This is the first of a series of posts on the Deep Tech ecosystem. The length of the series has yet to be determined.
It’s unusual for me to enthusiastically adopt a term coined by investors or funding agencies. I rarely use the terms “AI” and “digital twins” despite arguably working on them. Maybe it’s because my work is more distant from the Deep Tech centre of gravity that I can say it without wincing (and even write it without scare quotes).
That said, I’m going to immediately redefine the term to mean what I think it should mean.
Deep Tech: technological research involving both bits and atoms.1
I think this is somewhat different to how others are using the term. For example, in a 2019 summary by BCG divides Deep Tech into seven categories, only four of which would definitely qualify according to my definition.
Advanced materials
Artificial intelligenceBiotechnology
BlockchainDrones and roboticsPhotonics and electronics
Quantum computing
I think it’s clear why blockchain doesn’t qualify, as it’s unabashedly about bits over atoms. AI is a similar story: most of it is firmly in the world of bits and not atoms. No doubt a lot of work in Deep Tech will involve AI, but AI itself doesn’t count as Deep Tech.
I’m less confident about drones and robotics. My reason for not including it is that all the other four categories (advanced materials, biotech, photonics / electronics and quantum computing) have some critical connection with atomic-scale interactions. Robotics doesn’t have that. On the other hand, robotics clearly straddles the world of bits and atoms - it just involves rather too many atoms.
Then again, it is difficult to imagine how any of the fields which play at the edge of this bit / atom divide could be possible without seriously advanced robotics, in some form or another. Taking all this into consideration, I’m inclined to count robotics as an honorary subcategory of Deep Tech, even if it makes my definition a little less neat.
Advanced materials
Biotechnology
Photonics and electronics
Quantum computing
(Robotics)
Definitions aside, at some level it’s immediately obvious what Deep Tech means. It’s the good stuff. The juicy stuff. The stuff that’s felt painfully marginal during an age of identikit apps.
Unlike pure world-of-bits tech, it’s also stuff that will unavoidably make a material difference to the world. Even better, from a scientist’s point of view: it gives the world a chance to argue back. That’s where the juice is.
That’s it for this intro. I’ll be following up with a few more thoughts on Deep Tech in the next couple of weeks.
To shamelessly paraphrase MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms.