Category: Nanodot

from the glad-I-wasn't-there dept.
An article in the Feb 17 San Jose Mercury News' religion and ethics section entitled Guiding Science covered a debate between Bill Joy and various others including nanotechnologist James Heath: "Bill Joy is once more trumpeting the dangers of technology run amok…" Joy quoted a rabbi: "Zalman said, 'Maybe we should declare that nanotechnology isn't kosher; and maybe the pope should declare it a mortal sin'. I said, 'That's an interesting perspective. Most of the people in my company [Sun Microsystems] don't think like that.' " Heath is quoted as saying that "nanobots" are "science fiction". CP: Sigh — let's have some higher-quality debate on this topic. We'll try at the April 20-22 Foresight meeting.

from the someone's-very-upset dept.
Prominent conservative Dinesh D'Souza has an essay in the Jan. 22 National Review entitled "Staying Human", in which he argues vehemently against human germline engineering. Unfortunately, it's not online, so see instead this piece by Adam Wolfson in Winter 2001's The Public Interest (URL is temporary) and a rebuttal entitled "Right-wing Technological Dread" by Ron Bailey of Reason.
Fortunately, D'Souza's concerns don't have to apply to nanotech, since in that case changes can be made by adults on themselves, not applied involuntarily on offspring by their parents. Read more for excerpts from the D'Souza essay.

from the debugging-P2P-networks dept.

Biomednet's HMS Beagle web magazine has an opinion piece, Something Rotten at the Core of Science? reprinted from the February edition of Trends in Pharmacological Sciences, calling for more openess and objective evaluation of peer review procedures. "Evidence suggests serious flaws exist in the peer review process; one study indicates that it's no better than chance in evaluating papers." The abstract says "A recent U.S. Supreme Court decision and an analysis of the peer review system substantiate complaints about this fundamental aspect of scientific research. Far from filtering out junk science, peer review may be blocking the flow of innovation and corrupting public support of science."

from the lack-of-advanced-aliens dept.
PatrickUnderwood writes "Stephen Hawking speaks out on genetic engineering, space colonization, and overpopulation: "Hawking said a more advanced race on other planets was unlikely. 'If that's so, then why hasn't it spread through the galaxies and visited us. Or could it be they are watching us and letting us stew in our own primitive juices?' he joked, adding, 'I doubt they would be so considerate to a lower life form.' " http://www.cnn.com/2001/ASIANOW/south/01/14/india.stephenhawking.ap/index.html"