One of the coolest songs I've ever heard was Ella James' "At Last" which is this great song that just sort of snaps at you and you think "yeahhhhhhh that's what it will feel like when I find my love." Of course this blog entry is not about falling in love its about random stuff. ^^;;; (That and Shiina Ringo's Remoto Controller is sort of blasting out any romantic tendancies I have tonight).

More about Nanotechnology

The term nanotechnology comes from nanometer, or a billionth of a meter; for visual purposes we can say that a typical virus is about 100 nanometers across. Remember in Star Trek those cool little sparkling floating lights that would swirl around "space" and then flash! something was created in the holodeck, or food was made, or someone was beamed up? Imagine those little sparklies (not those **sparklies**) as nanobots (but those are very very visible nanobots...) this is a technology that Eric Drexler. Ray Kurzweil, and a few other scientists and tech-heads started to talk about at this conference a few years ago.

Remember that the material that you are using for a mouse is the same components as say... the magnet on your fridge or the banana on the kitchen counter top. They all have atomsin common. They are all a combination of molecules. Nanotechnology are small tiny robots the size of a compound of atoms that can deconstruct your mouse and turn it into cheese. Technology so small that it would need millions upon millions of copies of itself to do it.

Ok, so that sounds weird, and you're thinking Steph has gone off the deep end. (I got a few weird looks from judges at a debate tournament when I told them this very same story... they were amused that Nanotechnology could take a desk in the room and turn it into bread.) But the technology isn't that far off.

Genetics is already a form of nanotechnology, its a manipulation of sugar molecules(DNA). In 1959, one of the most brilliant theoretical physicists, name Richard Feynman, gave a talk titled "There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom," in which he suggested that it would one day be possible to build machines so tiny they would consist of just a few thousand atoms.

Anyways, genetics and bio-technology was the technology of the 21st century. (and it got us some mixed results, rice that could fend of blindness vs. protesters that believe that messing with "god's work" is wrong and immoral...) but the elements hold true for this form of technology. Like any other form of technology (radio, nuclear, etc. ...) we embrace it with excitement at what it can do for us and how it makes our lives easier, we condemn those who protest it (Greenpeace protesters over Genetically Modified Food for example) and condone those who promote it (i.e. Big capitalist companies who view it as more profitable). And at the same time there are a small % of those who do neither but sit there and realize the consequences of how that "current" form of technology can impact future generations. This is why this new form of technology is so new that its hasn't even figured out crawling yet while Genetics is on its terrible two's (humor me for the sake of the bad analogy I'm known for bad analogies ^^;;). But this is when we can decide the course of how this technology will go.

Bill Joy (chief scientist and co-founder of Sun) is the opposite of Kurzweil. He argues in Wired Magazine that we could become dependent on technology (Matrix anybody?) Ironically, I'd suggest reading the Unabomber's Manifesto (no its not crazy ramblings) its actually a well written argument on whey technology is spining wildly out of control. I'm picking it up as soon as Borders restocks it ^^;; But Bill Joy's article has a nice piece of it. The Unabomber called those who wanted to limit technology luddites. Which is what I guess I am in some ways. I don't mind technology (like the Remote control... or the CD player... or the computer...) but some moral implications of technology (cloning, bio-technology creating super-viruses...) sort of make me a luddite. Which is why I want to be a tech lawyer, and specifically the morality of technology (which is probably a non-existant job... but oh well I'll just become a law professor...). I want to be able to mold the way technology goes for the rest of the millenium/century. I want to be at the forefront of something that can shape the rest of the future. Its a very lofty ambition, but it can happen. ^^