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Gaming the Future: The Book!

Author: Foresight Editor

Presidential commission will recommend backing open source path

from the maybe-they-do-get-it dept.

A major article in the New York Times ("Code Name: Mainstream – Can 'Open Source' Bridge the Software Gap?" by Steve Lohr, 28 August 2000) reports that a Presidential commission will recommend backing the Open Source software development model as an alternative path for addressing pressing national needs in the development of new information technologies.

According to the Times article, "the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee will recommend that the federal government back 'open source software as an alternate path for software development,' according to a draft copy of the report, which will be sent to the White House and published in a matter of weeks."

Novel circuit attempts to mimic neuron function

from the synapse-crackle-pop dept.
An interdisciplinary team that includes electrical engineers, computer scientists, physicists and neuroscientists is using a hybrid analog-digital circuit design in an attempt to understand how biological neurons function and process information. A brief description of the research appeared in the New York Times on 29 June 2000, and was described in greater detail in a paper that appeared in the 22 June 2000 issue of the journal Nature.

Wayner declares "Open Source War"

from the hearts-and-minds dept.

In an essay for the New York Times ("Whose Intellectual Property Is It, Anyway? The Open Source War," 24 August 2000), author Peter Wayner (Free for All: How Linux and the Free Software Movement Undercut the High-Tech Titans (HarperBusiness, 2000) ) declares:

"There's a war going on. . . . It is between nimble people who want to think for themselves and big dinosaurs of corporations that want to keep the upstarts penned up and docile."

Wayner concludes: "The open-source war is not going to be easy for society. The intellectual property laws do help protect creators and their innovations, and corporations instinctively grab as much power as they can get. But if the strength of these laws grows and the teams of lawyers that enforce them become more powerful, society will become much poorer."

Yes on brain repair & self-repair, no on AI?

from the vision:-two-yes,-one-no dept.
from the New Scientists' Next Generation Symposium site: "Welcome to the future…it's getting seriously strange out there as we head for the millennium. Below 24 young scientists working at the cutting edge bring you their thoughts and predictions. Check them out before you take your journey into the future… " Included:
Brain Repair in the 21st Century: "How much of the brain can be replaced before you require a new passport?"
Soft-condensed matter: "we could design desirable structures without actually having to build them, and if you break them, they will 'repair' themselves…we'd really like to have systems that completely self-assemble and produce hard bits and soft bits and valves and pistons and all the necessary things we need to make nanomachines, all from exploiting the properties of soft matter."
AI is possible, but AI won't happen: "there is no obvious way of getting from here to there–to human-level intelligence from the rather useless robots and brittle software programs that we have nowadays." [Yes, okay, it's not obvious.]

HP invests strongly in nanotech for chips

from the MSNBC-prefers-"subatomic"-tech dept.
From an MSNBC news story on new HP leader Carly Fiorina: The high-level patronage has reinvigorated morale throughout the labs. Until Ms. Fiorina arrived, Stan Williams, a researcher in nanotechnology, the science of manipulating atomic structures, had planned to move his lab to Agilent Technologies Inc., a test-and-measurement company spun off from H-P earlier this year. Now, H-P is building a new multimillion-dollar nanofabrication facility. It may not generate commercially useful work for years, but the investment could help H-P retain researchers in a field that one day could allow more powerful silicon chips to be ìgrownî by means of subatomic chemistry and physics, rather than manufactured in complex factories.
We assume the "subatomic" term came from MSNBC, not HP. Stan is a finalist for this year's Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology.

"New Economy"= early sign of coming Singularity?

from the dismal-scientists-boggled dept.
From a widely-published Boston Globe story: "Greenspan's comments…indicated his strengthening conviction that a stunning surge in the productivity of U.S. workers will persist…ensuring that the longest-running expansion in U.S. history has no end in sight…[his] main point was about the world economy and the profound impact of technology and globalization…Economists said such strong gains in productivity are unusual, if not unprecedented." He compared the current situation to the railroads, which "helped elevate economic growth for a considerable period of time. But the pace of growth eventually slowed when full or near-full exploitation of the newer technologies was achieved." But will we stop seeing such gaps between newer technologies, as they arrive with increasing frequency?

Test your theories of population in solar system

from the Malthus-had-a-point dept.
From Australia comes news of an easy, enjoyable way to play out various scenarios of human population growth. David Coutts has designed a game called 6 Billion which enables players to model exponential growth of human population in our solar system. Users can set their own timescales for scientific progress, population growth, and even sociological change. Sounds like a fun method to get a feel for exponential growth of population, which the designer correctly describes as "scary". Here's some background and history on the game. Read more for David's full post.

Envisioning "Intellectual Property" evolution

from the if-this-continues dept.
from Future Presence newsletter published by The Arlington Institute, these comments on some useful fiction: Melancholy Elephants by Spider Robinson — Extend our computer technology out just a little. Add an ability to quickly search for copyright infringement in a new piece of art you are creating. What if you keep getting back the reply that your new piece music or short story was too close to a copyrighted piece? What if copyrights lasted forever? Could new art become a thing of the past? With our limited senses how many unique combinations of worthwhile art are there? Check out this short story to explore some of these questions.

"Grand Challenges" for Nat'l Nanotech Initiative

from the whew-we'd-better-get-going dept.
Scott Pace of RAND points out this news item from the American Institute of Physics on the Implementation Plan for the U.S. National Nanotechnology Initiative: The implementation plan establishes "Grand Challenges" in such areas as smart materials, computing and memory storage, drug delivery and diagnostics, water purification and desalinization, energy conversion and storage, microspacecraft, biochemical detection and mitigation, economical and safe transportation, and national security. It lays out a timeline for the next five years and research strategies for accomplishing the objectives…"The National Nanotechnology Initiative: The Initiative and Its Implementation Plan," runs approximately 150 pages with appendices and is now available on the Internet at http://nano.gov

First step toward uploading? Brown U to study brai…

from the we're-starting-up-the-slope dept.

A collaborative team of engineers and neuroscientists at Brown University in Providence, RI, plan to develop nanoelectronics systems to monitor brain activity. According to a press release, the group's proposal is to create a tiny device that would emit light to stimulate brain cells and record light from brain cells, analogous to a camera. Using electronic structures 500 times smaller than the width of a human hair, six Brown University professors plan to explore the function of the human brain under a $4.25-million grant from the U.S. Defense Department. And they make some interesting comments about the long term potential of their work.

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