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MIT Emerging Technologies Conference

Posted by michael on from the cocoonlike dept.

StoneLion writes "At Technology Review's Emerging Technologies Conference at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology this week, speakers in various disciplines provided fascinating glimpses of future technology, including exotica like hydrogen energy and smart dust. NewsForge has a conference report." Newsforge and Slashdot are both part of OSDN.

25 of 101 comments (clear)

  1. Resistance is futile by Brahmastra · · Score: 4, Insightful
    But the most interesting discussion came from Intel's David Tennenhouse. He noted that we've passed the one person, one computer milestone. The next wave will include networked embedded computers that give real-time information, enabling proactive computing that can anticipate our needs. Enabling technologies for that trend include physical control of biological and chemical elements; ubiquitous computing in the form of smart dust, RFID, and software radio; planetary-scale distributed systems (PlanetLab is one example); and new probabilistic methods of machine learning.

    We are Borg?
  2. Interesting quote from Dell by HanClinto · · Score: 5, Insightful
    I liked this one:

    To determine what businesses his company wants to be in, Dell looks for large markets where there are inefficiencies or high mark-ups. He looks for standards, because markets don't usually become high-volume until standards exist. Dell said standards benefit users, while proprietary hardware benefits only the company selling it.

    +4 insightful to Dell there.

    1. Re:Interesting quote from Dell by w.p.richardson · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Perfectly ties in with why Dell is going into the wireless biz to compete with Blackberry (RiM); Hardware benefits only the company selling it.

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      Curb CO2 emissions: Kill yourself today!

    2. Re:Interesting quote from Dell by b0r0din · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It's sort of ironic that Dell has any part in a conference on emerging technologies, because what Dell specializes in is supply infrastructure. They don't have nearly as many patents as IBM or HP but they are VERY VERY good at getting things to their customers and keeping their customers happy. In other words, they create extremely efficient processes and have outlasted other PCs because they understand the commodities market. Why Dell is considered a major player makes little sense.

      A better way to buy, sell, and trade your games.

    3. Re:Interesting quote from Dell by gricholson75 · · Score: 2, Informative

      Dell against proprietary hardware? Since when. I have a dead Presicion 220 in my office because it needs a proprietary power supply. The new desktops have a power supply that runs across the bottom of the case. Dell has used a lot of proprietary hardware.

    4. Re:Interesting quote from Dell by nullard · · Score: 2, Informative

      This is not a new trend. Dell has copied most of Apple's innovations since at least '99. They just copy the guys with the highest margins. Since the ones with the highest margins have them so that they can afford to develop interesing new technologies, Dell is just outsourcing its R&D and market research for free.

      A brief history.

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      t'nera semordnilap
    5. Re:Interesting quote from Dell by blackmonday · · Score: 2, Informative

      Obviously no one shares this vision in their printer-sales department. Dell's printers use propietary ink cartridges full of proprietary nonsense.

  3. conference presentations by stonebeat.org · · Score: 4, Interesting

    i wish the presentations from MIT Emerging Technologies Conference, LinuxWorld, and Apache be available on the internet for free. I can't go to all of them. i only have money to goto to ApacheCon :(

    Video taping them, and making them available on the internet or on a CD for a charge could be also beneficial. Just a thought.

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    Consensus is good, but informed dictatorship is better
  4. Smart dust by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Does this mean my appartment will become self aware ?

  5. Dell's business niche, and music service by pavon · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This caught my eye.

    Dell words of wisdom
    To determine what businesses his company wants to be in, Dell looks for large markets where there are inefficiencies or high mark-ups. He looks for standards, because markets don't usually become high-volume until standards exist. Dell said standards benefit users, while proprietary hardware benefits only the company selling it.

    Which is interesting in light of the anouncement of the music service, since the music industry is a glarring example of high mark ups.

