MIT — Help Is On The Horizon
Kurt Brouwer May 28th, 2008
As a reprieve from the rather gloomy economic news, herewith we present a bevy of technological advances that the Massachusets Institute of Technology believes are on the horizon. These are advances that will not only be cool, but they will enliven and empower economic advances too:
Hope On The Horizon (MIT News, May 21, 2008)
History is filled with examples of how technology helped usher in new eras of prosperity. To help build the case for optimism, the MIT News Office asked a collection of MIT faculty and researchers for their thoughts on the potentially life-altering technologies that lie just around the corner. Here’s a sample of what they said:
Bioengineering - Phillip Sharp
Biosolar Cells - Shuguang Zhang
Digital Fabrication - Neil Gershenfeld
Education - Eric Klopfer
Electrochemical Energy - Paula Hammond
Embedded Electronics - Michael S. Strano
Fusion - Leslie Bromberg
Life Extension - Mehmet Fatih Yanik
Mitigating Autism - Rosalind W. Picard
Problem Solving - Ed Boyden
Robots - Rodney Brooks
Sustainable Cities - William J. Mitchell
Here’s one sample on what is known as life extension. In general, life extension could be described as a body of research and knowledge on how we can prolong human life and enhance it as well [emphasis added]:
Life Extension
Mehmet Fatih Yanik
Significant extension of the human lifespan by disease-preventive and tissue-regenerative technologies within the next one to two decades will dramatically impact the world economy. These technologies will probably span everything from small molecule therapies and nano- and microscale devices to whole organ replacement technologies using stem cells. Beyond the scientific and technological hurdles, temporary challenges will include the cost versus benefit of these technologies, legal and ethical concerns, and regulations and strategic investment choices among various options. The current economic slowdown may delay this revolution, but I strongly believe it is unstoppable, and hopefully it will take place within most of our lifetimes.
Assuming the good professor is correct in this statement, the economic implications alone are staggering. Here’s one more example:
Neil Gershenfeld
Director, Center for Bits and Atoms
The most significant coming technology is the digitization of fabrication, the impact of which will be analogous to the digitization of communication and computation. Like those earlier revolutions, the consequence will be personalization, in this case, allowing anyone to make almost anything, anywhere. Coupled with digital video and digital libraries, this means that the formerly scarce resources (facilities, books, people) of advanced technical institutions (such as MIT) can become much more widely accessible.
In this paragraph, I honestly think Gershenfeld is understating the potential of this technology. What little I know about digital fabrication is wild. Perhaps he’s worried it will sound far-fetched to lay readers.
These are very short, pithy takes on amazing new stuff that is coming our way. Read the whole thing.
Via: Carpe Diem
- Business , Economy , Geopolitics , Personal Finance
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