MemeBox FutureBlogger

Energy independence will take commitment like space race

futuretalk — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 00:05:17 +0000

By Dick Pelletier

Energy is the life-blood of America – it affects our economy, standard of living and national security. And our prime current energy source – oil – is a product we can no longer afford.

High gas prices, air pollution, and global warming are part of the problem, but more important are the tensions brought about with countries that supply this non-renewable energy. For decades, these tensions have directly or indirectly been at the root of most global conflicts.

In a “Wired Magazine” article, Peter Schwartz and Doug Randall say concerns about oil supply are indirectly responsible for our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and have caused strained relationships with our allies. And clashes with the Muslim world, mired in oil interests, finally brought the unthinkable to our shores – the “9-11” World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks.

Schwartz and Randall believe there’s only one way to insulate the U.S. from oil’s corrosive power. “We must develop an alternative energy,” they say. “Hydrogen stores energy more effectively than batteries, burns twice as efficiently in a fuel cell as gasoline does in an internal combustion engine, and leaves only water. It’s plentiful, clean, and capable of powering cars, homes and factories.”

Today’s energy situation is reminiscent of Soviet cold war times. In 1957, Russia launched the first satellite into space, and in 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first human in orbit. Afraid Soviet space domination would make our country unable to defend itself, President Kennedy announced Apollo, a 10-year, $100 billion program (in today’s dollars) to land a man on the moon. Eight years later, Neil Armstrong made his “giant step for mankind” and America quickly regained world leadership.

Schwartz and Randall believe we face a similar threat today from foreign oil dependency. “As President Kennedy responded to Soviet space superiority,” they said, “Our next president must respond to foreign oil by making energy independence a national priority to be achieved within 10 years.”

Category: Energy
Year: General
Tags: america, unitedstates, us, energy, energydependence, energyindependence, alternativeenergy

Voice-enabled ID chips will soon make our lives more efficient

futuretalk — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 13:13:10 +0000

By Dick Pelletier

You enter the supermarket, grab an electronic cart that recognizes you from your touch, toss in some bags and begin shopping. The monitor on your ‘smart cart’ displays products, price, and total amount spent; and even subtracts items returned to the shelf.

As you wind through the aisles, the cart’s voice recognizes products you’re running low on, and offers special discounts just for you. When finished shopping, simply tap a ‘chipped’ finger indicating payment preference and walk out the door – no more lines or grocery clerks to deal with. On exit, select an option to deactivate or encrypt all chips, which protects your privacy by preventing evildoers from tracking you or your merchandise.

After putting items away at home, the milk might say, “I expire in nine days, would you like a 24-hour reminder”, or the hat you purchased may say, “Hey Dick, why not wear me now, you know how great I make you look”.

By 2012, experts believe the above scenarios could be happening at stores everywhere.

Milwaukee futurist David Zach agrees that voice-enabled chips will increase efficiency. Clothes could remark, “Don’t wash me with colors”; cars may cry out, “I need oil”, and a glass might tell the bartender, “he’s had enough”.

Wearable computer maker Vocollect believes their voice-enabled machines can team up with RFID (Radio Frequency ID) chips used to identify items, and create an enormous array of exciting applications.

Category: Other
Year: General
Tags: pelletier, dickpelletier, id, rfid, chip, chips, idchip

Brain-machine interface connects disabled to computers

futuretalk — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 02:14:10 +0000

By Dick Pelletier

Cyberkinetics of Foxborough Massachusetts has begun FDA-approved clinical trials with BrainGate, a device that enables paralyzed people to control computers directly with their brains – and eventually could help them regain complete mobility.

Most handicapped people are satisfied if they can get a rudimentary connection to the outside world. BrainGate enables them to achieve far more than that. By controlling the computer cursor, patients can access Internet information, TV entertainment, and control lights and appliances – with just their thoughts.

