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Gaming the Future: The Book!

Month: October 2000

Technical tutorial on nanotech needed

from the newbies-wishing-to-be-oldbies dept.
Folks, we need to do a good web-based tutorial on nanotechnology, unless there is already one out there. –CP
AmarShibli writes "I am a high school student interested in nanotechnology. I have chosen this as the topic for my Intel-Westinghouse project. So far, on the internet, I have only been able to find very vague articles on the prospects of nanotech, and no specifics on how things are done and current research, tools of research, etc. I was hoping, since you all seem to know so much about this subject, that you may be able to inform me of a place where I can get more technical information, and I can really begin to understand it much better. My physics teacher is willing to help me with anything that I don't understand from the material I read, and if he doesn't understand it, there is a professor I can call. Also, my school is willing to pay for any restricted-access websites or books that I might want to invest in. Thank you for your help. Please e-mail me at [email protected] if you have any information, or just reply to this message. Thanks again. –Amar" If your info will be useful to others, please post it as replies here rather than sending email. –CP

Ethical systems: Guardian, Commercial, Idealist

from the keeping-track-of-our-biases dept.
Senior Associate PatGratton writes "On a sociological/ethical note… Around the time of the Fall Foresight Gathering, I was reading Jane Jacobs' Systems of Survival and came up with some interesting applications of her ideas to people interested in transformational technologies….When I tried to apply Jacobs' categories to the attendees of the Foresight Gathering, I quickly reached two conclusions: 1) there are virtually no Guardians present within the Foresight membership, and 2) Jacobs missed a syndrome….I contend that the Foresight community is split between Idealists and Traders, and that this leads to a certain amount of unavoidable conflict….Because Guardians are underrepresented within Foresight, Foresight discussions are likely to strongly biased towards Commercial and Idealist views and solutions. More importantly, we're likely to fail to address or to take seriously concerns that would come naturally to a Guardian. This in turn implies that we're likely be underprepared when we take our ideas/solutions to the general public…" Read More for Pat's full post.

Nanomedicine book gets rave review

from the sounds-like-he-liked-it dept.
Greg Fahy of UCLA Medical has published a review in Life Extension magazine of Freitas's book Nanomedicine: "Nanomedicine is an endlessly impressive and uniquely important book. Like Newtonís Principia and Drexlerís Nanosystems, it stands as a marker between all that has come before, and all that will come in the future. For it is effectively a blueprint for the futureóessentially the whole futureóof health, longevity and medicine. It is not quite a predictionópredictions are notoriously difficultóbut is instead an engineering sketch of what will be possible for medicine based on the laws of physics and chemistry, when humankind can do everything consistent with those laws of physics. Despite its focus on the ultimate future of medicine, Nanomedicine is relevant to nearly everyone alive today and now, in many ways. It may save many lives, and it will certainly elevate many more. It is, in a sense, a gift from the future to those of us living in the present."

Open-Sourcing Nanotechnology

from the aw-heck-let's-just-share-the-IP dept.
Gary Gunderson sends an update on work by Senior Associate Bryan Bruns: "Bryan Bruns has published a working draft of a paper to be presented at the Eighth Annual Foresight Conference on Nanotechnology in November. The paper, Open Sourcing Nanotechnology Research and Development holds much of interest to this forum. In particular, his assertions that open sourced nanotech is a net positive with respect to safety deserves further scrutiny." (CP: This item is an update to the working draft notice posted earlier. The paper is now version 0.6.)

AAAS meeting in SF highlights nanotechnology

from the see-you-there! dept.
Senior Associate AlisonChaiken writes "The upcoming 2001 American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting will prominently feature a Nanotechnology Seminar. Among the speakers at this seminar will be Foresight friend James Ellenbogen [and Feynman Prize winner Phaedon Avouris –CP]. The meeting will be held in San Francisco from February 15th through 20th within easy reach of public transit. For those not familiar with AAAS, it is the organization that publishes the important journal Science that is so often referred to here on Nanodot. AAAS meetings tend to have layperson-friendly interdisciplinary talks on wide-ranging topics, particularly those that impact public policy — not unlike Foresight fall meetings, but ten times larger." CP: Foresight hopes to have a table at this meeting, thanks to Alison's prompting.

Leech-neuron "computer" aimed at robot use

from the someone-had-to-do-it…? dept.
Adam Burke writes "Georgia Institute of Technology scientists have made a computer of sorts from leech neurons."

