The reliably Reasonable Ronald Bailey looks at the future -- and he sees lots of engineering, both bio and nano. And no matter what Washington says, the accent is on bio.
Humans will, using mostly genetics and some nanotech, change and adapt our very beings. Deep stuff, but worth your time.
Nano boosters -- like the Prof and myself -- might be disappointed in what Bailey sees. But the the jury on the future is, as always, still out.
I won't bother quoting anything, because you really need to read Bailey's whole piece. Besides, the most interesting part isn't anything Bailey wrote, it's what he did. Everything in his story in linked. Everything. Had that same article appeared in the online edition of most any other magazine or newspaper, you would have had to Google to find any of the source materials.
Bailey has seen another part of the future, and it is blog.
Makes you wonder how our political systems, designed in the 18th century will cope with a society thats blazed so far ahead. I am confident it will all work out though, and I for one am excited by the future, with biotech and nano galore.
Worthy article. The last two paragraphs regarding Leon Fuerth's concerns about government interference are very disturbing.
To some extent, science can route around government interference (think internet). My opinion is that reward of science, for the practicioner, is recognition and not necessarily money.
The implementation [of the science] is another matter. I'm an engineer and realize some monkeys in ++Insert World Capitol Here++ can really retard new technologies. My example would be cryptography (not stopped but held back for many years). An extra example would be nuclear power: regulated to the extent that it is impractical to have in the United States. Both biotech and nanotech are going to be too powerfull for any government to ignore.
If we can just get a little further down the road with these technologies, the governments may be less of a factor in the equation and the future will be so cool my teeth hurt just thinking about it.
