Surprisingly real value from virtual reality
Speaking of big computation, cyberspace isn’t yet as potent as Neal Stephenson portrayed in Snow Crash and subsequent books, but it’s getting there. A new article in the [...]
H+ Summit "Rise of the Citizen Scientist" at Harvard
If you can't make it to Harvard this weekend, June 12-13, you'll want to catch the live webcast of the H+ Summit: "Rise of the Citizen Scientist". No link yet, [...]
New sf novel includes nanomedicine, reviewed by Robert Freitas
In the mailbag today: A new fiction book Beyond Guilty by Richard Brawer, who got help on it from Robert Freitas, winner of the 2009 Foresight Institute Feynman Prize for [...]
Alien Invasion
Robin Hanson comments on David Brin's response to a New Scientist editorial. As Brin notes, many would-be broadcasters come from an academic area where for decades the standard assumption has [...]
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The first time I met Eric Drexler, I complained to him, "You've ruined science fiction for me." (He replied, "If it's any consolation, I ruined it for myself.") The reason, [...]
Climategate, or, how science works
"Science advances, funeral by funeral." (often attributed to Timothy Ferris) The blogosphere has been abuzz over the past week or so with the release of data -- emails and program [...]
Reynolds advocates faster nano/AI R&D for safety reasons
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 [...]
Flying Cars: how close are we?
Previous in series: VTOL So, how close are we to flying cars? For specificity, let's pick a technological bar to hurdle that answers most of the objections to the concept [...]
Feynman's Path to Nanotech (part 2)
Historical Note It's appropriate on this July 7 to make at least a reference to the history of ideas that lies behind the Feynman Path. That's because July 7 is [...]
Forward to the past
Charlie Stross, the British science fiction writer, recently posted a “21st Century FAQ” on his blog that has aroused some reaction in futurist circles. Let it be noted that I’ve [...]