A recent article in The Economist chronicled the downturn in the popularity and standing of democracy over the last fifty years. In the first half of the twentieth century democracy (“government by the people”) was the gold standard, and was riding a wave of adoption worldwide. Democracy, national pride and economic success appeared to go… Read more I want what he’s having… Trump’s envy of Putin’s large(r) hands?
From the time humankind first realized the immensity of our universe, scientists have been wondering why we have not yet found any evidence of intelligent life somewhere out there. As our telescopes and related technology have improved, the mystery has deepened, because the odds against our being alone keep growing. The current estimate of total… Read more The Big Intelligence Test – nanobots coming soon…
Humanity has survived, and generally prospered, through various “ages” and “revolutions” over the last 10,000 years. They include the Agricultural Revolution, the Industrial Revolution and, most recently, the Information Age. We are now seeing the beginning of the GNR Revolution, standing for Genetics, Nanotechnology and Robotics. The engine that is driving the GNR Revolution is… Read more The Nanobot Attack is coming soon…
Computers today are omnipresent. They have been an essential component of our work environment for decades and in the developed nations, few households lack a home computer with a high speed internet connection. Less visibly, almost all our appliances (including cameras, automobiles and elevators) incorporate computers that enhance their functionality. It is part of human… Read more The future of man – a choice between cyborg or extinction?
When Mother Nature got life started on Earth, 4.7 billion years ago, her formula was beautifully simple – she made life self-replicating according to a ‘recipe’ encoded within the cell. Her masterstroke was to make the recipe copying process almost error-proof. A very high degree of copying accuracy was needed – otherwise life would forever… Read more Is this the beginning of the end – or the end of the beginning?
We think of ourselves as civilized – but what does that mean? The Romans who entertained themselves by watching Christians being thrown to lions thought that they were civilized. So did the English colonialists who kidnapped Africans to sell as slaves. And are the practitioners of female genital mutilation (partial or total removal of the clitoris… Read more Future Man – and Civilization
When you look at the front page of the newspapers or turn on the TV news to learn the headlines, how do you feel? Do you feel good? Do you feel secure? Do you think that we, humanity, “have it made”? I don’t think so… And yet, in a sense, we are a “success story”.… Read more The end of the world, as we know it, is at hand…