"My room faces onto an inner courtyard of the hotel, and it is very, very quiet for NY," explains BT's chief technologist and the Collier Professor for the Public Understanding of Science and Technology at Bristol University. "The park facing views tend to be noisy - and I never spend time gazing out of windows anyway."

In any case, the weather is far from Peter Cochrane's mind. "I flew into JFK from San Francisco late last night. The day before that I was in San Jose and Sunnyvale. And before that San Diego for three days."

So what is he doing answering e-mail in the dawn's early light when he should be catching up on his sleep, EMA Network asks (cheekily, for among those e-mails he is busy dispatching are replies to some of the questions with which we have plagued the peripatetic professor across a couple of continents and several time zones). Isn't 6.50 a little early for such tasks? "No, I have a 07.30 breakfast meeting - and then a full day meeting starting at 09.30."

And then, back home to Britain and a weekend with his family before it all starts all over again. Peter Cochrane notches up an average 300,000 miles in the air each year, so a week at home comes rather rarely.

Consequently, for EMA Network to interview him by e-mail is no mere gimmick aimed at underlining the use of the internet for everyday communication. Finding an opportunity to talk with Dr Cochrane in the flesh can be an almost insurmountable problem.

It would, of course, be possible to concoct a credible 'interview' with him by quoting from the huge range of Peter Cochrane's published writing: scientific papers and articles, lectures, columns and even a book - Tips for Time Travelers - outline his views on life, new technology and just about everything.

And then, there's his website www.labs.bt.com/people/cochrane , where Peter Cochrane's sense of irony and fun mixes with his serious, scientific side in a comprehensive site which includes some of his favourite jokes and poems as well as an overload of information and links to more information.

Saving the planet
Peter doesn't mention on his website that he's an enthusiastic skateboarder, and his interest in Star Trek doesn't figure prominently there either. But it is readily deduced when I ask him if he can foresee an alternative to commercial considerations driving technical innovation and development. "Only when we subvert money and create a new value system - i.e. a star trek world - will we see a substantial change," he replies from San Diego. "Probably the survival of the planet will get us to focus in the near future."

The state of the planet is of major concern to Peter Cochrane. "In the US, they use 8.5 kilowatts per person, in Europe it's 2.5 kW, and in Africa it is 60 W. If we all consumed 8.5 kW, we would all die. I mean, come on guys, there's something wrong here."

Despite his distress at the suffering caused by hunger and war, Peter Cochrane believes that technology has made life infinitely better for many across the globe. "Look at child mortality, the length people are living, clothing, warmth, quality of life. It all seems to me to be better. Of course there are downsides, but that is not, generally speaking, a function of the technology. It is generally a function of people and what they choose to do with the technology."

Wider horizons
He is, of course, enthusiastic about the internet. But a century ago the telephone, radio and television were going to alter the world beyond recognition, and all they really did was to contribute to change. Isn't the same true of the distribution revolution represented by the internet?

"No, it is much more profound than this - it is about connecting everything and the dismantling of the old boundaries and constraints. As everything goes on line a new economy emerges to eclipse everything we have seem before."

Is the whole net hype distracting attention from automatic intelligence, and computer developments generally? "No - quite the reverse - it is almost the ideal mechanism for generating the need for such developments."

Peter Cochrane takes a long-term view on the notion that the 'net threatens the cultural aspects of human life. "It sure can - just like radio and tv and movies. But for the sensible it means a new and wider horizon, a far richer set of contacts and a higher level of understanding. Nobody does everything on the telephone - and the same will be true of the net."

He's optimistic, too, about the impact which the wired world can have on personal privacy. "Do I mind anyone accessing my medical or employment records, CV, and other personal details? Frankly, I don't give a fig! In fact I wish they would gather far more information on me to help manage my life. Should I be knocked unconscious in a road traffic accident in New York - please let the ambulance have my medical record. Please let them know that I am going deaf and that I am diabetic. I really don't want it to be a secret - I want to live!"

Engineers as movers and shakers
Peter Cochrane agrees that Britain doesn't attach sufficient importance to science and technology. UK scientists and engineers have been responsible for major developments in both scientific thinking and technological innovation, "but mostly abroad and not in the UK. Silicon Valley in California is powered by British scientists and engineers. A spirit of scientific investigation and innovation is still alive in Britain, though, and I have every confidence in the young people coming out of our schools, colleges and universities."

He is firm about where the blame lies. "The management of the UK is largely dominated by people who know nothing relevant to a future dominated by technology," he says. "They got educated in the wrong subjects!"

It all adds importance to the Engineering Council's campaign aimed at persuading young people that 'engineering is fun.' How does Peter Cochrane rate its chances of success? "Depends on the delivery. Unfortunately a lot of the people engaged in science and engineering are unable to deliver an exciting message."

Peter Cochrane offers an almost messianic vision of how engineers should view themselves. "I change and shape the future, I make the impossible a reality, I solve the really tough problems so that people and society can progress," he suggests.

Paper deadweight
On the topic of work, Peter Cochrane has firm views on some management attitudes. "Any organisation dumb enough to count keystrokes deserves what it gets. It becomes very evident who is working hard and who isn't. People must have freedom to change and adjust their workstyle to meet the demands which are placed on them."

In his own working life, Peter Cochrane has a fairly fixed rule: he doesn't deal with messages or data sent to him on paper. "The people who use paper are so far behind they probably won't survive - in fact they may well be dead already," he says provocatively. " I travel around 300k miles a year - so information on paper may not see me for a week or two when I get back to my office. My secretary scans in stuff she considers I should see and then e-mails it to me." But will those electronic communications get an instant reply? " Within 12 hours guaranteed - I hit about 99.5%. The failures are network down times, flat batteries, software spaz's, etc, and me failing for some reason like flu."

So does he expect the internet, electronic information and communication technology to replace printed communication entirely? "Paper is already the minority medium - more information is available on the net than was ever committed to print. Newspaper circulation figures are on the decline, but specialist magazines are on the up because electronic publishing has reduced production costs dramatically. The problem is that people equate paper and screen; but they are two very different ports for information - they have different qualities and abilities that we should exploit to the full. Look out for flexible displays or active paper - they are coming!"

New connections, new values
Is it likely that at some stage we will depend on a single cable link to supply everything - phone, TV, electricity, security alarms etc? "It is possible that we will develop a single umbilical for home and office - but I suspect we will also use short range radio too. If that fails, we have the same problem we have today when we have major storm damage - we have to get out there and do repairs," declares the man whose career began as a GPO linesman and maintenance technician in the early 1960s.

Peter Cochrane is concerned that the new technologies should be used to help third world development, for everybody's sake. " If the third world industrialises by the same mechanisms that we used - burning oil and coal - then the planet dies! We have to get technology to them that allows them to leapfrog all those stages we went through. IT based industries in India and China are growing fast at a minimal cost."

What of the 'socially excluded' whose prospects of getting meaningful (or even any) work are reduced by their lack of IT literacy? "The growth in the service sector will be massive: we need far more support people to keep the IT literate working to create the wealth. You are looking to a society where 90% of the wealth is created by 10% of the people - and you don't want PhDs gardening.

"But everyone will be IT literate to an increasing degree as the interfaces get easier. What we are really talking about here is creativity and problem-solving skills, and not everyone is good at it. We have to stop ranking people on the basis of what they do as we did in the old class system. A skill is a skill! Gardeners, cooks and plumbers are valuable people too - and in short supply!"

And, with that last reply e-mailed from New York, Peter Cochrane prepares to board a plane home to Suffolk. Which is where, as you'll discover from his website's humour section, he hangs his @!