Category: About Foresight

from the Plan-ahead dept.
Upcoming speaking engagements by Foresight Chair K. Eric Drexler and President Chris Peterson include:

• 3 May 2002 (Scottsdale, AZ) Eric Drexler will speak on nanotechnology at Congress on the Future of Engineering Software.
• 13 May 2002 (Palo Alto) Christine Peterson will speak on nanotechnology at the Swiss Nano Team Reception, sponsored by Swiss Science & Technology Office and nanoSIG.
• 27 June 2002 (Palo Alto) Eric Drexler will speak on nanotechnology at the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) Forum. Check the PARC Forum website to verify date as it approaches.
• 28 June 2002 (San Francisco) Christine Peterson will speak on nanotechnology at Nanotech Investor 2002 (Acrobat PDF file).

from the brain-trust dept.
Foresight Institute is pleased to announce that Ray Kurzweil, noted author, inventor and technologist, and John Gilmore, an equally-distinguished computer expert and open-source advocate, have joined the Foresight Instituteís Board of Advisors.

"I'm excited to strengthen my relationship with the Foresight Institute, an organization that has been contributing important insights into multifarious intersecting technological revolutions, while addressing how best to foster their promise while avoiding their peril," Kurzweil said.

"Foresight has been advising me on the social impacts of technology for more than a decade," said Gilmore. "I'm pleased to be able to advise Foresight in areas where I happen to know more. We've been talking about successful business models that don't limit peoples' right to make copies. We're also seeking to understand the conflicts between absolute intellectual property protection and our society's foundational rights of inquiry, expression, and competition."

More information about the new Foresight Advisors can be found on the home pages of John Gilmore and Ray Kurzweil.

The latest issue of Foresight Update, our quarterly newsletter, is now available online. Foresight Update 47 offers coverage of the Ninth Foresight Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology in November 2001, as well as nanotech-related news from across the United States and around the world. The issue also contains a new article on nanomedicine ("Volumetric Cellular Intrusiveness of Medical Nanorobots") by Robert A. Freitas Jr.

from the World-Watch dept.
A brief item from a Small Times correspondent in Taiwan ("Taiwan focuses on nanotechnology, competes and cooperates with China", by Jen Lin-Liu, 9 January 2002) provides additional information on the countryís developing national initiative to concentrate its efforts on nanotechnology. Taiwan has designated nanotechnology as one of three new industries that they will focus on. The other two are information technology and biotechnology. The article also notes that while the governments of Taiwan and mainland China may be rivals politically, nanotechnology could be one area where they can cooperate.

Recent nanotech-related activity in Taiwan and China was noted here on 7 January 2002, and on 20 November and 18 December 2001.

from the World-Watch dept.
An extensive article on the Small Times website ("Japan sees nanotech as key to rebuilding its economy", by Jayne Fried, 7 January 2002) provides a useful update on the debate over government policy to guide the direction of nanotechnology research and development in Japan. This debate has been going on for some time (see items from August 2001 and Foresight Update 44 in April 2001) over how to reorganize and reinvigorate Japanese research efforts.

Another useful resource is a report, titled A Future Society Built by Nanotechnology by Watanabe Makoto, that was prepared by the Japan Federation of Economic Organizations (Keidanren) and published by Japan Economic Foundation in the September/October 2001 issue of the Journal of Japanese Trade and Industry.

from the World-Watch dept.
An article in The Australian ("Surprise gift for UQ", by Dorothy Illing, 12 December 2001), a national newspaper in that country, reports that an anonymous donor from the United States has given the University of Queensland a $17.5 million gift towards a nanotechnology institute. The same philanthropist has already put at least $10 million into the university's $105 million Institute for Molecular Bioscience. The $50 million Australian Institute of Bio-Engineering and Nanotechnology also will get $15 million from UQ's budget. The institute will bring together scientists working in nanotechnology, biomaterials, tissue engineering, neuroscience and bioengineering.
The University of Technology Sydney reports (16 December 2001) it will strengthen its nanotechnology programs, under the leadership of Acting Director of the Institute for Nanoscale Technology, Dr Grant Griffiths. UTS will attempt to match its programs with industry needs, introduce two new undergraduate degrees, and recruit Honours and PhD research students to a range of new industry-sponsored nanotechnology projects.
And a new portal linking to nanotechnology-related sites sponsored by the Australian government was spotted by John Dalton, who writes "I just found Nanotechnology in Australia. It is intended to be a central entry point to Australian efforts in nanotechnology."

from the please-comment dept.
It's been fifteen years since Engines of Creation (or see free online version) came out — time for a new book looking at coming technologies. Read More for an initial chapter topic list, target readership, and a list of specific items requested from those wishing to help with the book. Comment by posting here on nanodot in the usual way, or you can use Foresight's annotation tool Crit.org to insert comments at specific locations in the text.