And as this amazing technology advances, researchers believe it could enable brain signals to bypass damaged nerve tissues and restore mobility to paralyzed limbs. “The goal of BrainGate is to develop a fast, reliable, and unobtrusive connection between the brain of a severely disabled person and a personal computer” said Cyberkinetics President Tim Surgenor.

BrainGate may sound like science fiction, but its not. The device is smaller than a dime and contains 100 wires thinner than human hairs which connect with the portion of the brain that controls motor activity. The wires detect when neurons are fired and sends those signals through a tiny connector mounted on the skull to a computer.

Implanted into the brains of five handicapped patients, the device is already showing great promise. A 25-year-old quadriplegic has successfully been able to switch on lights, adjust the volume on a TV, change channels, and read e-mail using only his thoughts. And he was able to do these tasks while carrying on a conversation and moving his head at the same time.

Category: Other
Year: General
Tags: telekinesis, brainmachine, interface, thoughtcontrol, mindcontrol

Nanotech wonders hyped at Wash. DC conference

futuretalk — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 20:33:00 +0000

By Dick Pelletier

At the First Conference on Advanced Nanotechnology held in Washington DC, researchers discussed the possibilities expected of this new wonder science, including glittering visions of abundance and long, healthy life spans.

Within 20 years, a small Star Trek-like replicator called a “nanofactory” could sit on your kitchen counter and let you order up any product you want – food, clothing, appliances, or whatever your dreams desire – at little or no cost.

Nanofactories work by collecting atoms from something as inexpensive as dirt or seawater, and using software downloaded from the Internet, directs those atoms to “grow” into the final product. A nanofactory can even “grow” another nanofactory.

This wild technology sounds like science fiction, but its not. Foresight Institute sociologist Bryan Bruns said nanotech will provide solutions for some 2.7 billion people now living on less than $2 per day, and eliminate poverty worldwide.

Bruns envisions a “2025 Whole Earth Catalog” which would offer economic water filtration systems that purify 100,000 gallons of water a day; inexpensive solar roofing panels that come in rolls like Saran Wrap; powerful inexpensive computers that fit inside eyeglass frames; and suitcase-size nanoclinics with a full range of diagnostics and treatments.

“Turn trash into treasure”, could become the slogan of the 2020s. Nanorefineries will break down unwanted consumer items, sewage sludge, and other waste materials, and re-build them into food, clothing, or household items.

Institute for Molecular Manufacturing’s Robert Freitas added, “not only will nanotech provide us with a lot of cool stuff and eliminate global poverty; it will also help us live a really long time”. Freitas predicted by 2015, nanoproducts will diagnose illnesses and destroy cancer cells – and by mid-2020s, tiny cell-repair mechanisms will roam through our bodies keeping us strong, youthful, and forever healthy.

Category: Technology
Year: General
Tags: pelletier, dickpelletier, futuretalk, positive, positivefuturist, positivefuturistcom, nano, nanotech, nanotechnology

From a struggling past to a glowing future

futuretalk — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 20:24:47 +0000

By Dick Pelletier

By some fortuitous circumstance I was born on October 26, 1930, the day the government announced that world population had exceeded two billion people, so I figure that was me.

In the early 1930s, President Hoover announced that “Prosperity is just around the corner,” but he could not have been more wrong. One-eighth of the population owned seven-eighths of the nation’s wealth – a formula for disaster – and the “Great Depression” was on.

My five siblings and I were raised on a farm near Hermiston, Oregon. Our home had no electricity and few modern conveniences. We bathed in a small tub in the kitchen with little privacy, drank water from a hand pump in the back yard, and made bathroom trips to a two-seater outhouse.

In 1938 we finally connected to the electric grid and quickly replaced the outhouse with an indoor toilet, installed electric lights throughout the house, and built an indoor shower. Then in 1939, another miracle arrived – our first telephone was installed. The world was looking better.

Jet travel didn’t exist in the 1930s; a five-day ocean trip was the main way to go from America to Europe, and wireless meant the wood-paneled Zenith radio in the living room.

