Donate
Donate

Gaming the Future: The Book!

Category: Nanodot

Britian Plans Legislation To Ban Human Cloning

from the The-happening-world dept.
VAB writes "A BBC Article reports Britain is to ban reproductive human cloning as part of a strategy to assure the public that genetic technology will be harnessed for beneficial use only.

Health Secretary Alan Milburn announced on Thursday [19 April 2001] that the government is bringing forward legislation to outlaw human cloning within months. Mr Milburn said that the only way to ensure human cloning never takes place is to ban reproductive human cloning by law.

The health secretary stressed that while Britain should aim to become a world leader in the genetic revolution in healthcare, no progress can be made unless strict boundaries are set to reassure the public about genetic technology."

"Friendly AI" now open for commentary

from the smart-allies-not-enemies dept.
From Senior Associate Eliezer Yudkowsky: The Singularity Institute has just announced that it has begun circulating a preliminary version of "Friendly AI" for open commentary by the academic and futurist communities. "Friendly AI" is the first specific proposal for a set of design features and cognitive architectures to produce a benevolent – "Friendly" – Artificial Intelligence. The official launch is tentatively scheduled for mid-June, but we hope to discuss the current paper with you at the upcoming Foresight Gathering this weekend. Read More for more details.

Singularity Institute receives tax-exempt status

from the IRS-gods-have-smiled dept.
From Senior Associate Eliezer Yudkowsky: The Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence, Inc. is glad to announce that we have obtained tax-exempt status as a 501(c)(3) public charity. We are now accepting donations (through check, credit card, or Paypal) which will be tax-deductible to the full extent of the law.

The Singularity Institute currently analyzes seed AI (AI designed for self-understanding, self-modification, and recursive self-improvement), Friendly AI (goal architectures for benevolence), and the Singularity. The Singularity Institute is also beginning to evangelize Friendly AI to other AI projects. The Singularity Institute's long-term purpose is to directly implement the Singularity by designing, developing, and teaching the "seed AI" which becomes the first transhuman Artificial Intelligence.

(Remember to attend the Singularity SIG at this weekend's Foresight Gathering!)

NASA seeks public comment on new institutes

from the short-notice dept.
The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) plans to implement a number of University-based research centers, to be known as Research, Engineering, and Technology Institutes, or RETIs, and is seeking public comment on the implementation of this new program. Nanotechnology is prominently featured among the targeted technologies.

The goal of this plan is to strengthen NASA's ties to the academic community through long-term sustained investment in areas of innovative and long-range technology critical to NASA's future. At the same time the RETIs will enhance and broaden the capabilities of the nation's universities to meet the needs of NASA's science and technology programs. The role of the RETIs is intended to be research and exploitation of innovative, cutting-edge, emerging opportunities for technology that can have a revolutionary impact on the missions that NASA pursues in the future, while expanding the nation's talent base for research and development.

Organizations that have an interest in this activity are requested to provide information that addresses creative concepts in how to implement the RETIs, on collaborations with the NASA Centers, on mechanisms for partnering with non-university/non-NASA performers, and on RETI management.

Public Comment Due Date: April 21, 2001

Bioscientists back an "open source" library

from the Straight-to-the-source dept.
Senior Associate John Gilmore calls our attention to an item on the movement to create an open public library of scientific papers that appeared on the New Scientist website.

A model archive, called "PubMed Central", was set up by Harold Varmus when he was director of the US National Institutes of Health. Major journals which already deposit their papers there include the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and the British Medical Journal. Supporters of the idea urge other scientists to sign a petition calling for the library, and to boycott journals unwilling to participate in the scheme.

As of the end of March, more than 12,000 scientists from 120 countries have signed an open letter in support of the Public Library of Science initiative. As a result of this initiative, several scientific publishers have already decided to adopt the policy advocated in the open letter, and almost every publisher and scientific society is discussing it. You can find out more, and add your signature to the petition, at http://www.publiclibraryofscience.org.

Bush Proposes Increase for Nanotech Funding

from the gathering-momentum dept.
An article on the web site of MITís Technology Review Magazine ("Nano Gets Boost from Bush," by A. Leo, 13 April 2001) reports that the Bush Administrationís proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2002 for the U.S. federal government would significantly boost research and development funding for nantechnology-related efforts. According to the TR report, in his budget proposal released last week, Bush requested $485 million for nanotechnology research in fiscal year 2002, a fifteen percent increase from the $422 million Congress granted last year. This is still less than the $495 million the Clinton Adminstration originally requested for the U.S. National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) for FY2001.
Analysts with the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) R&D Budget and Policy Program put the nanotech funding for FY2002 at $482 million, and note in their preliminary analysis of the budget proposal that nanotech is one of the few areas that receives an increase in research and development funds.

The TR article also contains this interesting teaser: The NNI has also begun "to address how nanotechnology will affect society. This month, the National Science Foundation will publish a 400-page report, authored by Roco, on those implications. In that report, Roco predicts that in ten to fifteen years the entire semiconductor industry, as well as half the pharmaceutical industry, will rely on nanotechnology."

IMM Prizes in computational nanotechnology

from the Preparing-future-technologies dept.
The Institute for Molecular Manufacturing will offer four new annual prizes in computational nanotechnology, one each in the fields of design, analysis, rendering, and simulation. The Prizes will be presented in person at the annual Feynman Prize presentation ceremony at the Foresight Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology. The four winning projects each year will automatically be nominated for the next Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology (Theoretical).
The goal of this program is rapid advance and iteration, so the IMM Prizes do not require journal publication. Incremental improvements to prior designs, including those originally produced by others, are explicitly encouraged.
Special consideration will be given for analysis or designs that contribute to system security or component mechanisms designed specifically to prevent abuse (refer to the Foresight Guidelines on Molecular Nanotechnology for several specific mechanisms). This consideration may not come up in the early days of the Prizes, but is expected to be increasingly important as designs advance.

Details are available on the IMM website.

Nanotechnology on "Springboard" national public TV

from the public-education dept.
The new national (U.S.) PBS-TV show Springboard is doing a show on nanotechnology including guests Ralph Merkle, Principal Fellow, Zyvex (and Foresight Advisor); Philip Clayton, Principal Investigator, Center for Theology and Natural Sciences; Phil Kuekes, Fellow, HP Labs (and Feynman Prizewinner); Joe Haldeman, Author; and myself (Christine Peterson, President, Foresight Institute). Read More for broadcast info.

Formerly-secret trade negotiations opening up

from the openness-in-government dept.
In a stunning move reported by AP wireservice, negotiators of the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas will make the text public prior to finalization: "A draft text of the all-Americas free trade agreement would be made public, he said. In the past, negotiations went on behind closed doors." A victory for the growing openness movement, probably stimulated by the failure of a previous international treaty draft which was deliberately leaked by the opposition.

MG Taylor to hold "Transparent Society" event

from the Inventing-the-Future dept.

Foresight benefactor and associate MG Taylor will hold a TANSTAAFL DesignShop Event, "Coding the Transparent Society," on May 8-10 in Palo Alto, California, bringing together a community of people concerned with impact of the advent of the Internet, an "Information Revolution that will alter global societies as dramatically as the invention of the printing press over 500 years ago . . . The decisions we make regarding the design of cyberspace will have an ever greater impact on our everyday lives in the years to come."
You are invited to participate in the event, where critical issues concerning the future of society and of the global information infrastructure will be discussed, solutions explored and next steps designed.

Read More for a sampling of issues on the table . . .

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

      Search Foresight Institute