Emerging technologies.
In the next three or four posts I'll be providing a brief overview of key emerging technologies to keep an eye on over the coming decade; these technologies are genetics, nanotechnology, and robotics - or GNR for short. This summation is directly based on Ray Kurzweil's futurist paradigm on accelerating technologies (see MIT video in the link for an overview).
Human inventions from the the wheel, to the printing press, to the modern day smartphone has helped society to advance to its next era; the emergence of GNR continues this revolutionary trend. GNR is important for the general populace to know as development and ultimate refinement of these technologies will help solve a majority if not all of the world's problem such as global proverty, hunger, and fatal diseases. Below is a brief description of the topics I intend to elaborate in future posts:
Genetics
Genetics is considered to be one of the greatest discoveries in biological sciences. This discovery allowed us to find our base markup or coding of life. Genes, composed of RNA and DNA (strands of nucleotide pairs), contain the blueprints or sequences cells need to distinguish us from other organisms such as bananas or elephants. From genetics we derive disciplines such as genome sequencing, gene therapy, and genetic engineering. It is a broad subject to discuss, so I'll be focusing mostly on gene therapy as it applies to personalized medicine - an important future technology used to combat human disease and death.
Nanotechnology (Atomically Precise Manufacturing)
A computer that once used to fit an entire room now fits in the palm of our hands and is a billion times faster. This is due to precise microfabrication manufacturing techniques. Current electronic manufacturers build electronic circuits at a micrometer (1 millionth of a meter) scale and in turn assemble mobile computing devices such as thin tablets, and wearable electronics such as smart watches. As this trend continues we will eventually see nanofabricated devices (1 billionth of a meter) becoming more commonplace. Implementation of this new age manufacturing will see the development of nano-sized devices (ie: atom sized self assembling machines) and nano-particles / materials processed for a variety of applications (ie: cancer cell targeting drugs).
Robotics (Strong Artificial Intelligence)
I have stated in a past post that strong artificial intelligence (AI) could potentially the last invention we would ever need to make. Human intelligence is what (arguably) drives progress on Earth. We create knowledge and things to either help or (unintentionally) destroy the world. If we could somehow replicate our intelligence into inorganic hardware that does not sleep, eat, and computes a billion times faster than our biological machinery, intelligence on Earth could essentially also accelerate a billionth fold. This is our next major revolution and is the driving force of the Singularity. Currently, many respected computer scientists and engineers (ie: Andrew Ng, Geoffrey Hinton, Sebastian Thrun) are working on developing strong AI to help improve daily life. As research continues to advance, so will our dream of creating intelligence greater than man finally come to realization.
Human inventions from the the wheel, to the printing press, to the modern day smartphone has helped society to advance to its next era; the emergence of GNR continues this revolutionary trend. GNR is important for the general populace to know as development and ultimate refinement of these technologies will help solve a majority if not all of the world's problem such as global proverty, hunger, and fatal diseases. Below is a brief description of the topics I intend to elaborate in future posts:
Genetics
Genetics is considered to be one of the greatest discoveries in biological sciences. This discovery allowed us to find our base markup or coding of life. Genes, composed of RNA and DNA (strands of nucleotide pairs), contain the blueprints or sequences cells need to distinguish us from other organisms such as bananas or elephants. From genetics we derive disciplines such as genome sequencing, gene therapy, and genetic engineering. It is a broad subject to discuss, so I'll be focusing mostly on gene therapy as it applies to personalized medicine - an important future technology used to combat human disease and death.
(DNA strand)
A computer that once used to fit an entire room now fits in the palm of our hands and is a billion times faster. This is due to precise microfabrication manufacturing techniques. Current electronic manufacturers build electronic circuits at a micrometer (1 millionth of a meter) scale and in turn assemble mobile computing devices such as thin tablets, and wearable electronics such as smart watches. As this trend continues we will eventually see nanofabricated devices (1 billionth of a meter) becoming more commonplace. Implementation of this new age manufacturing will see the development of nano-sized devices (ie: atom sized self assembling machines) and nano-particles / materials processed for a variety of applications (ie: cancer cell targeting drugs).
(An optical table using femto lasers used to make nanofabricated metamaterials)
Robotics (Strong Artificial Intelligence)
I have stated in a past post that strong artificial intelligence (AI) could potentially the last invention we would ever need to make. Human intelligence is what (arguably) drives progress on Earth. We create knowledge and things to either help or (unintentionally) destroy the world. If we could somehow replicate our intelligence into inorganic hardware that does not sleep, eat, and computes a billion times faster than our biological machinery, intelligence on Earth could essentially also accelerate a billionth fold. This is our next major revolution and is the driving force of the Singularity. Currently, many respected computer scientists and engineers (ie: Andrew Ng, Geoffrey Hinton, Sebastian Thrun) are working on developing strong AI to help improve daily life. As research continues to advance, so will our dream of creating intelligence greater than man finally come to realization.
(IBM Watson - a modern day example of AI)
Comments
Post a Comment