Asia will be old hat, along with Europe and North America, when nano and AL really get going. I predict the real interesting technological churn will happen in the finally developed, finally stable countries of Africa. Think I’m nuts? Stranger things have happened. Never say never.
Hey look! Paper Models of High Speed Trains! Automobiles powered by fuel cells!
I’ve changed my mind in the last few years. I’ve always found some of the political and economic ideology of the extropians, transhumanists and their ilk objectionable but now, I think some of them are getting a little too religious.
I read James Gleick‘s Faster: The Acceleration of Just About Everything nearly a year ago and today I came across a skeptical review of a book with, in my mind, a similar theme. Is technical progress accelerating? An odd question to ask in this economic correction. The transhumanists and extropians think so. It is true [...]
Let me explain what I mean by that title. I don’t mean to ask if the creation of superhuman artificial intelligences is a wise decision or not because a lot has already been said about that. Also I am not going discuss or argue about whether it’s even possible to create life, sapience or superhuman [...]
Chairman Mao made everyone in China ride bicycles. It was probably one of the few environmentally sound decrees he made. I heard that his population growth policies weren’t very smart but, he was the champion of bicycles. Now the situation in China has reversed itself–sane birth control policies yet everyone who can afford one is [...]