  6. Why Dell as the Keynote? by MyNameIsFred · · Score: 4, Insightful

    While Dell is a successful company, I don't think of them when it comes to emerging technologies. As he said, "Dell looks for large markets where there are inefficiencies or high mark-ups..." This sounds like the stable, mature technologies. Wouldn't some company on the bleeding edge been a better choice?

  7. One I predict will be big by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    those specially designed surfaces that deflect all dirt, water, etc. When combined with paper display technolgy, you'll have a tactile user interface on any piece of paper or surface, and it won't even become dirty.

  8. Hydrogen? Er... by metroid+composite · · Score: 4, Insightful
    GM's Lawrence Burns gave a vision of technology in the auto industry. He envisions fuel cell propulsion, hydrogen fuel, and electronic and software systems replacing the internal combustion engine, petroleum fuel, and mechanical controls.

    Unfortunately, last time I checked Hydrogen just wasn't particularly practical. Why? It takes up too much space for one thing; unles you're going to use Liquid Hydrogen which takes a lot of energy to keep cool. Secondly how do you make the stuff? Electrolosis with water right? This is all based on articles I saw years ago, but I remember you needed roughly twice the electricity to make the Hydrogen than you get back when you run the car. That's fine if you're running on Hydroelectric dams, but what about all the cars in areas where they have coal or Nuclear Power Plants?

  9. I predict the pants of the future... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...will automatically alter themselves as fashion dictates (and waistlines demand)

  10. Recycled emerging technologies. by Animats · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Every one of those ideas was being talked up ten or more years ago. Fuel cells, large numbers of networked embedded computers, nanotech, and the hydrogen economy have all been around before. We need some new new ideas.

    Or we need to make some of the important older new ideas, like fusion power, work. We desperately need a new power source. If we don't get one, we're headed back to a coal economy.

    1. Re:Recycled emerging technologies. by bartlog · · Score: 2, Insightful

      ...Fuel cells, large numbers of networked embedded computers, nanotech, and the hydrogen economy have all been around before

      Nanotech has been around? What? The idea yes, actual implementation no. I am pessimistic about nanotech in the near term, but really, if it can be made to work you aren't going to need a lot of other new, new ideas.

      Or we need to make some of the important older new ideas, like fusion power, work.

      What does fusion power get you that a breeder reactor doesn't? You still have nuclear waste issues as a result of neutron emission. Even without (fission) breeder reactors, the thorium in the earth's crust would allow us to meet our energy needs through nuclear fission for some millenial span into the future - if we could deal with the environmental issues.

    2. Re:Recycled emerging technologies. by Animats · · Score: 2, Informative
      What does fusion power get you that a breeder reactor doesn't?

      Maybe a technology that works.

      Breeder reactors have a terrible track record. Graphite reactors and sodium-cooled reactors are both major fire hazards, and there have been major fires at both types of plant. Windscale and Chernoybl were both large graphite reactors, and both had major fires. Most large sodium-cooled reactors have been shut down, either after a major fire (Joyu A, Beloyarsk, Monju) or because of concerns about one (Kalkar, Superphenix).

      Even when not having fires, breeder reactors seem to have major downtime. Superphenix only had 174 days of full-power operation over a decade. Pressurized-water reactors routinely operate with over 90% uptime. The only big one still running is B-600 at Beloyarsk, built in 1980. It has a history of sodium fires and radiation leaks, despite massive attempts to prevent them.

    3. Re:Recycled emerging technologies. by Saeger · · Score: 2, Interesting
      I am pessimistic about nanotech in the near term

      Define "near term." Advances in the evolution of all kinds of technology will continue to progress at an exponential pace; so the long-term is closer to the near-term than you would think.

      but really, if it can be made to work you aren't going to need a lot of other new, new ideas.

      What do you mean "if it can be made to work?" Nature already does it, and "The principles of physics, as far as I can see, do not speak against the possibility of maneuvering things atom by atom." artificially.