But America’s mastery of the physical and biological world would grow tremendously. Life expectancy soared from about 50 years in 1930 to nearly 80 today, and the Green Revolution transformed agriculture, which now provides food for a world population that exceeds 6.5 billion.

In late 1930s, President Roosevelt, emboldened by his “New Deal” legislation which ended the depression, authorized the “Manhattan Project”, an aggressive effort to build an atomic bomb and use it to hasten the end of World War II.

Category: Other
Year: General

New hyperspace engine could roundtrip Mars in 5 hours

futuretalk — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 04:52:05 +0000

By Dick Pelletier

“Welcome ladies and gentlemen to the Mars Inter-Dimensional Express. In a few moments, our spacecraft will transfer into a parallel dimension where we will achieve greater than light-speed travel. As we get underway, be sure to glance out your window and watch the solar system flash by at dizzying speeds, truly, the most breathtaking views you will ever observe. Our expected arrival at Branson Colony is noon Martian time.”

This scenario may sound like fantasy, but physicists, encouraged by recent interest in the work of German scientist Burkhard Heim, believe his hyperspace propulsion idea could become a proven concept over the next two decades. Heim’s theory adds two forces to Einstein’s four-dimensional space-time: one, a repulsive anti-gravity force similar to dark energy that appears to expand the universe; the other force would accelerate spacecraft without using any fuel.

If the Heim idea works, it will radically change space travel. Forget spending six months or more crammed in a rocket on the way to Mars, a round trip on the hyperdrive could take as little as five hours. Worries about astronauts’ muscles wasting away will disappear. What’s more, the device will put travel to the stars within reach for the first time.

The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics awards prizes for the best papers presented each year. Last year’s winner went to a paper authored by physicist Jochem Hauser, calling for experimental tests of Heim’s theory. “This hyperdrive motor,” Hauser said, “would propel a craft through another dimension at enormous speeds. It could reach a star eleven light years away in just eighty days.”

Category: Space
Year: General
Tags: mars, hyperspace, spacetravel, space

Gene discovery could cure human diseases

futuretalk — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 13:22:44 +0000

By Dick Pelletier

Mapping the human genome was a great accomplishment, but genes are little more than a list of chemicals – much like a parts list for a jumbo jet. The list isn’t much good unless you know what each part does and how it fits with other parts. Scientists are just now beginning to understand these inter-workings with our genes – how they keep our bodies young and fit, or allow aging and sickness to take over.

Recently, scientists at MIT’s Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research have, for the first time, revealed the “controlling elements” of the yeast genome – findings that can immediately be used towards deciphering the human genome.

The key to understanding how genes are controlled lies in tiny bits of chemicals called regulators that intermittently land on a region of DNA and switch that cell’s genes on or off. This switching responds to temperature changes in the body, availability of certain nutrients, and outside chemical messengers. If switched the wrong way, genes can make diabetes, cancer, and other debilitating diseases begin their horrifying trip – if switched the right way, they protect us.

To date, very few regulators have been identified. Locating their landing sites is essential to identifying their function, and therein lays the rub – gene regulators are hard to find. They typically just land on a small stretch of DNA, do their job, and then take off again. And owing to the vastness of the genome, locating just one gene regulator with conventional lab tools can take many years.

But the MIT team developed a method for scanning an entire genome and quickly identifying the precise landing sites for its gene regulators. As a result, scientists now understand how genes and their regulators “talk” to each other. The next challenge is to scale the platform so it can tackle the human genome, something that the researchers are gearing up to do now.

Category: Health & Medicine
Year: General

Our future brain: damage-resistant with unique new abilities

futuretalk — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 05:10:30 +0000

By Dick Pelletier

Neurons made from exotic nanomaterials could one day enable humans to survive even the most horrendous accident, and as a bonus, provide amazing new capabilities.

