Issue link: http://cp.revolio.com/i/5203
The following timeline for converging nBIc technologies was tabulated from dozens of authors and presenters who participated in the first three nSF-sponsored nBIc conferences (as of 2006). 30 winter 2009 Winter is typically flu season, and talk around the water cooler in 2009 has turned to the h1n1 virus, the so-called "swine flu." Many wonder if it might be comparable to the 1918 influenza virus that caused the catastrophic and historic pandemic of 1918–1919. In 2005, in an act of random stupidity, the U.S. Department of health and human Services published the full genome of the 1918 influenza virus on the Internet in the genBank database. essentially, the blueprint to build a dangerous flu virus was made available to anyone with an Internet connection. This prompted a scathing Op-Ed piece in the New York Times from an unlikely duo — Ray Kurzweil and Bill Joy. "This is extremely foolish," they commented. "The genome is essentially the design of a weapon of mass destruction. No responsible scientist would advocate publishing precise designs for an atomic bomb, and in two ways revealing the sequence for the flu virus is even more dangerous." Kurzweil and Joy went so far as to call for a "new Manhattan Project" to develop specific defenses against viral threats, whether natural or man-made. Ray Kurzweil, of course, is well known to h+ readers as the author of the seminal book, The Singularity is Near, and more recently as a founder (with funding from Google and NASA Ames Research Center) of Singularity university. Bill Joy, cofounder and former Chief Scientist of Sun Microsystems, is known as a critic of Kurzweil's technological optimism — but not necessarily his predictions. In a now-famous piece published in the April 2000 edition of Wired magazine entitled "Why the future doesn't need us," Joy suggested that our most powerful 21 st century technologies — genetic engineering, nanotechnology, and robotics (GNR) – are threatening to make humans an endangered species. In 2003, Kurzweil responded to Joy and acknowledged, "Technology has always been a double-edged sword, empowering both our creative and our destructive natures. It has brought us longer and healthier lives, freedom from physical and mental drudgery, and many new creative possibilities. Yet it has also introduced new and salient dangers." That Kurzweil and Joy would team up to warn the public of the dangers of the "G" in "GNR" in their 2005 Op-Ed piece is commentary enough. Yet, the promise of the GNR technologies is clear even to Joy. "Each of these technologies also offers untold promise: The vision of near immortality that Kurzweil sees in his robot dreams drives us forward; genetic engineering Anywhere in the world, an individual will have instantaneous access to needed information, whether practical or scientific in nature, in a form tailored for most effective use by the particular individual. New organizational structures and management principles based on fast, reliable communication of needed information will vastly increase the effectiveness of administrators in business, education, and government. Comfortable, wearable sensors and computers will enhance every person's awareness of his or her health condition, environment, chemical pollutants, potential hazards, and information of interest about local businesses, natural resources, and the like. 2015 Paradigm for the future NaNo-Bio-iNfo-CogNo: SuRFDADDY ORCA