Donate
Donate

Gaming the Future: The Book!

Author: Foresight Editor

Big discussion of Foresight Guidelines on nanotech safety

from the other-dot-talks-nano dept.
Our parent website, Slashdot, has a discussion of the Foresight Guidelines for nanotech safety. There are some useful comments embedded in it. To read the highest-rated comments first, do what you do on this site: use the pull-down menu to change "Oldest First" to "Highest Scores First", then press the "change" button. See also Jeffrey Soreff's and others' comments on the original item here on nanodot.

Coarse-Grained Agoric Computing

from the I-will-gladly-pay-you-Tuesday-for-a-megaflop-today dept.
Yahoo has the story about a distributed computing project that pays you for those otherwise-unused cycles. Australian company ProcessTree Network plans to implement a scheme to pay money toward users' ISP bills in exchange for running a SETI@home-like distributed-computing client. (Windows-only for now…)

Gene Scientists bet on size of Human Genome

from the is-that-what-they-mean-by-a-gene-pool? dept.
A New York Times article (forwarded by Robin Hanson) describes a betting pool among geneticists on the number of genes of the human genome. The mean of the 228 bets so far cast is 62,598 genes, with a high of 200,000 and a low of 27,462. By comparison, 19,099 genes are apparently required to run the C. elegans roundworm and 13,601 genes for the Drosophila fruit fly, the only two animals whose full genomes have so far been decoded.

Courtney Love at Digital Hollywood

from the ain't-gonna-work-on-Sony's-farm-no-more dept.
Rock musician Courtney Love presented a brilliant talk (now available in its entirety on Salon) at the Digital Hollywood conference talking about Napster, intellectual property, the RIAA, and the economics of music. Ms. Love demonstrates clearly that she Gets It — incentive structures, the frictionlessness of digital information, the economic relationship between artist and audience, and the free rider problem. (She even quotes Neal Stephenson.)

Nanotech safety guidelines released

from the thank-you-Neil dept.
Yakira Heyman writes "Foresight has issued the first public release of our guidelines for the safe and responsible development of nanotechnology. Included are specific development principles and initial guidelines for device design." The linked page has the press release, guideline text, and background on the process by which the guidelines were produced. Also available are instructions on how to endorse the guidelines.

To make suggestions for improvement, comment below or you can annotate the text directly.

Nanotech conference abstracts due ASAP

from the hurry-up! dept.
If you plan to present your work at this fall's Foresight Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology in Bethesda, MD, you'll need to get your abstract in immediately. The formal deadline is June 16, but if you get it in by Monday, June 19, you'll be okay. After that, there's still a chance, but it decreases over time.

National Post: Intellectual property is doomed

from the information-wants-to-be-frictionless dept.
Found on Slashdot: The Canadian National Post features an editorial on the dwindling power of intellectual property laws in a digital world.

How do you find a nanotechnologist now?

from the get-a-nanojob dept.
Phil Wolff writes "Should our community operate a career site for people working in MNT and related science, business, or policy? Possibly something to complement this and sister sites? Couldn't hurt. But do you think this would be interesting or useful? Please chime in."

Light traveling faster than c

from the next-step:-IP-routing-through-Alpha-Centauri dept.
WillWare writes "There is a story in the Sunday Times in London about an NEC physicist in Princeton NJ planning to publish the result that light pulses have moved faster than the speed of light." [The scientist's home page which announced the results now simply carries a statement that the research is awaiting peer review. — Dave] "The big question, of course, is whether superluminal light can be modulated with information, essentially carrying that information into the past if you can correctly juggle inertial frames of reference. Investing opportunities aplenty here. " Doubtful; as the New York Times article states, most physicists agree that such a pulse can't be used to transmit information.

Viral route to semiconductor self-assembly

from the but-what-if-the-viruses-unionize? dept.
Bryan Bruns writes "Researchers have found viruses with protein strands on their surfaces which bind to semiconductors. A Washington Post article, with supporting quotes from some leading researchers, suggests this approach might create templates for nanofabrication, self-assembled like seashells. This reports on an article by Belcher et al. in Nature." It looks like the researchers used artificial selection to enhance the viruses' ability to bond to specific semiconductor materials.

Facebook Twitter Youtube Linkedin Podcast Spotify
0
    0
    Your Cart
    Your cart is emptyReturn to Shop
    Continue Shopping

      Search Foresight Institute