Hello, World (6 Jan 02016)

My last posting to this blog was titled The Future is Rapidly Approaching and it was posted on 10 March 02014 (i.e. 667 days ago [1 year, 9 months, 27 days]). Note: This blog was started on 2 November 02009 with a blog posting titled Hello world!

I’ve been learning about the future. I’ve been using  Gerald Thurman on Google+ and the fictional character named nanofoo yottagoo on Facebook as my Learning About the Future blogs.

Here on day 6 of 02016 I’m thinking about bringing this blog back to life, so Hello, World.

The Future is Rapidly Approaching

This morning (02014.03.10) I’ve read postings having the following titles.

• Sniffing out cancer with electronic noses — BBC.com
• It’s time to build a bionic brain for smarter research — TheConversation.com
• Bioprinting: Building living tissue with a 3D printer is becoming a new business, but making whole organs for transplant remains elusive — Economist.com
• The rechargeable revolution: A better battery — Nature.com
• Folding@home simulates activation of key cancer protein, could lead to novel drug design — Phys.org
• SXSW Cognitive Cooking: Belgian Bacon Pudding — IBM on YouTube.com

The future is rapidly approaching, yet from a sociopolitical perspective it seems as though we can’t escape the 20th century.

Bullish on Biotechnology and Bioscience

22 February 02013: Headline seen on page A1 of the Arizona Republic: “Seniors failed by flu shots this year.” This headline implies there lots of future ahead of us when it comes to biotechnology and bioscience advances. [Hashtags: #PersonalizedMedicine #SmartDrugs #IntelligentDrugs #Genetics #Genomics #DNA] 

FM-2030 Interview with Larry King via SingularityWeblog.com

Are You A Transhuman: Larry King Interviews Futurist FM-2030

The FM-2030 interview with Larry King was conducted in 01989.

“If you are around the year 2010 then there is a very good chance that you would be around in the year 2030. If you are around in the year 2030 then there is an excellent chance that you can coast to immortality.”

FM-2030 didn’t make it into the 21st century alive; he died on 8 July 02000 (three months shy of turning 70).

Larry King asked FM-2030 what he didn’t like about what he saw in the future: “It’s not happening fast enough.”

The future wasn’t happening fast enough of FM-2030 in 01989 and he died from pancreatic cancer eleven years later in 02000.

My parents were alive in 02010 (they’re still alive on the day that I’m writing this… 24 November 02012).

With respect to living to 02030, it’s possible the future is happening fast enough for me, but my parents may be too old. My mom and dad are 85 and 83 years of age, respectively, in 02012; they will be 103 and 101, respectively, in 02030. I’ll be 73 in 02030.

Are You A Transhuman: Larry King Interviews Futurist FM-2030

Smartphones Remind Me of External Tape Drives

Smartphones are external devices, but what’s external today might become internal someday.

Apple (AAPL) stock is nearing $700 per share and at one point on 14 September 02012 Apple Inc.’s market value exceeded $650 billion. Tweets about Apple’s iPhone 5 has flooded my tiny neighborhood of the Twitterverse and that has been frustrating because I am not a consumer of iWhatever products.

A couple months ago I quoted myself saying, “I’ll call my phone a smartphone when it starts paying the bills.” A couple of days ago I quoted myself saying, “If only smartphones made us smart.”

These days I believe the following is true: Smartphones are to humans as external tape drives are to computers. [And I am thinking of those old clunky external tape drives.]

External tape drives, once purchased and drivers installed, are often permanently attached to computers. Smartphones, once purchased and activated, are often permanently within reach of humans. I find it interesting that there are so many humans willing to be permanently tethered to a device when they are free not to be.

Over time many external drives got smaller and were able to became internal drives; in other words, they were installed in the computers.

It’s possible that smartphones will morph into supercomputers and get small enough so that they can be installed in humans. If this happens, then it makes for some interesting stuff to ponder. Some examples: Will the Digital Divide get wider? Will humans still be able to function (think) if their computer is down? Will humans still be able to function if their computers get disconnected from the Internet? What can happen to humans when their computer gets cracked? What happens to a human when they encounter another human who has a more powerful computer? Will humans have zero privacy? Will criminals hurt/kill humans in order to steal their computers? What happens to a person’s computer when they die? Etc.

