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Gaming the Future: The Book!

Author: Foresight Editor

Gelernter's "Second Coming": Prose Poem on Future of Computing

David Gelernter (author of Mirror Worlds and other visionary books on computing) has published an essay on John Brockman's Edge site, titled "The Second Coming: A Manifesto". It's a prose-poem-slash-state-of-the-union-address about the potential for making our computers much more useful, intuitive, and unobtrusive. I say "prose poem" because it is rich in metaphors like "lifestreams", "cyberbodies", and "microcosms" that Gelernter argues are more useful than files, directories, desktops, etc. His castle-in-the-air vision is worthy of having a foundation built under it.

Nanowar: Lessons from Biowar

from the wow-Glenn-writes-really-fast dept.
Senior Associate/law professor Glenn Reynolds has been busy — here's another media article he co-authored, responding to Bill Joy's comments on nanotechnology: "…given that research into nanotechnology — like the cruder forms of biological and chemical warfare — can be conducted clandestinely on small budgets and in difficult-to-spot facilities, the likelihood of such research going on is rather high. Terrorists would have the greatest incentive possible to develop nanotechnologies far more deadly than old-fashioned biological warfare. This makes Joy's relinquishment argument hard to swallow. At the very least, it suggests that Joy and those who agree with him need to step up to the plate and make some more sophisticated arguments. No one doubts that Joy and the rest have good intentions. But as the example of biological warfare illustrates, good intentions, even when embodied in popular agreements to abandon a technology, don't necessarily have good consequences." (Glenn points out that the anti-trust comment in the article was not his.)

Nature on Nat'l Nanotech Initiative, Drexler

from the ambivalence-by-Nature-is-positively-positive dept.
Senior Associate and Foresight Advisor RalphMerkle writes "The June 15, 2000 issue of Nature has a three-page article titled "Nanotech thinks big" on page 730 about the NNI (U.S. National Nanotechnology Initiative). The first paragraph is about Drexler and Engines of Creation (rather ambivalent, looks like they might be starting to worry that Drexler was right…). Most of the story is about the NNI and the research work it's funding. The last paragraph closes with Bill Joy calling Drexler "naive" about the dangers of nanotechnology. The last sentence of the article is: "We are laying the foundations for the next industrial revolution," declares Theis.They have a "Web Links" box with five URLs, including Engines of Creation as the second link."

Let's Meet in Toledo — Spain, not Ohio

from the EuroNanoTalk dept.
It's getting to be possible to attend nanotechnology conferences all the time, with barely enough time to recover in between. Here's a tempting one: Trends in Nanotechnology 2000 in Toledo, Spain. European Commission is participating (read: funding), and everyone on the committees is European, with one exception from Japan. Sensibly, they separate "Nanofabrication: Printing" from "Nanofabrication: Self-Assembly".

Space sails take off

from the Charles-plans-new-use-for-his-sailing-skills dept.
Senior Associate Charles Vollum reports "An article on CNN's website discusses recent successful demonstrations of sails for space propulsion at JPL and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base."

EXPO 2000 Global NanoDialogue on July 13

from the problematic-website dept.
As part of EXPO 2000, The World Exposition in Hannover, Germany, it appears that a Global Dialogue will be attempted July 13 on: "Nanotechnology, now to be found only in its initial stages, will become the key technology of the 21st century … This is both environmentally and resource friendly, as it creates new materials and functional units from the elementary components of material using the 'bottom up approach' and this new procedure uses the smallest amounts of energy, and, in addition, uses only the atoms and molecules which, at the end of the process, are used for the functioning of the whole."

2020 Visions: The Next Twenty Years conference 2000

from the the-future-arrives-too-soon-and-in-the-wrong-order dept.
WIRED reports on the 2000 installment of the Next Twenty Years discussion series. The SF participants included Paul Saffo (of the Institute for the Future), Stanley Williams (HP Labs), and Bill Gurley (Benchmark Capital), who all gave their views of general societal trends, and also reported their predictions for specific goodies to be on hand by 2020: home electric fuel cells that will enable you to go live off the grid anywhere; gigabyte email attachments; and "browsable desktop economies".

Time Magazine: nanotech benefits potentially enormous

from the Time-for-nanotech-time dept.
Senior Associate RalphMerkle reports an item on molecular nanotech not available on the web:"The June 19th 2000 issue of Time Magazine, "The Future of Technology," has a two-page article titled "Will tiny robots build diamonds one atom at a time?" by Michael D. Lemonick on page 94:"On its face, the notion seems utterly preposterous: a single technology so incredibly versatile that it can fight disease, stave off aging, clean up toxic waste, boost the world's food supply and build roads, automobiles and skyscrapers — and that's only to start with…Crazy though it sounds, the idea of nanotechnology is very much in the scientific mainstream, with research labs all over the world trying to make it work."Read More for additional quotes from this well-done article. Merkle comments: Acceptance of the core concepts of molecular nanotechnology is proceeding at an accelerating rate.

*You* can nominate the Feynman Prize winner

from the rewards-for-good-workers dept.
The deadline for Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology submissions is July 31, 2000, but now is the time to get your nomination in.

If you suspect your nominees may be too busy — or modest — to complete the process, you can do the whole thing for them; it's pretty easy.

Russian Patent issued on Bottle

from the don't-laugh-it-happens-here-too dept.
The Moscow Times reports: Intellect, a company specializing in legal advice on industrial property rights, secured the patents from state patent agency Rospatent and has sent letters to breweries offering a license so brewers can continue to use bottles and cans…Intellect general director Vladimir Zaichenko said the company was set up 1 1/2 years ago and has received hundreds of patents — on screws, ball bearings, flasks, cisterns, ampules, railroad lines and other everyday items.

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