Converging Technologies for Improving Human Performance: A pre-publication report from a conference sponsored by the NSF and Department of Commerce.
Revolutionary advances at the interfaces between previously separate fields of science and technology are ready to create key NBIC transforming tools (nano-, bio, info-, and cognitive based technologies), including scientific instruments, analytical methodologies, and radically new materials systems. The innovative momentum in these interdisciplinary areas must not be lost but harnessed to accelerate unification of the disciplines. Progress can become self-catalyzing if we press forward aggressively, but if we hesitate the barriers to progress may crystallize and become harder to surmount.
[via Interesting People]
When I was a chemistry major in college I was completely smitten with the idea of manipulating genetic code to produce healthier human beings. As the years have gone by I have lost some of the faith I have had in my fellow man and I don't really look at this sort of manipulation of human kind with the same bright, starry eyes I had in college.
This can be a very dangerous path that we take if the proper checks and balances are not put into place to prevent people from abusing this technology.