Nanoengineer John Burch, co-designer of the nanofactory video, Productive Nanosystems from Molecules to Superproducts, predicts that by mid-2030s, we could be replacing brain cells with damage-resistant nanomaterials that process thoughts much faster than today’s biological brains.

“The new brain would include our same consciousness, memories and personality that existed before the conversion,” Burch says, “but it would run much faster and would increase our memory a thousand-fold.”

In addition, others experts say, this futuristic brain will allow us to control the speed of our thoughts; we could jump from 100 milliseconds, the response time of today’s brains, to 50 nanoseconds, millions of times faster.

Creating thoughts at this speed would, in our mind at least, slow everything down. Our perception would speed up, but activities would appear to slow down as our brain ran faster. Events that seem like minutes would actually be happening in seconds.

Burch describes how we would switch to the new brain. A daily pill would supply nanomaterials and instructions for nanobots to format new neurons and position them next to existing biological brain cells to be replaced. These changes would be unnoticeable to us, but within six months, we would be enjoying our new brain.

The new brain will allow wireless interface with computers and other digital technologies. We could access the Internet, control electronics, and make phone calls, with just our thoughts. Or we could understand complicated subjects – even speak a new language – without need for study.

Category: Other
Year: General

Most jobs could be lost to automation in near future

futuretalk — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 19:07:54 +0000

By Dick Pelletier

Although it may sound puzzling, there is a logical reason for the economy to maintain a respectable national GDP, even though unemployment is on the rise – businesses are becoming more profitable by installing robotic and other automation equipment which performs work that eliminates many jobs.

The first automation systems that replaced jobs in a big way arrived about 30 years ago, when gas stations began using new electronic pumps that enabled drivers to dispense their own gas. Employees were no longer needed to “fill her up” and wash the windows. Those jobs had just been “outsourced” to the customer.

More customer-outsourcing was soon to follow. People began using the Internet to access account information from their banks, credit card companies, department stores, and other businesses. Thousands of customer service jobs were now “outsourced” to the customer. Unemployment was on the rise.

Although there are a multitude of nice grocery stores in Las Vegas, I shop mostly at Smith’s and Albertsons. Why? Well sure, they have an adequate selection and decent prices, but the main reason I prefer these stores is self-checkout. After gathering my groceries, I head to one of the self-checkout machines, which are almost always empty, and scan and punch my way quickly out the door. Several cashiers have been eliminated.

The next big wave of automation promises to come from radio frequency identification tags. RFID tags will soon be used in most stores at point-of-sale checkout replacing all cashiers. Sensors detect purchases and automatically charge your ATM or credit card – or direct you to a cash machine. Customers save time and merchants expand their price competitiveness by eliminating more employees.

Wall-Mart, Target, The Home Depot, Kroger, Safeway, and most other stores are expected to jump on the RFID bandwagon in the next decade.

Category: Other
Year: General

Avatars will soon be everywhere

futuretalk — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 03:53:23 +0000

By Dick Pelletier

Throw away the mouse and keyboard. New technologies are about to provide us with personal avatars – computerized images of our choice – connected to the Internet, and displayed on wall-size screens. Avatars will understand us, listen to our demands, and anticipate our needs.

Most people think interactive systems like these are a long ways off, but two trends are quickening the pace. Improved speech-recognition systems will soon enable people to converse with computers in normal-spoken English, and entrepreneurs are flooding to the Internet creating new business applications that take advantage of speech recognition.

IBM and Microsoft expect to soon eliminate all of the errors in today’s speech recognition software, and create systems that will mimic human speech perfectly without flaws. The MIT Project Oxygen new voice-machine interface can look you in the eye, let you ask questions in casual English, and answer them. Close your eyes and you think you’re talking with a human.

Microsoft chairman Bill Gates claims that by 2012, voice-enabled “smart” systems will allow us to converse naturally and comfortably, directly to flat panel displays. On command, our personal avatar will appear on the display. She (or he) will help us shop, work, learn, and conduct business and social relationships on the Internet. Computers will disappear and become part of the display.