Organic Singularity?

About a month ago I read… ScienceProgress.org::Could the Organic Singularity Occur Prior to Kurzweil’s Technological Singularity? This was the first time I had encountered the idea of an organic singularity.

We own some stock in Billerica, MA-based Bruker Corp. (nasdaq: BRKR). In a nutshell, Bruker is a maker of scientific and technical instruments and I don’t understand most of products.

The following is copied from a Bruker press release on 14 August 02012.

“Organic photoelectric materials are already finding large markets as OLEDs (Organic Light Emitting Diodes) in mobile device displays. There is also interesting research being conducted on OPV (Organic PhotoVoltaic) devices,” said Mark R. Munch, Ph.D., President of Bruker Nano Surfaces Division. “Our new pcAFM accessory transforms the Dimension Icon AFM into a solution for dedicated nanoscale organic photoelectric material research.”

I don’t know what it all means, but the word organic keeps popping up with more frequency these days.

The Future: Genetic Engineering, Nanotechnology, Robotics

“The Future is genetic engineering, nanotechnology, and, ultimately, robotics,” says Ray Kurzweil.

TEDxNYU – Christopher Bradley – Synthetic Biology: This Will Change Everything… “We’re using genes as programming languages,” says Christoper Bradley. “Biology plus engineering equals synthetic biology.”

Empire of the Ants is a good bad movie. At one point while watching it I thought nanoants. An ant would be a great way to introduce the topic of nanotechnology. Most people have seen ants. Ants are small, but we can see them with our naked eyes. A nanoant is one-billionth of an ant. In otherwords, take an ant and cut it into a billion equally sized pieces.

Most realistic android infant?… “They plan to add voice, body temperature, skin, body movements, and smell,” says KurzweilAI.net.

5-Digit Year Makes US Young

I use 5-digit years in selected contexts (e.g. this blog).

4 July 02012 is 236 years since 4 July 01776.

It’s possible the United States of America will still exist in year 10000 (ten thousand). Year 10,000 is the first year requiring 5-digit year format. The 5-digit year format will be good up through year 99,999 (ninety-nine thousand nine hundred ninety-nine).

If the U.S.A. was a person, then 236 years of age compared to 10,000 years of age makes us a 2.36-year-old (i.e. we’re in our terrible twos).

Ismail & Templeton Say “Be Prepared for Exponential Times”

Be Prepared for Exponential Times – Salim Ismail & Brad Templeton – DLD Moscow 2012

I’ve been a fan of Brad Templeton for a long time, but I watched only Salim Ismail’s part of “Be Prepared for Exponential Times” presentation. I mined the following quotes because I strongly agree with them.

All of our societal structures evolved in a time when we were local in a linear world. Today we’re global and in an exponential world. — Salim Ismail

Society is not ready for the pace of change the technology is bringing. — Salim Ismail

Once you take any domain and discipline and ground it in information properties it goes into an exponential growth path. And then nothing will shake it off that path after that. — Salim Ismail

Be Prepared for Exponential Times – Salim Ismail & Brad Templeton – DLD Moscow 2012

Quote: “The Future is Our Tomorrow”

The following was my Facebook update on 2 July 02012.

I watched the movie “The X From Outer Space” to solve for X. I could have used Google to solve for X, but then I would have missed the following “duh” quote from the movie: “The future is our tomorrow.”

[comment] Speaking of “tomorrow” (i.e. our future)… Today’s [02012.07.02] Facebook posting by The Wisdom of John Wooden: “The door to the past has been shut and the key thrown away. You can do nothing about tomorrow. It is yet to come. However, tomorrow is in large part determined by what you do today. So make today a masterpiece. You have control over that.” — Coach Wooden

[comment] Speaking of “tomorrow”… The Future is Ours (video)