Let’s talk about Photonics! My guests are esteemed scientists Tim McKenna and Ryo Yanagimoto, from the Physics & Informatics Laboratories at NTT. Tim and I chat about balancing theoretical physics with real-world applications at NTT, his most exciting photonics projects, and the primary obstacles to replacing traditional electronics with photonic technologies. Ryo and I dig into the game-changing potential of NTT’s programmable photonic chips. We discuss how their unique reconfigurability is shaking up traditional hardware manufacturing, facilitating a move from power-hungry electrical processing toward light-driven computation, and even allowing chips to self-correct for environmental shifts.