Amtrak, Wells Fargo, and Land’s End are taking advantage of these new systems. They plan to replace keypad-menu call centers with speech-recognition systems to save money and improve customer relations. General Motors OnStar and Lexus DVD Nav systems are adding more than 1 million new subscribers each year. Analysts believe most businesses will convert to automatic speech systems as the technology matures.

Category: Communication
Year: General
Tags: avatars, microsoft, billgates

Robots: are we planting the seeds of our next evolutionary step?

futuretalk — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 14:43:23 +0000

By Dick Pelletier

While some scientists see danger with tomorrow’s super-intelligent robots, others say not to worry – our destiny is secure.

For years, entrepreneurs have been trying to create robots to perform life’s physical drudgeries. Building mechanical bodies has been easy, but creating artificial minds to control those bodies has been frustrating.

After countless commercial failures, things are beginning to change. Computer power has increased to 1,000 million impressions per second (MIPS), which provides enough thinking ability for today’s robots to become financially viable.

Lawrence Livermore National Labs robots will soon handle nuclear and hazardous waste. NASA Rovers explore Mars and send pictures back to us.

Sales of “Roomba” and “Karcher” robot vacuum cleaners are beating expectations. Thousands of Sony AIBO robot pets have sold for more than $1,000 each. Robots are now becoming main stream.

Research Professor Hans Moravec at Carnegie Mellon University says future robot development can be divided into four generations:

2010 – First generation robot will: pick up clutter; store; retrieve and deliver; take inventory; guard homes; open doors; mow lawns; and play games. Compare its 5,000 MIPS brain to a lizard.

2020 – Second generation robot will think before it acts and respond to dog-like training. “Good robot,” “bad robot.” Compare its 300,000 MIPS brain to a mouse.

2030 – Third generation robot will understand human moods. It knows if you are happy, angry, in a hurry, or tired. It handles limited conversations. Compare its 10 million MIPS brain to a monkey.

Category: Technology
Year: General

Changes to expect by 2020

futuretalk — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 17:28:27 +0000

By Dick Pelletier

As our 21st century unfolds, revolutionary changes will appear at mind-boggling speeds. Most of these changes will be driven by major happenings – increases in computing speed, mapping the human genome, and nanotechnology development.

By 2020, computer power will have doubled several times, which will help researchers unravel many of our genetic mysteries – and nanotechnology, the science of building things atom by atom, will provide us with a host of new miracles making our lives more pleasurable.

Things that will change by 2020

• Cancer and heart disease deaths are expected to diminish or disappear completely according to the National Institutes of Health.

• Organ transplants won’t be needed. Doctors will grow new organs from a patient’s own tissues.

• Coronary bypass procedures will be passé as doctors use gene therapies to grow new blood vessels to replace those that are blocked.

• False teeth will be replaced by stem cell therapies that grow natural teeth. Clinical trials of this new procedure are underway in Europe now.

• Your signature on a legal document will be considered quaint because of biometric Identification – iris, facial print, and voice-recognition. You become your own secure ID.

• Film scores played by real orchestras will be replaced with computer-synthesized music.

• Nearly all movie stunt doubles will be replaced by computer-animation.

• Getting lost will be nearly impossible with GPS chips in cell-phones and watches – and implanted under the skin on children and older people.

Category: Other
Year: General

Civilization: from crude beginnings to a promising future

futuretalk — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 17:07:48 +0000

By Dick Pelletier

Humanity is facing what many see as the most important decision in its history – to move from nonrenewable fossil fuels as the primary source of energy to renewable sources that could, some believe, allow us to achieve Type 1 Civilization status.

In 1964, astronomer Nikolai Kardashev devised a method to categorize future civilizations based on energy consumption. Type-1 utilizes all solar energy striking its planet, Type-2 controls all the energy in its solar system; and Type-3 harnesses power from every star in its galaxy.