An excerpt from the BBC piece: "Professor Ditto says a robot brain is his long-term aim, noting that conventional supercomputers are far too big for a robot to carry around. "We want to be able to integrate robotics, electronics and these type of computers so that we can create more sentient robots," he says. However, in the immediate future, the team from Georgia Tech and Emory University are working on enabling their computer to do multiplication."

UW launches 1st nanotech PhD program in US

from the Seattle-in-the-lead dept.
Senior Associate Eamon Dowling reports that The Daily (campus paper of the University of Washington) announced the following news:
UW begins first nanotech program in country
The UW is launching the nation's first doctoral-degree program in nanotechnology in time for the official start of the 21st century…The Ph.D. in nanotechnology is an "option program" incorporated into already existing Ph.D. programs in a variety of scientific disciplines. Participating students will earn simultaneous degrees in both nanotechnology and in one of nine other departments including computer science and engineering…Offering America's only graduate nanotechnology track, the UW program is expected to draw 20 to 40 students per year. Students may enroll immediately…Nanotechnology has evolved into a scientifically and socially critical academic field…Advances in nanotechnology have forged the way for the building of machines, robots and materials on a molecular level….the need for such a program is overdue, according to Viola Vogel, director of the UW's Center for Nanotechnology: "Nanotechnology will be to the 21st century what microelectronics was to the past century," Vogel said…"There will be a great demand for people with proficiency in this field."

Human brain equivalence on a chip by 2005?

from the smart-filing-cabinet dept.
Senior Associate RobertBradbury writes "EE Times has a very interesting article about how the German startup Pact GmbH is producing a new microprocessor packing 128 32-bit arithmetic logic units. Initial models pack ~13 GigaOps, but they plan to go to 400 GigaOps (4*1014 ops) by 2002. This is putting you in the range of human brain equivalence as I discuss here. As they project a petaop (1015 ops) on a chip by 2010, even if the conservative estimates of brain ops (1017 ops) are correct, you will be able to get human brain equivalence in a filing cabinet sized machine this decade!" (CP: Apologies to Robert for the delay in posting; I was on vacation.)

Holography with atoms

from the try-to-catch-this-wave dept.
John Pierce writes " An article (.pdf, see 3rd page) in The Industrial Physicist (October 2000) describes 3-Dimensional Holographic constructions of atoms 'beamed' directly onto a surface. Controllable interference patterns between beams of atoms are produced by modulating the charge differences within a diffraction grating. Atoms are deposited in predetermined locations over the entire field in parallel. This technique will eventually allow fast atomic level 3-D assembly, without physically handling each atom.

It would seem this is a major advance over recent molecular "ink jet" printing, and shows how quickly atomic and molecular handling techniques are progressing."

Cheap 3D printers for the home

from the shape-of-things-to-come dept.
WillWare writes "Eugene Leitl posted this story by New Scientist to the nsg-d list, regarding recent advances in stereolithography and other 3D printing techniques, particularly the innovation of printing multiple materials in the same session. Some tantalizing quotes from the article:

Geometric complexity is largely irrelevant… You can design the internal and external geometry of a part, and its electrical, mechanical and thermal properties exactly how you want them to be.

Dickens says he knows of a number of companies who are looking at mass-producing 3D printersfor less than £1000 apiece… They could be available within a couple of years if one of the companies decided to go for it.

At the current exchange rate, £1000 is $1440. It is quite likely that such printers will be very popular. If large numbers of people buy one, much of what we normally imagine as the nanotech post-scarcity economy will appear overnight. 3D printers will offer an early preview of some of the important challenges of nanotech.

The intellectual property issues involved will be essentially identical to those of nanotechnology. Toy companies (and others previously engaged in manufacturing) will fight against the AutoCAD-file version of Napster. The status of patents and other mechanisms of IP protection will come under scrutiny.

There will doubtless be circulating CAD files for guns, knives, and other dangerous trinkets, and an associated rash of urban legends (recall Monty Python's "spring surprise"). This will provoke thought and discussion which will later pertain to military and terrorist applications of nanotechnology.

It's a good thing to see these issues come into the public eye in a context far less dangerous than nanotech. The task of public education will then require only the elucidation of what differentiates nanotechnology from 3D printer technology."

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