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Gaming the Future: The Book!

Category: Nanodot

Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology finalists

from the wish-he-were-here-to-see dept.
The top five individuals or teams in two categories, Experimental and Theoretical, have been selected as finalists for this year's Feynman Prizes in Nanotechnology. Winners will be feted at the Feynman Prize Banquet on November 4, 2000, at the 8th Foresight Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology in Bethesda, Maryland, USA. Congratulations to these world-class nanotechnology researchers, and thanks to all who made nominations this year.

Bill Joy on powerful technologies & individual liberties

from the "Bill:-Foresight-IS-having-this-discussion" dept.
Foresight Advisor and Senior Associate RalphMerkle brings to our attention the latest from Bill Joy. An excerpt: "So these technologies are that powerful that they really threaten our individual liberties, if other people have so much power. And that's a discussion we have to have, and we have never really had that discussion in the context of power to individuals. Certainly, the nation-states have had the power to destroy civilization, but to give individuals that power or to threaten our liberties is really an unprecedented situation that we face in this century." OK, he has a point here. Not a new point, but an important one.

"Wicked" problems: the joys of taking on complexity

from the makes-our-heads-hurt dept.
Surely the problems that we at Foresight take on — e.g. heading off abuse of nanotechnology and machine intelligence — are some of the most complex ("wicked") around. Those of us trying to work on these problems — alone or in groups, online or in person — will benefit from this essay on wicked problems and how to come at them for best effect: To solve wicked problems, we need to confront a more complex mass of information than we are used to dealing with, while unleashing creativity and opportunity-driven thinking. It is a more complex and chaotic process…"Some problems are so complex that you have to be highly intelligent and well informed just to be undecided about them."–Laurence J. Peter Thanks to Scott Johnson, editor of Future Presence email newsletter from Arlington Institute, for the pointer.

Los Angeles: MNT & Space talk, Aug 19

from the ad-astra-per-nano dept.
Senior Associate TomMcKendree will speak on space applications of advanced nanotech at the LA Nanotechnology Study Group:
Title: Appropriately Ambitious Aerospace Goals: A Reprise of the Keynote Address to NASA's "Turning Goals Into Reality" Conference
Molecular nanotechnology (MNT) offers a number of capabilities that can dramatically improve aerospace systems (such as aircraft and spaceships). Tom McKendree is completing a Ph.D. that looks specifically at space applications of MNT, and was thus invited to give the keynote to NASA's recent Turning Goals Into Reality conference, where NASA reviewed their last year of technology research, and planned for the future. This talk is a second presentation of that keynote. It focuses on MNT-based air transportation, space transportation, and advanced concepts, tying these to NASA's previously stated technology goals, and outlining what appropriate goals for the next century that take advantage of MNT would be. The talk should be interesting to anyone interested in space technology, or applications of robust MNT. Read More to attend.

IBM demonstrates quantum computer using custom molecule

from the Nano-Blue dept.
IBM-Almaden researcher Isaac Chuang described his team's experiments that demonstrate what IBM claims is the world's most advanced quantum computer, which is based on a single, specially designed molecule containing five fluorine atoms. Chuang presented the results on 15 August 2000 at Stanford University at the Hot Chips 2000 conference, which is organized by the IEEE Computer Society. An IBM press release described the research; the web version contains a number of useful links to related items.

UPDATED: An article in the 26 August 2000 issue of Science News provides a useful overview of this research, a graphic of the molecule used, and links to references and resources.

Implementation plan for U.S. Nanotech Initiative

from the macrogovernment-nanoplan dept.
Space policy expert Scott Pace of Rand Corp. — a member of the Foresight team even before it was formalized — points out that the Implementation Plan for the National Nanotechnology Initiative is now available. Annoyingly, it's posted only in pdf format.

Nanocomputing startup funded by venture capital

from the race-is-on dept.
Senior Associate Tom Glass points out an article from the Houston Chronicle about the nanotechnology work of Jim Tour. and Mark Reed in their startup Molecular Electronics Corp: The fact that the company has been able to raise venture capital is also a significant milestone, says Dan Hutchison, president of VLSI Research, a microchip industry research firm. "In the past, there's been nothing interesting going on, like someone getting venture funding," Hutchison says. "But if a company has actually managed to get VCs interested, that's different. They may not be entirely sure of the technology, but they're willing to bet on the people involved." More URLs in the sidebar. Here's an earlier New York Times article on the company.

Forrester predicts win for open source

from the goodbye-micro-hello-nano dept.
Senior Associate (and Nanodot co-founder) Dave Krieger brings our attention to this story from Wired: "Open-source standards will completely reshape the software industry by 2004, according to a recent report by Forrester Research. IBM and Dell will eventually triumph, while Oracle and Microsoft will struggle to cope with a changing marketplace. Forrester forecasts that within four years, all traditional software vendors will need to change their proprietary business models to open-source ones, or drastically lower the price of enterprise application licenses…And eventually, the report forecasts, MS [Microsoft] will become little more than a 'legacy vendor,' offering support for its antiquated products." Eric Raymond couldn't say it better…No, cancel that, he probably could.

Stem cell ethics: primitive medicine causes disputes

from the Gush-vs-Bore dept.
Paul Ryan brings to our attention this LA Times story on the political controversy over stem cell use. Don't we all look forward to the day when we have real nanomedicine that doesn't require these bizarre kludges?

Burning Man 2000: Project Singularity

from the party-time dept.
rlsnow writes "Project Singularity at Burning Man 2000 has begun rabid self-organization. The first theme camp in the history of known civilization inspired solely by ideas of Singularity starts in Nevada's Black Rock Desert on August 28th." Senior Associate John Smart is co-organizer of this project; a number of other Senior Associates attend Burning Man.

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