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A futurist discusses the coming merger of human biology and our technologies, exponential advancements in life genomics and life expectancy, and more efficient use of resources and energy.

Topics include:
• augmented neurological computers and memory
• devices that let blind people read text in any environment
• genomics increasing life expectancy by more than a year, every year
• nanotechnology that can assist and replace white blood cells
• transportation and replication of our biological memories
• artificial intelligence
• solar energy advancements and the coming switch once fossil fuel costs exceed it

Science Friday excerpt: Futurist Ray Kurzweil explains the idea of the "singularity" — what happens when technology advances so much that it's impossible to predict what happens next. Will artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, and biotechnology be able to completely reshape what it means to be human?

Puppet Master: It can also be argued that DNA is nothing more than a program designed to preserve itself. Life has become more complex in the overwhelming sea of information. And life, when organized into species, relies upon genes to be its memory system. So, man is an individual only because of his intangible memory... and memory cannot be defined, but it defines mankind. The advent of computers, and the subsequent accumulation of incalculable data has given rise to a new system of memory and thought parallel to your own. Humanity has underestimated the consequences of computerization.

I'm not sure if I totally grasped this concept, but according to this episode of Tech Nation, physicists can now teleport a photon from one location to the other. It's slower than the speed of light, and limited to a small number of atoms. Based on this research, they will develop ways to teleport more and more atoms, and eventually be able to teleport molecular systems, such as DNA! Can someone simplify an explanation of the mechanics of this? Here's what I gather:

• There is a particle or atom at location A
• It's in sync with another particle at another location B through quantum communication
• Particle at location A is destroyed
• Particle at location B becomes particle that was at location A


So if Rob Lowe was in sync with some particles on the moon, and we destroyed Rob Lowe here, he would form from the particles on the moon. But then the Rob Lowe on earth is now dead, and the Rob Lowe on the moon contains all the same memories and brain processes that the one on earth had, so who is Rob Lowe? Scientists should perform this experiment and destory the Rob Lowe here, see what happens. Here is a more detailed explanation of quantum teleportation, but I recommend listening to Michio Kaku (author of Physics of the Impossible) speak about the nature of real science reaching feats that were once only science fiction.

Podcast show at Tech Nation

There's a bit of a debate going on about wether or not the new Hadron Collider will create stranglets, or miniature black holes that may endanger the entire planet! There's actually a lawsuit with the aim of stopping the collider form going into operation this summer, pointing to research that shows a possibility of these mini black holes being created. If this were the case, which is a tiny possibility, a stranglet would form a tiny black hole that would sink towards the center of the earth due to gravity, and it would basically just gobble up everything starting from the inside. I sense a hollywood movie in the works.

I tend to have faith in a large group of international scientists like this, especially because I highly doubt they would intentionally create something that might destroy the world. The fact that the possibility is a reality however, is kind of exciting… Either way, when this goes into operation, it's going to push our knowledge of the behavior of matter much further. Who knows what technologies might spawn from this research, the potential is vast. Can humans make it to a Class 1 civilization?

Take a listen to an interview with one of the researchers below, and remember, if the world might end this summer, live it up!


The Large Hadron Collider/ATLAS at CERN

In this program, scientists discuss recent findings in parts of our universe that for some reason or another contain NOTHING. No gas, stars, or even the dark matter that seems to be ubiquitous in empty space. Pretty strange, but pretty interesting.

"We'll take a look at an unusual part of space. Scientists studying several maps of space have found a space nearly a billion light-years across that contains nothing — no stars, gas, or galaxies, and not even any of the mysterious dark matter that astronomers believe makes up much of the universe. We'll talk to two of the astronomers who performed the study about their work and what it might mean to find nothing."

Science Friday Podcast

This is muscle tissue, grown in a vat. Could we get to a point where vivisection becomes a thing of the past? We might one day look at the scientific testing on animals as primitive as when people were drilling holes into frontal lobes to remedy mental disabilities. If we can grow muscle tissue in a vat, now, then there might be a future merger between this and the nanotechnologies that are in development that might create a way to physicially wire biological nerves with electronic circuits.

High energy research facility in Japan. Image from Pingmag Article. Photograph by Joe Nishizawa