Dangerous Technological Futures

[zengrifter]

Dangerous Futures
Will future technology--such as supersmart computers, nanobots and genetic mutation--accelerate out of control, perhaps wiping us all out? That's the concern of the pessimists, as stated by Bill Joy in a Wired article last year. The optimists, such as Raymond Kurzweil, believe technological progress is inevitable and can be controlled. The debates continue here (and on our MindX forum).

Space Wars: The First Six Hours of World War III
By William B. Scott
Space Wars by Willliam Scott, Michael Coumatos, and William Birnes, Forge Books (April 17, 2007) describes how the first hours of World War III might play out in the year 2010. While fiction, it's based on real-world military scenarios and technologies, dramatically highlighting the West's vulnerability to destruction of its space-based commercial and military communications infrastructure. (Added April 17th 2007)

The Moon as backup drive for civilization
By KurzweilAI.net
Imaginative new ideas for using space to protect civilization against existential risks, such as killer asteroids, nuclear war, and global terrorism, are in the works. The public increasingly sees NASA as irrelevant; we need a revitalized new vision of space, says a new breed of space activists. Gerard O'Neill would be proud. (Added September 24th 2006)

Lifeboat Foundation Nanoshield
By Michael Vassar and Robert A. Freitas Jr.
Tomorrow's biggest danger may be nanoweapons (grey goo and other) created with molecular manufacturing. The Lifeboat Foundation proposes development of detection methods, such as infrared satellite surveillance for nanobot signatures, along with a three-layer defense system, with devices such as an orbiting mirror to focus concentrated sunlight on an ecophagic outbreak. (Added August 6th 2006)

...more - http://www.kurzweilai.net/meme/frame...t.html?m=2#685