Never ever has the world experienced such a technological revolution and never ever has so few people been aware of what’s happening. Every leader need to know the basics of NBIC (Nano-technology, Bio-technology, Information-technology and Cognitive science)
Nano Carbon Tube
We’re in the middle of a technological revolution. Never ever has anything developed this fast. You may ask why; and the answer is basically that we’ve got computers that are so powerful that we can view the world in a different manner. Previously we explore new opportunities in laboratories using what may be called try & error methodology. Today we’ve moved the laboratory into the computer and are able to monitor and design / create new materials and components atom by atom. This has open up for the new revolution. We’ve designed new materials like NanoCarbonTubes 300 times stronger than steel per weight. At them same time, let two such tubes cross each other, and they works as transistors. They even can work as semiconductors. As you may know, both transistors and semiconductors represent the main building blocks in computers. Being only 1 nanometer thick, it’s possible to build computers that fit into your bodycells. In 2004 we expect the first computer in this size to reach the market with 2 Terabytes of memory. Check your own computer and realize that this is huge. The smaller they are – the faster they get – and the less energy they need.
Protein
The possibility to observer matter down to atomic level gives us new knowledge about our bodies. We get to know the DNA molecule better, not to say the proteins. Proteins are small factories producing things dependent on what they’re programmed to do. This knowledge makes it possible for us to create similar artificial factories. Factories programmed to build completely different things. We believe we can make computers “grow” by them selves. The protein doesn’t only carry out a task – it copies itself. After some protein-generations we got a “factory” big enough to build great things in short time. This offers enormous possibilities, but in the same time it’s not difficult to predict dreadful consequences if something goes wrong.
Now, knowing how to modify nature, we’ll probably try to correct some of the human errors. A long list of illnesses will be healed and then we can start to optimize that human body. We’ve already started. People suffering from epilepsy may already get a chip connected to the brain that discovers the attacks and suppresses the future signals to the body. Great for epileptics – the next version may contain a calculator as bonus software.
Knowledge about our brain (Cognitive science) may help us in other areas. Till now we’ve automated manual labor. Next to come is automated operational decision.
Actually, computers have done this for long now. Neural networks create adaptive systems that learn how to make better decisions. NASA consider it impossible to program long ranging spaceships in such a way that they take into account any possible situation. The spaceship must therefore learn, make decisions and reprogram itself. Keep away from the sun and the earth – otherwise do as you think best – will be a code in these new spaceships.
This brings me to automatic programming. Experts believe that we’ll see the first systems capable of programming itself already in year 2005. Unthinkable? Well, do you remember back in the sixties when some clamed they could make a compiler? High-level program code like FORTRAN should be transformed to machine code. Many people said it wasn’t possible – at least not to make efficient code. Twenty years later we experienced something similar. The issue this time was to make computers able to design computer chips based on a high-level code (silicon compiler). The same thing happened, but today nobody consider compilers or silicon-compilers as anything strange. Therefore – in the near future self-programming systems based on artificial intellect will be common.
That brings us to the next topic – artificial intellect. Systems will learn themselves – which we know already. The systems know how to communicate. That brings us very close to systems that are aware of themselves and their surroundings. Don’t believe you can turn off your computer in ten years time. It has build up a relationship with both you and the world around you. Maybe it’s in love with another computer? Artificial pets are considered to be common in year 2012.
Gollum from Two Towers
We should have a look into Virtual Reality (VR) too before closing this file. Did you see the movie Two Towers earlier this year? An army of more than ten thousand warriors was to be created. To much work they found and started to create a warrior that had artificial intellect. They got personality through random generated parameters and the ability to react on their surroundings. That means that if one warrior pushed the other away, the second warrior would react on it. Then you copy and past ten thousand warriors to get the army. In the same movie one of the main actors was a digital representation. People evaluated this character to have a better performance than the other human actors. I think that tells us that we’ve passed the point where we can laugh about digital animation.
Within VR we’re talking about Virtual Worlds. Pretty many of them exist and one new project is integrating the Virtual World with the real one. In Project Entropia you may exchange real money into virtual money – then live in the virtual world Entropia for some time where you can buy and sell whatever you want. When you get decide to leave Entropia you may exchange the money back – either with a win or a loss.
Futurists have for quite some time been discussing if design will be the only and ultimate thing. Introducing the personal factory, Mr Eric Drexler (Nanorex) envisioned a future where every one of us owns a molecular factory. Back in the 80´s designers started using 3D printing to make prototypes. This technology has also developed masterly, and today you may print fully functional products directly out of a 3D design file. The picture on this page shows how Stratasys made this engine with propellers. Although this is a prototype, it shows how large a product you can make. You may also have a look at this video showing Stratasys FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling) Process.
