【英文】国际战略研究中心报告：中美在第三方市场的技术竞争趋势：2030年全球的网络（36页）

Advances in photonics, which transmit information through optical signals rather than electronic  signals, have the potential to increase network speed, energy efciency, and security. Photonics have  been widely used for decades (fber optic cables, for example, date back to 1952), and current networks  mix optical and electronic signals. Te applications that photonics support are responsible for 11  percent of global GDP, according to one industry estimate.61 Several cutting-edge technologies rely on  photonics, including 5G networks, autonomous vehicles, and quantum computing. Further advances could unlock speeds well beyond 5G. Current networks convert optical to  electronic signals at several steps. Moving to a truly optical network, also called an all-photonics  network, would entail using only light, rather than electrical currents, to transmit data at every  step. Light is 10 times faster than electric currents and has other advantages related to capacity  and security. To unlock these benefts, Intel, Sony, and NTT founded the Innovative Optical and  Wireless Network (IOWN) Global Forum with the goal of achieving major network improvements by  2030: reducing power consumption by 100-fold, increasing transmission capacity by 125-fold, and  lowering latency by 200-fold.

Some use cases truly stretch the imagination, a valuable exercise when looking ahead a decade and beyond.  Tapping into the power of photonic networks, researchers aspire to have the capability to build “digital  twins” of not only physical objects for testing, but also exceedingly complex systems that include individual  and group behaviors, economic activities, and the natural environment. Tese digital twins of society could  be used to test policies for lowering carbon emissions, help people make decisions about where to live, and  achieve other goals in the real world.  Photonics could change how people communicate with each other on an even more fundamental  level. “Mind-to-Mind” communications, according to the Innovative Optical and Wireless Network  (IOWN) Global Forum, “will overcome diferences in language, culture, experience, values and  sensibilities to gain a real and direct understanding of how the other people perceive and feel things  in their minds through the transmission of expressed words and expressions.”66 As these hypothetical  examples suggest, the possibilities are vast, and appropriate policies will need to be developed to avoid  unintended consequences and misuse.