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Gaming the Future: The Book!

Category: Nanodot

Fling: Making DNS, TCP, and UDP Untraceable

from the bits-from-the-underground dept.
"Fling is a new suite of internet protocols that perform the function of DNS, TCP, and UDP in a manner that's both untraceable and untappable. Fling protects clients from servers, servers from clients, and both from an eavesdropper in-between. The result is that anyone can serve or retrieve any data, without fear of censure." I haven't given the technical description of the protocols more than a once-over; does anybody see a fundamental problem with them?

Foresight Gathering Sept 8-10, Palo Alto

from the brain-overload-party dept.
Register by August 1 to save $100 on this fall's Foresight Senior Associate Gathering. Speakers and participants at previous events in this series include: Bruce Ames, David Brin, Eric Drexler, Esther Dyson, Doug Engelbart, David Friedman, John Gilmore, Robert Hambrecht, Bill Joy, Steve Jurvetson, Brewster Kahle, Ray Kurzweil, Marvin Minsky, Virginia Postrel, Eric Raymond, Paul Saffo, Eric Schmidt, Vernor Vinge & Roy Walford. See comments from participants.

Holographic atom manipulation at NEC

from the Japan-moves-forward?-downward?-or-is-it-upward? dept.
Senior Associate BrianWang writes: An article at NEC discusses their work on atomic beam holography: "In a recent experiment, the joint research team succeeded in making real-time changes in the patterns of neon atoms by applying a bias voltage to an electrode array controlling the hologram. This experiment was a giant step towards the fabrication of complex, three-dimensional, nanometer-order structures. [emphasis added] The goal of our holographic atom manipulation is the nanofabrication of complex semiconductor structures. The technique will involve directly piling germanium and aluminum atoms on the substrate. In addition to increasing density, the new process will save time by eliminating the resist and etching steps in the lithography process."

Remote conference attendance by web-proxy

from the entrepreneurial-opportunity dept.
WillWare can't make it to all the Foresight conferences, and has an idea on how to address this problem: It would be cool to remotely hire somebody (local to the conference) to strap on a wearable computer with a camera, microphone, loudspeaker, and wireless internet connection. I could remotely observe conference goings-on on my home computer, and I could talk to people at the conference. For the amount of time that I was hiring this person, he or she would wear a hat or t-shirt with my name and picture. It might take a T1 line or a cable modem to get acceptable bandwidth, but after a very few conferences it becomes a lot cheaper than airfare, a hotel room, and a rental car. Read More for the full proposal.

Top-down pathway inches downward

from the nano-micro-what's-the-difference dept.
GordonWorley brings our attention to a confused article about a process for sculpting micromachinery (MEMS or MicroElectroMechanical Systems). Regardless of whether MEMS are on the path to nanotech, we're all rooting for improvements to that technology, which is already moving into general use.

Gelernter's "Second Coming": Prose Poem on Future of Computing

David Gelernter (author of Mirror Worlds and other visionary books on computing) has published an essay on John Brockman's Edge site, titled "The Second Coming: A Manifesto". It's a prose-poem-slash-state-of-the-union-address about the potential for making our computers much more useful, intuitive, and unobtrusive. I say "prose poem" because it is rich in metaphors like "lifestreams", "cyberbodies", and "microcosms" that Gelernter argues are more useful than files, directories, desktops, etc. His castle-in-the-air vision is worthy of having a foundation built under it.

Nanowar: Lessons from Biowar

from the wow-Glenn-writes-really-fast dept.
Senior Associate/law professor Glenn Reynolds has been busy — here's another media article he co-authored, responding to Bill Joy's comments on nanotechnology: "…given that research into nanotechnology — like the cruder forms of biological and chemical warfare — can be conducted clandestinely on small budgets and in difficult-to-spot facilities, the likelihood of such research going on is rather high. Terrorists would have the greatest incentive possible to develop nanotechnologies far more deadly than old-fashioned biological warfare. This makes Joy's relinquishment argument hard to swallow. At the very least, it suggests that Joy and those who agree with him need to step up to the plate and make some more sophisticated arguments. No one doubts that Joy and the rest have good intentions. But as the example of biological warfare illustrates, good intentions, even when embodied in popular agreements to abandon a technology, don't necessarily have good consequences." (Glenn points out that the anti-trust comment in the article was not his.)

Nature on Nat'l Nanotech Initiative, Drexler

from the ambivalence-by-Nature-is-positively-positive dept.
Senior Associate and Foresight Advisor RalphMerkle writes "The June 15, 2000 issue of Nature has a three-page article titled "Nanotech thinks big" on page 730 about the NNI (U.S. National Nanotechnology Initiative). The first paragraph is about Drexler and Engines of Creation (rather ambivalent, looks like they might be starting to worry that Drexler was right…). Most of the story is about the NNI and the research work it's funding. The last paragraph closes with Bill Joy calling Drexler "naive" about the dangers of nanotechnology. The last sentence of the article is: "We are laying the foundations for the next industrial revolution," declares Theis.They have a "Web Links" box with five URLs, including Engines of Creation as the second link."

Let's Meet in Toledo — Spain, not Ohio

from the EuroNanoTalk dept.
It's getting to be possible to attend nanotechnology conferences all the time, with barely enough time to recover in between. Here's a tempting one: Trends in Nanotechnology 2000 in Toledo, Spain. European Commission is participating (read: funding), and everyone on the committees is European, with one exception from Japan. Sensibly, they separate "Nanofabrication: Printing" from "Nanofabrication: Self-Assembly".

Space sails take off

from the Charles-plans-new-use-for-his-sailing-skills dept.
Senior Associate Charles Vollum reports "An article on CNN's website discusses recent successful demonstrations of sails for space propulsion at JPL and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base."

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