Category: Nanodot

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.

from the driven-researcher dept.
Author RobertGrudin recommends this news article in US News & World Report. It includes a clear explanation of why researchers won't stop developing nanotech: "We are compelled to keep going. It is just so cool," says Paul Alivisatos, professor of chemistry at the University of California-Berkeley. "We are knocking on the door of creating new living things, new hybrids of robotics and biology. Some may be pretty scary, but we have to keep going." Read More for additional highlights.

from the when-he's-famous-will-he-still-talk-to-us dept.
Senior Associate Ka-Ping Yee (Ping) launched his future-tech lecture career with great success, earning a standing ovation and great media coverage for his inspirational talk including nanotechnology and machine intelligence. What advice do you have for Ping and other Foresight speakers?

from the if-it's-Clinton's-idea-they-don't-like-it dept.
SteveLenhert writes "The $500 million US nanotechnology initiative proposed by US President Clinton for the year 2001 may not happen as planned. While Congress supported the increased NIH spending, many cuts were proposed in the various other initiatives, including nanotechnology." See also the Clinton Administration's protest.

from the when-they-say-it-it's-"realistic" dept.
Senior Associate Gina Miller points out the new Technical Brief on Nanotechnology from Institute of Physics, which also publishes the journal Nanotechnology including Foresight's conference papers. See also story at AlphaGalileo: "Minute machines that can travel inside the body, gears that depend on atoms repelling each other and molecular alternatives to semiconductors are ideas that, even ten years ago, would have seemed impossible. Nanotechnology – producing machines and systems at molecular levels (an atom is around 0.3 nanometres in diameter) – is turning these ideas into reality, bringing changes to computing, communication, aerospace and medicine."

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…)

from the lots-of-foresight-out-there dept.
Most futurist journals aren't very useful — too short-term, too conservative. Here's a new one that has a chance: foresight® from Camford Publishing — no relation to Foresight Institute. Their board of editors includes at least two who "get it": Clem Bezold and Peter Schwartz. Overall, the publication has a European feel. The email digest is free. For the scope of the journal's topics, see More below.

from the bringing-it-all-back-home dept.
Anyone with notes from the Gathering who would like those notes incorporated into the Senior Associate website should send them to me at [email protected]. Photos are also welcome.

from the smarter-than-the-average-mechanism dept.
Eliezer Yudkowsky writes "Coding a Transhuman AI 2.0a has just been published. The paper is 179K; there is a summary. CaTAI discusses how to build a general intelligence, along with the specific issues associated with creating a self-modifying or "seed" AI (one that can understand and rewrite its own source code). I expect this paper to be extended considerably in the future, but the published sections are complete and self-contained. I may revise this paper further before the Foresight Conference, but the initial version is now available for review. "

Foresight Senior Associate Robert A. Freitas Jr. has just completed a lengthy technical risk analysis of some "gray goo" scenarios which may be relevant to our discussions of nanoreplicator safely and regulations. The title is Some Limits to Global Ecophagy by Biovorous Nanoreplicators, with Public Policy Recommendations . (Thanks go to Senior Associate Robert Bradbury for getting this into html.) If you're coming to the Gathering, try to read or skim this first. Additionally, you may comment below or by using Crit; to do the latter, click here.