10 questions for Dave Evans — Augmate’s CTO

Augmate advisor Ed Maguire recently had a chance to interview Augmate CTO Dave Evans on his background, blockchain technology, the current state of IoT, and his near-term vision for Augmate.

Ed: Can you share a bit of your background?

Dave: I was born in the UK and came to the US in the 80s. I and was always involved in technology. I’ve been obsessed with robotics and built devices since I was a kid. The first Vic-20 I got I wired to my house. I’ve been interested in understanding how tech can be applied to problems. An early job I had when I was 16 was Monolithic Memories (acquired by AMD) working in accounting. Data would come in and it took 24 hours to process on an old 4.7 MHz computer. I rewrote the code with a new sort algorithm and cut down the time to less than 1 second. The ability to apply technology to problems has been my passion.

I’ve had this ability to forecast the future, and ultimately Cisco gave me the title Chief Futurist. The work I was doing with customers helped them decide where to invest. I left Cisco after 24 years, to start Stringify and solve challenges around IoT interoperability and ease of use. We built an incredible platform coupled with powerful, easy to use iOS and Android apps that enabled users to simply drag and drop things to create powerful experiences without having to worry about technical jargon such as protocols, standards, APIs, etc. The company was later acquired.

Ed: What have you learned as a futurist?

Dave: One thing I observed in forecasting is that things happen quickly, but change takes a lot longer because the variable is human behavior. I had developed a style of techniques using backcasting and other practices. In some respects I had developed my processes organically that many other futurists have used. There are a lot of things that affect technology — culture, philosophy and other factors. There are a lot of technologies that might be more mainstream but for the human element.

Ed: What is your background with the Internet of Things?

Dave: I got into the IoT space around 15 years ago and wrote my first paper around then. It was clear to me that in the future we would not ask why something was connected, but rather, why it was NOT connected. What we need is not discrete things connected to the Internet, but systems of things — things working together to solve real problems. Things in buildings, traffic systems, energy systems and so on. We need an Internet of Systems of Things. For all of the great things that exist ,we can get real value out of them when connected together.

Ed: What led you to Augmate?

Dave: I got a call from Augmate telling me what they were doing and it occurred to me that this was a very different way of doing things — IoT, AI, Blockchain and all of the things that come with it, like smart contracts. I’ve seen a lot of big shifts in my life — mainframe to client server, Internet, cloud, mobile — but the implications of blockchain are world changing.

Ed: What does blockchain technology mean to you?

Dave: Blockchain takes the middleman out of things and immutably provides a measure of truth. It enables new types of business models — like a lightbulb or car making micropayments in real time. Overlaid with AI, we have a powerful trifecta — IoT + Blockchain + AI. In the future, there will no longer be “dumb devices” on the network. I think this powerful combination of technologies will dwarf everything that has come before.

Ed: What do we need to see blockchain go mainstream?

Dave: Today it’s still very much the realm the techies. The average person doesn’t know how to get involved; what’s real and what’s hype. I’ve read so much that’s inconsistent — with loose terminology. We need to simplify this so that people can understand it and appreciate the value.

Thinking about where blockchain implications are going, it’s the wild west. it’s an exciting time, but the future consequences are profound. Having machines negotiate amongst each other as part of autonomous systems will be an enormous change.

Ed: How about IoT growth?

Dave: Watching your kids grow every day you don’t notice their growth like someone who sees them only once a year. We are adding around 100 things to the internet every second. If you believe there are ~20 billion connected devices today, and 50 billion on the horizon, that’s the largest technology shift ever. There’s nothing that’s ever happened on this scale before.

There are of course many challenges yet to solve — issues around interoperability and battery life for example, but IoT gives silent things a voice; it gives things an ability to “speak”. We are entering an interesting time in human history, one that’s incredibly exciting but also terrifying. We have a short amount of time to solve population, climate, energy, and food and water issues. These are world-shaping dilemmas, but technologies will solve these problems over time.

Ed: What attracted you to Augmate?

Dave: We share a very similar vison about the applications of technology. People ultimately need to be at the center of it. In other words, it’s not technology for technologies sake, it has to solve real issues, and Augmate shares the view that technology should service the needs of people. I see that the product can become an amazing platform that people can build on. With IoT I don’t think that anyone is addressing this in the right way.

Ed: What is unique about what Augmate is doing?

Dave: For me a light bulb went off when I saw that blockchain, AI and IoT fit together so well and the amplification effect is so powerful. I’ve been a futurist for a decade but have not seen anything this formidable. If you look historically, Apple was not the first mover in the cell phone space, but they needed a differentiator and the full screen was what allowed them to be transformative. Our hypothesis is that IoT + Blockchain + AI is the trifecta.

Ed: What’s on the agenda for you near term?

Dave: My focus is doing a current state-future state analysis to determine where the team is going to go, what customers are saying they need (and don’t know what they need yet) and what the analysts are telling us. Then we’ll focus on the execution plan — talent, processes, what the product looks like and how to build it sustainable, scalable and powerful. What’s interesting is to find a company that ca

n solve existing issues and lead with new concepts. That’s rare, and I’m confident we can do that. Not many companies can, and there’s really staggering bench strength on this team.

***

Make sure to follow our social channels to be the first to hear about the latest news on Augmate:

Telegram | Twitter | Reddit | Website | Linkedin | Facebook | CrowdFunder