Slashdot Mirror
The Future of Nanobiotech Predicted
Quadraginta writes "Aharon Hauptman and Yair Sharan of the Interdisciplinary Center for Technology Analysis and Forecasting (ICTAF) at Tel Aviv University recently presented the results of a survey of 139 researchers on the future of nanobiotech. The presentation itself is only available as a PDF file, but there is a brief news announcement from the ICTAF. Interestingly, Hauptman and Sharan asked for -- and got -- specific predictions from the experts of the year in which various nanotech marvels will appear. For example, the experts say we can look forward to biosensors capable of detecting a single molecule by 2015, the direct construction of artificial human organs by 2020, and the use of nanomachines inside the body for diagnosis and therapy by 2025."
.. and gradually scale back.
Artificial intelligence, i.e. thinking machines, are always about 10 years away. They have been for years.
Wait, that was a good analogy.
"...artificial human organs by 2020...."
Ok dudes, we got 14 years until the replacements. With the right dosage of obesity, alcohol abuse and smoking, the replacements will be just in time for some of us.
You're wrong, you know.
We're all composed of atoms, so clearly all matter interaction should be studied as quantum physics, but clearly that's wrong too, since matter is just condensed energy.
We all of life - from going to the drive-through at McDonalds to contemplating the meaning of life - is just energy interacting with energy. Clearly, we must always keep this in mind. Anyone who is not considering that all of their activities are actually quantum-mechanical energy interactions is missing what's Really Important, and only thinking about the non-essential parts of things.
Or, perhaps, there is some value at looking at things from the macro level. Wouldn't you say that the biological fields of medicine (most of it), plant breeding (most of it), animal breeding (most of it) have some merit?
These have little consideration of bionano, just as all of life isn't concerned with quantum-mechanical energy interactions, even if it is the stuff of all things.
Mod me down and I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine!
"Shyeah, right, and I predict monkeys will fly out of my butt!"
I'm sure that it's just a matter of designing nanotechnology monkeys.
"No problem. I have the capacity to do infinite work so long as you don't mind that my quality approaches zero."-Dilbert