Slashdot Mirror
Nano Body Building
Roland Piquepaille writes "In this article from Backbone Magazine, Douglas Mulhall, author of 'Our Molecular Future' tells us about the future of nanomedicine. He thinks that medical diagnosis will be the first successful steps, involving nanorobots which will raise alerts when they detect pre-cancerous cells. And twenty years from now, researchers envision that nanomedicine will be a trillion dollar industry. Around 2025, you'll pay $1,000 a year for a nanopill that will extend your life by suppressing heart attacks, diabetes and other diseases. Other scientists say that nanotechnology will be used to build synthetic bone and tissue, an opinion shared by Scientific American, which warns that growing replacement organs is still at least another 10 to 20 years in front of us. More details and references are available in this overview focused on how nanomedicine is going to totally take over healthcare in the 21st century. [Additional note: Slashdot described Mulhall's Law of Disassembly last February.]"
Aren't people forgetting the social problems? Its like what the mathmatician said in Jurrasic Park: "They were so busy trying to see if they could, they didn't stop and think if they should" (or something to that effect). So if we have a generation (or two) of people living longer, what happens to Social Security? Or housing? Or land prices? Or the environment? Or heck lots and lots of other very limited resources! Would I take one of these pills if it was offered to me for $1k? Damn straight I would, but there are so many issues that I shudder at the effects this will have ~100 years down the road.
Right now I am eating pizza. I don't exercise enough and I am too fat, and at this rate I will die of heart disease by about age 38. I'm also drinking coke.
So if in the future I could eat anything I wanted, never exercise, and still have perfect nutrition and physique... what will become of the world?
A bunch of really hot, lazy, horny, well fed people having a good time? Sounds like heaven...
Spoon not. Fork, or fork not. There is no spoon.
Reminds me of Asimov's writings, where the first wave of space colonization eventually fails (among other reasons) because people live hundreds of years.
The Raven
How long till we have Johnny Mnemonic-esque super corporations playing profits and dividends with life and death? Not that the current ones are much better, but if they could have control over your 'medicine' after you ate it, imagine the extortion possibilities. Get ready to bend over and take the corporate suppository.
Banaaaana!
In other news, a similar pill allowing for massive increases in strength and muscle mass via constant electric stimulation was banned for use in most public sporting events, though several athletes have been caught in a massive sting operation. However, due to newly-released self-destructive nanobots contained in the pill, it has become very difficult to track the use of such mechanisms.
Seriously, while the potential benefits from such technology will, in my opinion, greatly outweigh the dangers... I can see the potential for some pretty heavy "fairness" implications coming up. We'll see...
Seriously, with all of todays modern medicine, the best we can come up with is Minoxidil which speeds regrowth and Propecia which inhibits DHT. And you need to keep paying for these or your hair goes bye bye, not to mention if its Minox dependant, you lose all the hair you regrew with the Minox when you stop.
I can't wait till serious science deals away with these monthy costs and gives me a one time cure for hairloss. I don't care if it is a couple thousand dollars, because in the long run, that is worth not having to apply topicals/take pills and constantly worry whether or not they're working.
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
Our intelligent designer has never created an animal that we couldn't improve by strapping a bomb to it.
back in the 50's people thought we'd have flying cars by now!
:) )
That sure does come up a lot. The fact is there is one. It's pointed out here all the time, that Moller skycar. The barrier for everyone having a flying car is not the technology, it's the practicality. Air traffic control is already a difficult thing to keep in check. That's with proffesional pilots and proffesional upkeep on the vehicles. The public just isn't clamouring for flying cars. Medicine is a whole other animal. People are dying to get their hands on life lengthening medicine. (Bad pun, sorry.
Ansi's and stupid tricks!
Still, I hope they're right. I'm 40 now, and if I start taking better care of myself, I might actually make it to 2025.
My biggest health problem has been obesity, and I've managed to lose about 65 pounds since September 2003 on a low-carb diet. I've still got at least 50 lbs. to go, or 85 lbs. according to my doctor. He says for my height (6'0") I should weigh 185, but I weighed more than that when I was in high school and was in good condition.
Anyhow, if I can get down to a reasonable weight, and keep the pounds off, I think I'll have a much better chance of living long enough to take advantage of these nanotech advances.
A bunch of really hot, lazy, horny, well fed people have a good time? Sounds like heaven...
Compared to the mass of people in, say, the 17th century, we already are all of those things!
Hot: regular bathing and clean clothes every day
Lazy: I don't have to work 12 hours a day 6.5 days a week just wresting my food from the earth
Horny: Not sure about that compared to 300 years ago, but it seems like people have a lot more resources for sex now that their food, clothing, and shelter are much easier to provide
Well Fed: Pretty obvious
Having a good time: This is more subtle, I'd say most people in developed countries have lots more opportunity to pursue a good time; whether they actually succeed or not is up to them
The big problem with anything in the future that makes us twice as smart, fast, strong, good looking, whatever, is that rich people will be able to afford it and poor people won't. If we're not careful, 100 years from now we'll be divided into a society of super humans and, well, the rest of us grunts, who will be delegated to God knows what unsavory tasks. I think our only hope would be... gulp... capitalism. Some bright business suit types saying, "Hey, if we could mass manufacture this cheaply, we could sell it to EVERYONE!" Of course, that still wouldn't solve the problem for extremely poor nations. Will THEY end up being the grunts doing the manual labor for piss poor wages? Oh... that's right... they already are doing that, making us sneakers and whatnot. I'm not crazy about where this is all headed. Sadly, nobody asked me...
Music - www.richardmac.com
Imagine that, a scenario where people are physically healthy and youthful well into their late one-hundred-eighties. Who can say what psychological state such people would be in? If that state isn't a good one, what would we do with such people? Allow them to continue on indefinitely, youth and health frozen, as their mental degradation progresses?
We might even have to start euthanizing people, which would then necessitate a standard for determining which people are no longer fit for participation in society...