Not able to attend the Open Science Summit on July 29-31 in Berkeley, California? We’ll miss you, but you can watch the conference live at: http://fora.tv/live/open_science/open_science_summit_2010 Put it on your calendar now! Or we’ll hope to see you in person, especially for the session where I’m speaking: “Safety and Security Concerns, Open Source Biodefense” at… Continue reading Open Science Summit to be streamed live
Longtime Foresight friend Robert Grudin has a new book Design and Truth, just reviewed by the New York Times. The review quotes Grudin on designers: “However grand their aspirations, they wait upon the will of people in power,” he writes. “And power, which can ratify the truth of good design, can, conversely, debase design into… Continue reading Lessons from history for technology designers
David Cassel brings our attention to an h+ review of the long-awaited film The Singularity is Near, based on the book by Ray Kurzweil: In documentary style, we have Ray discussing his ideas about the Singularity, with commentators variously supporting or refuting or worrying about his ideas. With Bill McKibben in the role of the… Continue reading The Singularity is Near: the Movie
Aunt Polly: Tom, it’s time for your bath. And make sure to wash behind your ears. Tom: But gosh, Aunt Polly, I couldn’t do that. It might cause the end of the world. Aunt Polly: Land sakes alive, child, what on earth are you talking about? Tom: Well, pouring water in to a tub releases… Continue reading End of the World
One more comment on the post by Mike Treder that I addressed last time. Recall he wrote Techno-rapturists among our reading audience might be quick to respond with glib answers about miraculous nanotechnology solutions that are just around the corner … To understand Foresight’s actual point of view on this issue (which is actually a… Continue reading Martian Graffiti
In Popular Mechanics, longtime Foresight friend Prof. Glenn Reynolds looks at the future of nanotech and artificial intelligence, among other things looking at safety issues, including one call that potentially dangerous technologies be relinquished. He takes a counterintuitive stance, which we’ve discussed here at Foresight over the years: But I wonder if that’s such a… Continue reading Reynolds advocates faster nano/AI R&D for safety reasons
IEEE Spectrum: German Environmental Agency Miffed at Exploitation of Position Paper on Nanotechnology. From Dexter Johnson at nanoclast: Germany’s Federal Environment Agency (UBA) last week made a background paper available on their website, which they now concede contained no new research and none that their organization had actually performed, entitled “Nanotechnology for Humans and the… Continue reading IEEE Spectrum: German Environmental Agency Miffed at Exploitation of Position Paper on Nanotechnology
Back in my Moral Railroads post I opined: Unless I am completely mistaken and deluded, there was and is nobodyassociated with the DC train system who wanted the crash to happen. It’s not a question of morality at the level of bad intentions, either of people or machines. It was, in simple terms, a case of… Continue reading Moral Railroads again
On 9/11/01 I stood at Newark airport in New Jersey waiting for my flight to Toronto, which never flew. The airport was in clear sight of the World Trade Center 10 miles away across Jersey City and the Hudson River. As I watched the towers fall, I had a curious sense of detachment from the… Continue reading Terrorism and advanced technology
Last week I posted an essay in which I claimed that the Singularity could be said to be halfway here already because we had already set up a huge program that was more or less running the world (and that it was fast becoming a computer program). What are the great concerns of the Singularitarians?… Continue reading ESP redux
