Ray Kurzweil is the poster child of the singularity. His recent interview in Rolling Stone tells a story of the brilliant, quirky (he has collected over 300 cat statues) man behind the prediction that in 2045 nanobots will be crawling over everything and man and machine will become one.
Researchers at Stanford, Cornell and Columbia, and IBM, are engaged in the ambitious project of reverse engineering the human mind using nanoscale transistors. Full story at Wired.
RayKurzweil, the iconoclastic author of The Singularity is Near, will head a new school of future studies located in NASA buildings in California. A nine week course will cost $25,000 and cover courses on nanotechnology, artificial technology, and biotechnology. Full article here.
What is the status of the robot in American popular culture? We fear them (Terminator), we respect their intelligence and befriend them but consider them ultimately dangerous (2001: A Space Odyssey, I Robot), we find them adorable (RJD2, Wall-E), we idolize them (Optimus Prime), and finally, we see them as modern sirens (Austin Powers' Fembots).
The design of the robot is of vital importance. It is the designer who helps realize the robot's potential for good, by translating the incomprehensible robotic technology into the language of humanity. For robots to interact beneficially with humans in the future, designers must make them holistically likeable, trustworthy, respectable. At the design stage, a new robot becomes either a Zune or an Ipod, a Wall-E or a Terminator.
Take a look at this Youtube video depicting a nanobot replacing a human neuron. Although the technology is years off, this process has enormous medical potential. Patients with ailing brain cells could recieve nanobots replacements with identical signalling capacity – think of these neuron nanobots as the pacemakers of the brain. If the technology advanced sufficiently, I would be theoretically possible to replace each neuron with a nanobot, leaving an individuals unique brain architecture fundamentally sound – like replacing a wooden boat, one board at a time.
But how can you view this video without being terrified!? Is there not something inherently frightening in watching that nanobot spring tentacles and wind its way up the axon like a sinister kudzu vine? And why is the video so dark? A sentinel (from the Matrix) could swim by and not look out of place in this video.
If we want people to embrace this sort of technology we must think about aesthetics and design. It sometimes hard for scientists to think like this, but it's important.
We can now grow nanotubes with greater order (left) than ever before (right)! The breakthrough excites computing researchers who see nanotubes as they key to replacing today's conductors and semiconductors to keep pace with Moore's Law.
