & AA: What advice do you have for young people aspiring to be engineers, builders and problem solvers?
BL: Focus on problems that are worth solving. A young person is a blank canvas and their imagination is their real weapon. So they need to be inspired to do something. My parents never asked me “What do you want to be when you grow up.” Instead, they asked what skills did I want to learn? What problems excited me? And then they made sure I was connected to the problems.
You need to see the world as it is. Not the world tinted by perception. That means, if you are trying to build a solution for a kid that has cancer, unlearn everything you know about cancer from the internet or from school. Instead, go talk to someone with cancer. Be conscious and observe. Ask them what is difficult about their life. Figure out how you can make their life better. Then go build something to solve it. Maybe its a chair, maybe its a utensil.
If you can come up with a small solution, then you will have made a difference. If you choose to solve a huge problem it might take 10 years to complete. By then the kid with cancer might already be dead. But instead, if you choose to ease the pain in a little way, then you can solve a problem today. And then, motivated by this experience, you can learn the skillset you need to figure out how to solve cancer forever.
TD & AA: One more question for you. What technology will you keep building?
BL: I believe this whole universe was created out of joy and the waves are here to make sure that everyone is joyful and everyone has a good life.
The question really becomes how can an invention increase accessibility and change people’s lives. When I say accessibility, I mean the problem of accessibility. Of giving everyone access to a normal, survivable, joyful life. If we do that, my job is done.
This would mean people were in good health, our systems were working, we would have eradicated what we call pain. We would have solved all problems.
The day everyone is happy and joyful, I will retire as an engineer. Until then, I won’t.
About Biman:
Biman specializes in Affective computing and smart material based advanced wearables. He has far-reaching expertise ranging from collaborating with Fortune 500 companies such as Microsoft, Intel, Porsche, Daimler and Tencent to successfully deliver over 800+ advanced technology projects to developing the world’s first smart condom that can respond to blood flow and send data to an accompanying smartphone app.
Biman has won numerous awards including TechCrunch’s Start Up Competition, the Red Dot Design Award, the FengRu Cup, the Global Innovation Challenge and the Durex Design Challenge and serves as a Board Member for the NGO ‘Business for Better Society’, is an ambassador for ‘She Loves Tech’, and is the Co-Founder of the UrbanX Tech Accelerator for UN Habitat funded by the World Bank Group in Nairobi, Kenya. He is a Forbes 30 under 30 in Healthcare and Life Sciences in Asia and is a Global Shaper for the World Economic Forum.
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