Tuesday

Interesting Links:

• Nanotechnology, Biotech and Our Common Future
  
  As befits an information-besotted age, we live amidst buzzwords that, like some species of exotic insect, seem to live and die in weeks. You might think that the acronym “NBIC” (Nanotechnology, Biotechnology, Information and communication technology (ICT), and Cognitive science) is such an infocritter. But the phenomena behind this term are complex and profound, and raise difficult conceptual and operational questions for not just environmentalists, but anyone interested in human futures.
  


• Nanotechnology:Clean Energy and Resources for the Future
  
  Although resource issues have a somewhat musty feel, they have not gone away: in the case of the US and other industrialized countries, they've merely been postponed by cheap foreign sources. In fact, conventional technology is exhausting its resource base at an accelerating rate, an acceleration exacerbated by the revolution of rising expectations in the less-developed world due to the global communications revolution.
  
  Nanotechnology is the only way to resolve this dilemma that has the prospect of providing something like a sustainable First World standard of living for the entire world. Indeed, in the author's opinion this is most critical near-term application of nanotechnology.
  
  
• VISIONS OF THE FUTURE
  
  In this new three-part series, leading theoretical physicist and futurist Dr Michio Kaku explores the cutting edge science of today, tomorrow, and beyond. He argues that humankind is at a turning point in history. In this century, we are going to make the historic transition from the 'Age of Discovery' to the 'Age of Mastery', a period in which we will move from being passive observers of nature to its active choreographers. This will give us not only unparalleled possibilities but also great responsibilities.