Last August, the U.S. Army held a three-day conference in Portsmouth, Virginia, to look at new developments in military science and hardware. The confab was called the “2008 Mad Scientist Future Technology Seminar.” Really. It was.
Presentations covered the following areas:
• Seminar Overview (Bushnell, NASA-Langley)
• Robotics (Jones, iRobot Corporation)
• Human Life Extension (Coles, Gerontology Research Group)
• Quantum Technology (Dowling, Louisiana State University)
• Molecular Manufacturing (Jacobstein, Teknowledge)
• Machine Intelligence (Yudkowsky, Singularity Institute)
• Global Sensor Grid (Orcutt, University of California – San Diego)
• Synthetic Biology (Weiss, Princeton University,
• Virtual Reality (Peterson, The Strategy Augmentation Group)
• Beyond Silicon Computing (Mazumder, National Science Foundation)
• Nano Materials (Sulcoski, National Ground Intelligence Center)
• Alternative Energy (Bushnell, NASA Langley Research Center)
• Brain/Neurologics (Braunreiter, SAIC)
• Emerging Individual Empowerment (Petersen, The Arlington Group)
• Superempowered Individuals (Smart, Acceleration Studies Foundation)
…
The Mad Scientist group sees more than just a world of danger in the 2030s. “Most likely results include an increased life span, a solution to the energy crisis, ready availability of food and fresh water to all, a global distribution of technology, education, economics, and — therefore — wealth. This will reduce the tension between the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ while the capabilities of robotics and access to virtual reality to both care for and entertain will create the perception of well-being almost universally around the globe. Advancements are limited only by imagination and resources.”
…Download the doc for a read. The list of participants are a strange bunch complete with Christian Right mad scientists. Hmmm, what are they working on….
mondo mondo 