Nano Tech: For or Against?

I know that this is my first thread, and I hope to make it a good one. I have been reading the book The Singularity is Near by Ray Kurzweil.
en.wikipedia.org...

As I read, he makes mention of Nano technology being able to do all sorts of things. He makes a few examples, like being able to chose when you want to die and being able to live totally in our own minds. I for one am all for the melding of man and mechine. I would love to be an eternal being with near infinate intellegence. How do the rest of you feel about it?

For. I plan on either going to college for nano tech, or genetic engineering.

reply to post by Obinhi


It all good fun until someone gets hurt.

It seems to be a good thing in theory but what is the payoff and what would be the price and would that price mean we give up something that makes us fundamentally human? Would we lose over time our perspective and appreciation of our world as it exists in the real sense of reality because we dived headlong into a new technology without determining the implications?

Yoked to nanotech technology would we become detached from (for example) an ability to enjoy a summer as it is presented without deciding to see it in the ultraviolet with a full heads-up display giving windage, humidity and pollen count?

Could we at a point in the future have an option to switch off our nanotechnology or would it be a once installed there is no going back scenario?

Of course this nanotech sounds useful at face value but it seems to me that it is also something that by breaking nature down to the numbers could take us away from the very quintessence of where we came from in the first place.

If you think the Internet has forced us from our peers and objectified our associations with our peers then imagine the cultural and social changes that would come from full on nanotech revolution. It could be something so fundamental that it could further dehumanise us.

It could also be a back door for the PTB, allowing the fruits of their many hidden experiments from the CIA’s MK-Ultra to the British Porton down experiments coming to fruition.

The idea of perceiving in the ultraviolet or stepping into a world of my own making might be seductive but for all that I cannot shake a feeling that in the end we will have to pay a very heavy price and that price could be the taken for granted freedoms of being a human being.



[edit on 19-11-2009 by SmokeJaguar67]

Originally posted by Obinhi
The Singularity is Near by Ray Kurzweil.
en.wikipedia.org...
he makes mention of Nano technology being able to do all sorts of things. He makes a few examples, like being able to chose when you want to die

...humans have always been able to choose "when" and "how" - but - most governments have made suicide illegal - and - then, theres those who make the decision for you (genocidal maniacs, serial killers, mass murderers, lousy drivers yappin' on cell phones instead of payin' attention to their driving, drunk drivers, punks with guns, bad cops, good cops, paranoid delusionals - its a long list) or nature has a bad hiccup and you have absolutely no control over whether you live or die... for kurzweil's theory to have even a tad of validity, he would have to explain how we control other people's behavior that could get us killed - and - he cant do that because it is impossible...

and being able to live totally in our own minds.

...the biggest problem with human evolution is that far too many live in fantasy land and thats been happening for thousands of years, encouraged by the power junkies that thrive on keeping the population ignorant and easily controlled by propaganda... we dont need more technology along those lines...

I for one am all for the melding of man and mechine. I would love to be an eternal being with near infinate intellegence. How do the rest of you feel about it?

...infinite intelligence - until you can spell it, i seriously doubt you can comprehend it... the harsh realities of the concept of living forever and knowing all is always toned down by fantasy... the human body cannot live forever... i dont want to be anything but entirely human... knowing all takes all the mystery out of life and that = boring...

Gotta break a few eggs right? I all for scientific advancements, even if they harm some volunteers in the process. As long as they aren't testing on unsuspecting people.

I don't think we should fear science...

reply to post by Wyn Hawks


I do love people who seem to think that spelling on the internet is indeckitive of intelligence.

As for the whole 'Choose when you want to die' idea. Most people who kill others are 1.)Not mentally balanced, 2.) High on something that makes them not mentally balanced, 3.)Acting in a time of war or 4.) Acting on an impulse to get something, money, drugs, loot.

So if one were to accend so to speak, you could leave all of that behind. Why drink when you can illicet the same feelings from a program in your head? Why kill when you can do it in a personal world of your own and not get arrested for it. He, [The Author] argues that once people get augmented bodies, injury and illness will fade away, and nothing short of being vaporization will be able to kill you as nano bots in your body will be able to use materials from around you to rebuild damaged goods. He also argues that some people have always distrusted or scorned technology, but the masses have embraced it. For example, 120 years ago people would tell kids not to read so much or it'll rot your brain, now we tell kids that they cannot read enough, I see the point about the personal disconnect with other via the internet, but just think, my children, who are 8months and 2 years old, will never know a world without the internet. We are the last people who were alive when the internet was not absolutly required for people in the westren world.

EDIT: PS I left the spelling mistake in for a reason, namely because I dont think it matters and as long as you can read it and know what is being said it really does not make a diffrence, I will fix the spelling when I get home must you know.

[edit on 19-11-2009 by Obinhi]

reply to post by Obinhi


The technology would want to be severely tested first of course.
Particularly nano-tubes.

This is an image of a long, multi-walled carbon nano-tubes , it may pose a similar health risk as asbestos, .

The new studies partially confirm the carbon nanotubes' similarity to asbestos by showing that long, straight carbon nanotubes injected into mesothelial tissues in mice cause the sort of lesions and inflammation that also develop as a result of asbestos. Such reactions are a strong indicator that cancer will develop with chronic exposure.

Looks like some more research is necessary .

Not all types of carbon nanotubes behave like cancer-causing asbestos. The Nature Nanotechnology article showed that short nanotubes (those less than 15 micrometers long) and long nanotubes that have become very tangled do not cause inflammation and lesions.

Also, while the study did not look explicitly at single-walled nanotubes, these tend to be shorter and more tangled than multiwalled nanotubes, so they probably won't act like asbestos, the researchers say.

The authors suggest that this could be because such nanotubes can easily be taken up by immune cells called macrophages, and long, straighter ones can't.

link

edit to add :link
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[edit on 19-11-2009 by UmbraSumus]

Indeed, I dont see this explosion of intelligence for some time. The current prediction in the link I provided is about 40 years from now, but still. You cannot argue with fact. The TI-82 calculator has more computing power then the lunar lander. Your cell phone has more power then Apples from the 90's.It is only a matter of time. That and nano tubes will not be used to insulate your house so I think that people will find a better use for them, like solar power.
www.sciencedaily.com...

EDIT: I found the following link on the above web site.
www.sciencedaily.com...

[edit on 19-11-2009 by Obinhi]