Friday, February 23, 2007
Congrats On New Mother
BANG: What does nano convergence. Will it lead that humans best? 101
Some of us are used to take pictures, send to a friend, search the Google-all on our cell phones, or phones. But this ethos "all-in-one" goes beyond the field of communications and information technology. At least five years ago we heard that there are plans to retrofit high-level practice of science and technology through technological convergence, and it will be possible by nanotech advances. The ultimate goal is to intervene in all macro-level phenomena including social, biological and environmental-control to achieve nanoscale phenomena.
The search for a "core technology" that gives humans control over nature is not new. Its roots go back at least to the New Atlantis, Francis Bacon (published in 1627), 102 in which he describes a utopia on a fantastic island, Bensalem, where possible, for example "do for art ... trees and flowers that are up or slow down their own stations, and emerging and mature more quickly ... giving larger and sweeter fruits, or a different flavor, color, odor and figure ... and make various plants
rise in soil mixtures seeded ... and have a tree or other plant to become ".103 technological resources to appear the flora and fauna of Bensalem are not random or unpredictable but controlled (" none of this happens by accident, but we know in advance what material or mixture, what kind of creatures emerge ") .104 In language that will sound familiar to readers of the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF for its acronym in English), the ultimate goal of Utopia "the knowledge of the causes ... and widening the boundaries of human empire, to make all things possible ".105
Compare, For example, the utopian vision of technological convergence that drives the NSF, nearly four centuries later: "envision the bond of humanity driven by a virtual brain that interconnects the communities of the land in search of intellectual understanding and conquest of nature ".106 Nanotechnology-controlling matter through manipulation of atoms, "Biotechnology can converge with life-controlling, manipulating genes, they may converge with computer-controlling through manipulation of data bits," can converge with Cognitive and Neurological Science, which controls the mind manipulating neurons.
"human life expectancy was of only 37 in 1800. Our ability to reschedule this expectation iology dramatically increase once again. But the progress will be much faster. In 15 years we will be adding a year annually for life expectancy. My advice: take care themselves to the old *, for a time, and may perhaps fully experience the wonderful next century. "Ray Kurzweil," reprogramming Biology, Scientific American, July 2006.
(* The health maintenance regimen of Kurzweil is far from being "old." He writes that he takes 250 supplements a day therapeutic injections applied every week is taken, routine blood samples, hair and saliva to monitor their body's levels of nutrients, hormones and collateral metabólicos.1)
In Canada this convergence is called systemic bio-synthesis [BioSystemics Synthesis] .108 Without necessarily share the enthusiasm of the government, civil society arrived in his own name for the convergence of technologies and known as BANG-Bits, Atoms, Neurons, Genes, which are the operational units "NBIC technologies ".109 One of the theoretical claims of this convergence is that it could develop a treatment for Alzheimer's disease. Suppose we discover, after digging through mountains of data, a natural compound that exists in very small quantities in the Amazon can indeed be effective in curing certain neurological disorders. That using recombinant DNA technology, researchers can produce the compound in large quantities. Nanoscale devices that allow the drug (free and produced using information technology and biotech) can be supplied to the damaged neurons in the brain. Although not all convergence products will require all components of BANG, almost all use one or more technologies enabled or refined through nanotechnology. Other examples of this convergence is the implantation of nanoscale materials to replace bone damaged by arthritis, manipulating the neurons to be able to control the movements of a computer cursor, the cognition install devices that increase the capacity of our brains store and use information.
A pilot project report forecasting science and technology [Science & Technology Foresight Pilot Project], sponsored by the National Research Council of Canada [Canada's National Rsearch Council], identified five characteristics that make BANG technologies particularly consistent in their logic: they are convergent (which means they can be combined with each other but also can be applied across many industries and research disciplines) are fundamental and replicative ("each of these technologies have some ability to reproduce themselves), 110 distributed (because individuals can use them) and are of public interest (which means that all of them "involve many promises, but at the same time can be very disruptive.") Since the U.S. government-and subsequently the governments of Europe and Canada, considered BANG from point of view of "refined human performance", become crucial debates about the ethical, social and economic human performance refinement and extension of life expectancy.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
0 comments:
Post a Comment