      --

      --
      Power to the Peaceful
    4. Re:Recycled emerging technologies. by enkidu · · Score: 2, Informative
      Advances in the evolution of all kinds of technology will continue to progress at an exponential pace;

      You can measure "all technology" with a single variable (or each technology depending on how you parse your sentence)? Gimme a break. So, it's just a matter of time before we have more artificial memory capacity than there are atoms in the known universe? Kurzweil may be smart, but that doesn't mean everything he writes is correct or even reasonable. In some areas, he's a certifiable nut.

      What do you mean "if it can be made to work?" Nature already does it, and "The principles of physics, as far as I can see, do not speak against the possibility of maneuvering things atom by atom." artificially.

      But there are other principles than Physics involved. Organization and coordination being a big one (the big one in my opinion). How will nano-bots coordinate their activities? Radio waves? Too small. Chemicals? Too expensive and potentially complex. Tiny interconnects? Too fragile. How much memory/state can a theoretical nano-bot have? What messages will they need to coordinate? The organization and coordination of cells in nature (ie your body) is an insanely complex dance of chemical and biological triggers developed over billions of years of evolution. Duplicating something even remotely similar is a decidedly non-trivial task and one that has been neglected amongst all of the hype about the "comming age of nano-technology". Bah Humbug.

      --

      There is no trap so deadly as the trap you set for yourself
      -Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye
  11. GE's China and India competition? by cpopin · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Jeffrey Immelt, chairman of General Electric: "China and India will be strong international competitors, while the Internet levels the playing field for price."

    Part of leadership is personal. Immelt said, "People in the organization need to feel you're a part of their life, that they're a phone call away from the top of the company. They need to be able to trust the organization's command chain to pass information in an unfiltered way."

    As a former GE employee I can say GE is an innovator in outsourcing competition to China and India. I'd like to make a phone call to the top of the company: "Hey, could you please stop sending American jobs overseas?"

    The board will award Immelt 250,000 performance share units (PSUs) with a present value of $7.5 million -- 8.5% more than Immelt's 2002 salary and bonus.
    ...he already makes $6.9 million in bonuses and salary...
    Source: RatcliffeBlog

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    1. Re:GE's China and India competition? by Stiletto · · Score: 4, Insightful


      They are not American jobs. They are GE jobs.

  12. Re:15 months? by cK-Gunslinger · · Score: 3, Funny

    "Knock, Knock".

    "Excuse me, can you give me directions to the thread about the moon mission?"

    "Sure, it's one story back that-a-way!"

    =)

  13. Re:Hydrogen? Er... by BiggerIsBetter · · Score: 2, Interesting

    OK... you can store hydrogen densly in metal matrix form, IIRC. I think you have to heat the matrix to release it, but it's been ages since I looked at it. You may not need to "get back" the electricity if you burn it as a fuel, eg BMW's H2 powered 7-series of many years ago. There's plenty of other way s to generate power too, solar, wind, and wave come to mind.

    --
    Forget thrust, drag, lift and weight. Airplanes fly because of money.
  14. Pictures here by xyote · · Score: 3, Interesting

    here under Photo Gallery. I'll let you pass your own judgement.

  15. Re:Hydrogen? Er... by the_2nd_coming · · Score: 2, Interesting

    you are WAY behind the times.

    the point of hydrogen is not a source of energy, but a place to store energy. so we make hydrogen by electrolosys at some huge nuclear facility. then we can turn that huge energy source into a portable energy source. we can make it even more practicle by making a metalic hydride, then just pump the hydride dust into your tank and boom, you have power.

    another alternative to hydrogen would be the use of fast growing plants to create ethanol and then use the enthanol in the fuel cells. the net carbon placed into the atmosphear this way would be 0 since the plants need it to grow each season any way.

    I personaly like the latter option, but we need to find a way to make a ton of ethanol with out impacting on the land a whole lot. hydroponics mabye?

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    I am the Alpha and the Omega-3