Today, physicists rate Earth at Type-0.7. In The Runaway Universe, astronomer Don Goldsmith reminds us that we receive only one billionth of the suns energy, and we utilize just one millionth of that; but with nanotech advances expected by mid-century, experts predict we could reach Type-1 by 2100.

In order to see a clearer picture of how we might advance in the future, Kardashev-type ratings have been assigned to past evolutionary events. We begin at the dawn of humanity:

400,000-to-250,000 years ago; Type-0.0 – Wikipedia identifies this period as the time when Homo sapiens split from the great apes and evolved as modern humans in Africa.

150,000 years ago; Type-0.1 – In Cooking and Cognition: How Humans Got So Smart evolutionary anthropologist Philipp Khaitovich explains how emergence of the hearth allowed humans to eat cooked food for the first time. This increased caloric intake enabling us to send more power to our brains, which resulted in huge intelligence boosts. Human brains require 20 percent of our calories, while other vertebrate brains use only 2 percent of their caloric intake.

100,000 years ago; Type-0.2 – A Sumatra volcano eruption caused a 1,400-yr freeze which nearly drove humans extinct, reducing populations to under 10,000. This prompted cooperation between tribes. Illinois anthropologist Stanley Ambrose calls this the “troop-to-tribe transition.”

Category: Other
Year: General

Future entertainment becomes simulated reality

futuretalk — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 23:20:35 +0000

By Dick Pelletier

As the 21st century unfolds, genetic engineering, nanotechnology, and robotics will change our lives in many ways. We will enjoy better health, a longer lifespan, and new conveniences. But these developments pale in comparison to simulated reality systems projected for future entertainment.

Psychologists list our most enjoyable recreation activities as: visiting family and friends, watching TV, browsing the Internet, playing video games, making phone calls, shopping, eating out, and catching a flick.

U.S. Census reports 98% of American families own 2.4 TV sets per home and watch 32 hours of TV each week. 75% access the Internet from home, and nearly everyone uses the telephone.

Sales drive this multi-billion dollar entertainment industry. Consumer Electronics Association projects more than 18 million TV sets will be sold this year. New models are larger and thinner; some with fancy features such as live-show pause and smart program selection.

Experts believe future entertainment systems will satisfy much more of our recreational needs. In his web article, “Views of the Future,” British Telecom futurologist Ian Pearson predicts by:

2015 – TV, computer, and phone converge into a wall-size, interactive, 3D screen, delivering entertainment and information tailored to our wishes. When idle, it displays beach, forest, or other scenes so real, we think we are there.

2020 – Nano-size electronics inside “active contact lenses” receives TV, video games, Internet, and phone calls; and displays images directly onto the retina. Tune program with pocket keyboard initially; later with thought control. Watch TV; browse the web, or video-phone a friend; all with eyes open or closed.

Category: Entertainment
Year: General

Life in the 2020s - nanotech miracles are everywhere

futuretalk — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 11:15:17 +0000

By Dick Pelletier

Futurist Ray Kurzweil, in his recent book, Fantastic Voyage, dubs the 2020s as “the golden age of nanotech”. Nanotech first gained worldwide attention in 1986 with Eric Drexler’s book, Engines of Creation, which detailed amazing wonders to come that would change humanity beyond our wildest dreams.

At the heart of Drexler’s vision is a small machine called an assembler, which, when loaded with nanobots, can build things one atom at a time. With instructions from the Internet, assemblers can extract atoms from raw materials such as dirt, air, and seawater and turn them into food, clothes, and appliances; or any item desired. They can even build another assembler.

Some companies are already creating nano-enhanced products, such as makeup, lotions, and sunscreens, which last longer and look better. But Drexler says by the 2020s, nanobots will do much more. On command they can change hair and skin color, and remove wrinkles and excess fat. Future nanobots will give us great health in a perfect body.

Already in design are nanobots that repair cells, fix damaged DNA, remove toxins, eliminate cholesterol, stop cancer, and reverse aging. You could even mix and match your age: distinguished hairline of a senior, sturdy frame of a thirty-year-old, lusty libido of a twenty something, and sharp eyesight of a child.

