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Gaming the Future: The Book!

Month: July 2000

Nobel chemist: why we MUST develop nanotechnology

from the well-OK-if-they-insist dept.
Given all the teeth-gnashing and hair-rending about the ethics of nanotechnology, it's worth reviewing Nobel chemist Rick Smalley's case that we must develop nanotech to deal with urgent problems: "Even given that, even if we stop population growth somewhere between 6 and 10 billion people, we can't sustain even the current population with the current technology. So for the 50 years, there's really only one good alternative: we need more technology, not less. It has to be green, it has to be clean, and it has to be closed loop. And I am confident that in almost every area the keys to these technologies are going to come when we start learning how to put things together one atom at a time on the nanometer scale…We need it urgently to get through these next 50 years. It will be a challenge. But, I am confident we will succeed."

Virtual Journal of Nanoscale Sci & Tech

from the like-trying-to-get-a-drink-from-a-firehose dept.
The Virtual Journal of Nanoscale Science and Technology is a weekly multi-journal compilation of the latest nanoscale research, including journals from APS, AIP, AVS, even some Russian journals. It should save you time (and possibly money, since you can order specific articles instead of taking an annual subscription, which gets darn expensive, believe me). Abstracts are free, as are weekly emails of the table of contents.

Ethics for Nanotech & AI: Chicago, July 20-22

from the OK-so-it's-short-notice dept.
The Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity's summer conference , Bioethics in the New Millennium, will explore the ethical issues surrounding many new technologies including nanotechnology and artificial intelligence. Note that media attendance is free, and Foresight Update needs a representative at this event. Email the editor c/o [email protected] if interested.

Venture Capital interest in nanotech

from the here-comes-the-money dept.
The cover story of July/August Worth magazine is on Senior Associate Steve Jurvetson of VC firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson: "Jurvetson's thoughts go beyond the Internet, as far afield as the potentially even more disruptive world of nanotechnology…there will be nanobots that navigate the bloodstream to repair the body, he says, and much, much later, nano-powered chips with such speed that a computer could practically think like a human being…But where Joy foresees peril, Jurvetson joyfully foresees opportunity. At the last retreat of the Foresight Institute–which Jurvetson likened to a 'brain spa'–he received his first two business plans for nanotech start-ups…" Jurvetson is quoted: "It's starting to happen!"

ABA and smart contracts

from the OK-who's-the-smart-lawyer-behind-this-one dept.
Senior Associate Charles Vollum writes "The American Bar Association is meeting today (in London, England?) to discuss a draft report of the ABA Global Cyberspace Jurisdiction Project. According to the press release, one of the report's suggestions is that '… intelligent electronic agents can be programmed to electronically communicate jurisdiction rules, thus enabling these preprogrammed agents to do business with each other.' Sounds a lot like smart contracts to me."

(Google + Open Directory) x Nanotech = Useful

from the what's-the-nano-herd-reading-these-days dept.
Jonathan Desp of Atoma writes: There is a nice page on Nanotechnology at Google." The Google directory is based on the Open Directory combined with Google technology and shows page popularity among Google users. Subcategories under Nanotech include Articles, Books, Businesses, Conferences, Funding, and Social & Political Implications.

Individuals' "human thermal plume" to be analyzed

from the they'll-know-what-you-drank-last-night dept.
The New York Times reports that a patent has been granted on a system to scan every person passing through for explosives: "Mr. Settles says his invention could also be used to detect smuggled money, narcotics, chemical or biological warfare agents, nuclear substances like uranium, or other hazardous material. And he maintains that the skin flakes could provide samples of human DNA…" CP: If we leave our DNA everywhere we go, how can it be a personal secret?

Dangerous bacterium DNA sequenced in one day

from the "But-That-Sounds-Like-Science-Fiction!" dept.
The BBC reports: "It has taken scientists just a day's work to unravel the entire genetic sequence of an antibiotic-resistant 'superbug' that is one of the leading causes of hospital-acquired infections…The work has been done extraordinarily quickly — even by the latest standards. The 2.8 million 'base pairs' — the nucleotides that pair up to make the twisted ladder of DNA's double helix — were sequenced using what is the essentially one day's production capacity at the US Department of Energy's Joint Genome Institute (JGI) in California." CP: It's clear what's coming: sequence an individual human genome in one day. Then: faster.

Get a Nanobiotechnology PhD at Cornell

from the when-you-need-that-piece-of-paper dept.
From the press release: "The emerging field of nanobiotechnology could hasten the creation of useful ultra-small devices that mimic living biological systems — if only biologists knew more about nanotechnology and engineers understood more biology. They soon will. Starting in June 2000, the first 12 PhD candidates will hit the laboratories of Cornell University's new W.M. Keck Program in Nanobiotechnology…the devices that will emerge could someday solve human problems: Micro-mobile smart pharmacies, propelled through the human body with biomolecular motors that run on nature's ATPase energy, to dispense precisely metered drugs wherever and whenever cells (such as cancer cells) signal the need."

Futurist enters biostasis

from the au-revoir-but-not-goodbye? dept.
Futurist F.M. Esfandiary has been placed in cryostasis at Alcor Life Extension Foundation, reports the San Jose Mercury News: "The tall, affable, soft-spoken philosopher, visionary educator, lecturer and writer…was respected by scientists, engineers, students who took his classes and intellectuals who read his books or attended his lectures. A quarter-century ago he was predicting things that are now happening. What he called “teleshopping'' and “tele-education'' are now ordinary Internet activities. And he foresaw such medical and biological breakthroughs as fertilization and gestation outside the womb and the correction of genetic flaws." FM thought he would live to see the year 2030 — he may be proven correct on that prediction as well. Good luck to him and others now in residence at Alcor and other cryonics facilities, especially Foresight pal Phil Salin.

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