Future Police 000

Wizard of Id, apologies to Parker and Hart, 9/8/2001

Introduction

Nanobots are coming! What are they, and what's all the fuss?

Seems that in the 1980's a feller named Drexler wrote a book about molecular robots that might someday repair human tissue on a cell-by-cell basis, presumably even resurrecting the dead. A chief scientist at Sun Microsystems, another feller named Bill Joy, read this book and became convinced that these mechanical critters could, once created, reproduce uncontrollably. Something had to be done, Bill Joy said.

In 1997, Joy was appointed by President Clinton as Co-Chairman of the Presidential Information Technology Advisory Committee. Soon, he was telling anybody who would listen that there are certain areas of knowledge where we maybe ought not to go -- he was calling for an unspecified voluntary "relinquishment" -- or was it to be voluntary?

We'll definitely look at the historical and political implications of this kind of thinking. The world has heard it all before, like a broken vinyl phonograph record. All it took to set these folks off was about three very bad books. Nanotechnology is hardly out of the door, and already it's got an undeserved bad name. Worse, folks are sick of hearing about it.

"Nanotechnology's bid for respectability is colored by the word's association with a cabal of futurists who foresee nano as a pathway to utopia". - Gary Stix, Little Big Science, Scientific American

Actually, as we'll see, much of this technology is already here, whether it's called "nano" or not. It will soon vastly cheapen and speed computing power, for one. That will increase processing power, by several powers of ten. What better use for this excess horsepower, say the crystal ball fellers, than artificial intelligence, intelligence "amplifiers", and "true" (if you'll forgive a bad pun), neuron-level virtual reality?

All this assumes computer science will at last grasp the brass ring that has eluded philosophers and Johnny-come-lately neuropsychologists since the dawn of recorded history: what do we really mean by "intelligence"? What are the mechanisms of of perception, cognition, reason, creative thinking and goal-directed action? How do we set the gears in motion? How is such motion self-governed? Moreover, how ought it to be governed?

Don't hold your breath. The combined cognitive effort of the world's governments, religions, and institutions of advanced studies can describe how a simple single-celled organism can respond to a stimulus, but they still can't explain it. Teaching a computer to say "I think therefore I am", or "I'm sorry Dave, I can't do that" excites the thrill-seekers, but does nothing to advance our understanding of questions first posed by Aristotle 2,300 years ago.

For another thing, nanobots as medical agents may one day become a reality: perhaps as "mechanical penicillins" that combat viruses and cancers with a specificity impossible with the current technique of broadsiding the human body with powerful doses of all-purpose antibiotics.

As to whether future generations will be interested in shelling out big bucks to try to resurrect some clown who had the money to have himself frozen cryogenically, on the somewhat speculative theory that he might have something interesting to say when and if he wakes up: we're not going there. Far be it from us to tell yet-unborn citizens how to spend their entertainment budgets.

We'll point out that nanotechnology will scarcely be the only advancement in the next few decades (though you wouldn't know it from the current talk). Are we the only ones looking for advancement in education, jurisprudence, economic well-being, the arts, and aerospace? What about a cure for network television broadcasting?

Admittedly, technical talk is a very big part of any discussion of the future. But, so were airplanes and automobiles in the world of 100 years ago. We handled it, and this will be our theme again and again in Future Police, Summitlake.com's own answer to hand-wringing futurists who want somebody - don't we just wonder who - to step in and become final arbiter on where unfettered imagination and accumulation of knowledge can be allowed to take us.

Stem Cell Research and Soybeans

August 26, 2001 - Embryonic stem cell research of any kind is put in doubt as the Bush Administration cuts off federal grant funds. Congress probes whether research into this area ought to be allowed at all. The U.S. appears to be deeply divided between those who see continued research as a promising source of new treatments for a growing population of cancer and Alzheimer's patients, and those who see it as blasphemy of religious tenets that life begins at conception. Many feel that, if "unchecked", stem cell research and the closely related human cloning experiments may lead to a future dominated by android superhumans.

Abroad, the U.S. battles Europeans in the World Trade Organization to prevent labeling of genetically altered US soybeans, arguing that mandatory disclosure to end consumers would "unfairly stigmatize" the look-alike American product.

Europeans, who are generally much more concerned with the origin of their food supply than laid-back Americans, are fighting a retaliatory U.S. proposal to require similar labeling for wines and cheeses made with genetically altered (fermentation) enzymes.

While the world prepares for molecular medicine and body repair agents, artificial intelligence, and a second wave of explosive increases in the rates of computing power, we need to prepare ourselves for the eventuality that some areas of scientific inquiry may be banned completely.

By "completely", we don't just mean that cutting-edge nations around the globe will in fact find rational ways to prevent mad scientists from trying to clone a "master race".

We mean that some governments in the free world will effectively find ways to suppress scientific inquiry into academic disciplines whenever it is deemed this "could lead to" practical applications thought to be undesirable. You might be surprised just how much of this mechanism is already in place. Look for clues in the quotations sprinkled throughout this article.

Nano-Cops: The Future Police