In the entertainment world, nanobots promise full immersion of virtual reality systems. By mid-2020s, “neuro-bots” will provide artificial environments indistinguishable from real ones. Enjoy a trip to Mars or a memorable romance – without leaving home.

Scientists predict by the late 2020s, nanobots will enable optic nerves to receive and send information. We will view and understand TV without using our eyes – and transmit thoughts without using our voice.

Category: Technology
Year: General

Scientists debate human future: biotech vs. nanotech

futuretalk — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 17:13:15 +0000

By Dick Pelletier

Biotech – Driven by baby-boomers’ quest for better health and longer life is making headlines with stem cell research and other advances. National Cancer Institute director Dr. Andrew C. von Eschenbach recently declared, because of biotech, “By 2015, nobody will die of cancer – it won’t be cured by that time, but drugs will be available to prevent the pain, sickness and death that cancer now dishes out.”

Nanotech – By building things one atom at a time, this amazing technology promises “super bodies” that never age, get sick, or die; with vast amounts of intelligence downloaded to our brain.

At a recent Foresight Institute seminar in Palo Alto, CA, Gregory Stock and Ray Kurzweil participated in the “Debate of the Decade: Bio Future or Machine Future?”

Stock, UCLA professor and author of “Redesigning Humans: Our Inevitable Genetic Future” faced off against Kurzweil, entrepreneur and author of “The Age of Spiritual Machines: How We Will Live and Think in the New Age of Intelligent Machines”.

Stock began by challenging Kurzweil’s rapid timetable for turning humanity into cyborgs, which Kurzweil sees happening within a few decades. “Biological enhancement sounds stodgy compared to some of the things talked about by Ray,” Stock said. “But I don’t think migration to a non-organic body will happen any time soon.”

Stock believes biotech advances, already underway, will soon give us a body free from sickness and disease with an extended lifespan of 150 years.

Category: Other
Year: General

Experts believe death could be conquered by the 2040s

futuretalk — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 15:43:51 +0000

By Dick Pelletier

The funny thing about life is that so far, nobody has managed to get out of it alive. Even with healthy diets; a lifelong commitment to exercise; the most powerful nutrients money can buy; and the best positive attitude imaginable, it sadly seems everyone is doomed to die sometime.

However, forward-thinkers believe that biotech and nanotech revolutions expected over the next three decades, will change this age-old thinking about life and death; even challenge our traditional views on what it means to be human.

Cutting-edge science and technologies, experts say, will one day provide everyone with radically increased intelligence, futuristic healthcare that prevents sickness and disease from ever happening, and a lifespan approaching immortality.

We begin our trek into this positive future with The Federal Initiative for Regenerative Medicine, an aggressive biotech program that promises to provide tissues and organs “on demand” for every American by 2020, regardless of ability to pay. With replaceable tissues and organs available, doctors will easily prevent deaths from cancer, heart disease, and many other human ailments.

In the following decade, 2020-2030, we will radically upgrade many physical and mental systems using advanced nanotech to replace frail biological parts with powerful non-biological components.

UCLA’s Robert Freitas believes nanotech will provide us with “respirocytes”, tiny robotic blood cells that can store extra oxygen. During a heart attack, these clever ‘bots would keep patients alive for hours until medical care arrived, preventing tissue damage and death.

Category: Other
Year: General

Our quantum world promises a future filled with miracles

futuretalk — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 12:58:10 +0000

By Dick Pelletier

In the last two decades, advances in computing technology, from processing speed to network capacity and the Internet, have revolutionized our lives. From sequencing genomes to monitoring the climate, many scientific advances would have been impossible without an increase in computing power.

Now with quantum computers built from carbon nanotubes and superconductors about to harness atoms and molecules to calculate billions of times faster than silicon-based computers, scientists predict even more amazing advances ahead.

