Bring the human to the network: 5G and beyond

Communication networks beyond 5G will bring about a human existence that is ever more virtual. Allowing new communication services with virtual existence and involvement everywhere is likely to redefine and place new demands on how humans can and wish (or do not wish) to engage with the connected network. The ubiquitous nature of the 6G network evolution enables increased involvement and affords more power to networks and machines (and those designing them) versus humans. This paper advocates that human-centric 6G networks should put humans' interests and potential first and foremost, in a holistic manner. There is a need to critically monitor, (r)evaluate, and adjust the above power implications. Human-centric design perspectives applied to future network technologies incorporate the human element more broadly. Thus, meaningful user control, empowerment, and agency should be key features of future network technologies beyond 5G and 6G. The network system's ability to protect human potential and humanity first, to serve multiple normative standards, while balancing the interests of all parties, can become a catalyst for stimulating better governing practices and for managing consensus building between individuals, communities, governments, and networked machines embedded with human-like capabilities. However, realising this vision and potential requires a thorough alignment with the human- and humanity-centric paradigm and a renewal of its operationalisation and implementation. This paper overviews a set of human-centric design interpretations and discusses the next challenges and implications in a beyond 5G and 6G context.