Within twenty years experts say, we will have access to something approaching all information all the time. Our lives, much longer by then because of the quantum impact on healthcare, will be improved in many ways from today.

Already much software and data is moving to the Internet. Photos, music, applications like Microsoft Word (which formatted this article), and many other things we use a computer for will be accessible anytime, anywhere.

In a Fortune Magazine article, Peter Schwartz and Rita Koselka describe a quantum computer world that includes reducing our communication systems – cellphone, computer, TV, and radio – to chips on a thin headband that can transmit information between the Internet and our brain; and to other headbands.

UVA researcher Stuart Wolf anticipates that in 20 years, instead of cellphone conversations we will have “network-enabled telepathy;” we will ‘speak’ directly to another person’s headband from anywhere in the world using just our thoughts.

Category: Communication
Year: General

Longer, more exciting life ahead for everyone

futuretalk — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 15:00:51 +0000

By Dick Pelletier

We often think nostalgically of our past as the “good old days,” but projected scientific and technological breakthroughs suggest the greatest and most exciting times are actually yet to come. Today, breakthroughs rush at us with amazing speeds and the golden ages of biotech, 2010-2020, and nanotech, 2020-2035, promise huge advances in health, entertainment and wealth.

Revolutionary biologist Leroy Hood predicts that in the next decade, we will understand individual genetic predispositions for most sicknesses, and develop powerful tools for preventing them. “We’ll move from a mode of medicine that’s largely reactive to one that’s predictive and preventive,” he says.

Experts believe that by 2025, nanobots swarming through our bodies will stave off most sicknesses and zap viruses before we even start to sniffle. By 2030, all diseases, including aging, will be manageable. And as we gain greater health and energy, we will become more actively involved with entertainment technologies.

Microsoft’s Bill Gates says TVs and computers are finally converging into a single media. By 2015, nearly every movie, TV drama and sit-com ever produced will be available from the Internet to your home, and voice-activation will make selecting programs as simple as talking to your screen.

Games will become more entertaining too with expected speeds of over 10,000 GHz. But no matter how far technology advances, certain aspects of gaming will remain constant. Marksmanship, speed thrills, and strategies will improve, but plots and characters of today’s role players, along with elements that charm the heart will remain pretty much the same as today.

Unlike today’s games that stimulate only sight, hearing, and touch, 2015 games will add taste and smell, creating more realism. As TVs continue to advance, flat screens will morph into holographic displays with characters seeming to hop into the room.

Category: Other
Year: General
Tags: pelletier, dickpelletier, magicalfuture, futuretalk, positivefuturist, futurism

Earth 2050 - powerful bodies, minds; exciting opportunities

futuretalk — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 05:28:07 +0000

By Dick Pelletier

What will our world be like in 2050? Nobody can predict for sure, but by projecting present-day knowledge, we can make plausible guesses how our planet might evolve and what life will be like in 42 years. We begin our trip by focusing on science breakthroughs that changed our world and offered new insights into what it means to be human.

Earlier in this century, encouraged by healthcare moving from reactive to proactive and the huge rush of data-basing information, scientists quickly unraveled the mysteries of the 100,000 or so proteins produced by our genes. Proteins are the microscopic workhorses behind everything we do – from sweating to thinking.

By 2030, breakthroughs in stem cell research, gene therapy, and nano cell-repair machines enabled the reversal of damages caused by aging. Shortly after that, every human disease became manageable.

By 2040, indefinite lifespan was finally realized when advanced neural research enabled nanobots to continuously scan minds and transmit all our life moments into a storage facility, ready for instant transfer to a new body should disaster strike. No human has suffered an unwanted death in the past 10 years.

Two planet-shaking events occurred in the 2030s that fast tracked evolution: quantum computing, which allows complex simulations of future events, and the Singularity, which describes the point when machine intelligence outpaced human thinking, and also gave our “silicon cousins” the ability to re-produce their robotic bodies, adding increased intelligence to each new generation.

Category: Other
Year: General