I have been interested in technology my life from the time as a child I bought a switching design kit from
Edmunds Scientific, which I still have-don't I ever get rid of anything, and my per-engineering days in 1951. It both amazes and scares the hell out of me.
It amazes me because of the TV shows and course I've seen or taken which demonstrate the advances in technology.. In the late fifties I used and worked on some of the first transistorized equipment. And my first computer, UNIVAC I, voltage required 400 amps of 2 phase 220 volts,.had only 1,000 words, 12 character per word, memory which data was run through a mercury delay lines, Data was changed from electrical to acoustical and back again to electrical. In old sci-fi movies when you see see all the tape drives spinning, they running a sort and the tape drives are being used as an extension of memory. Now setting on my desk is a computer, 64 bit, with over 3T bytes of storage. At one GE site on a UNIVAC II it took 40 hour to run the payroll. One week they lost one run because of programming error and other because of machine malfunction. There was some worried people there.
In my 78 years I watched freedom dwindle bit by bit, (remember the story of the frog and difference of putting one in hot water and in mild water and turning up the heat), the greed and the desire to control has increased by leaps and bounds. It scares me because as we all know that a hammer can be used to build a house or kill somebody. You can only image what the improper use of some this technology could used for. The total lack of responsibility that certain corporation have already exhibited has scared the hell out of me. Oh, Monsanto does not serve genetically modified foods in their own cafeteria investigative reporter found out when interviewing a group of their scientists, when noon meal came they invited her to join them in a bit of lunch, so she asked them. One whispered no.
If you think that everybody will benefit from all this technology, think again. The budget US spends on military could feed the whole world, is the world laying down their arms and sing camp songs. Not any more likely than you are going to remove the locks on your home.
Check out all the technology that big business has suppressed over the years, example stirling engine,generator.
The gap between the haves and have not is only widening. And with ability we already have the havenots will not even know what's happening.
In one way I wish I was younger and see all this technology blossom, but in an other I am almost glad I will not, because I know mankind..
Some of the TV shows and courses I taken recently.
From
The Doctors TV show
http://www.thedoctorstv.com/videolib/init/7781
Web Exclusive: Fecal Transplants;
Growing an Ear on an Arm;
Skin Cancer in the Ear;
Youngest Fecal Transplant Recipient.
Making Stuff: UPC 841887014168 or view it on Nova/PBS
web sitehttp://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/search/results/?q=making+stuff&x=0&y=0
Overview from the DVD set:
Our world is poised on the edge of a revolution in the science of materials. From carbon nanotubes to spider silk, sticky gecko feet to bulletproof foam, scientists are combining high-technology with nature's most incredible inventions to create a new generation of materials which are stronger, smaller, cleaner, and smarter than anything we've seen before. Hosted by the New York Time's lively technology correspondent David Pogue, each hour in this four-part series explores the talent, luck, and determination that can turn a wild idea into a cutting-edge material or high-tech breakthrough.
Episodes include
Making Stuff: Stronger
Making Stuff: Smalle
Making Stuff: Smarter
Making Stuff: Cleane
Inside Edition: Investigative
http://www.insideedition.com/investigative
What Is In The Gunk In Your Home?
Introduction to Nanotechnology: The New Science of Small
http://www.thegreatcourses.com/tgc/courses/course_detail.aspx?cid=1324
DISC 1
1 The Crossroads Of 21st - Century Science
2 The Fundamental Importance of Being Nano
3 From Micro to Nano-Scaling in a Digital World
4 Leveraging the Nanometer in Computing
5 Leveraging the Nanometer in Communications
6 Sensing the World through Nanoengineering
DISC 2
7 Nanomedicine-DNA and Gold Nanoparticles
8 Nano and Proteins-Enzymes to Cholesterol
9 Nanoparticles Detect Cancer in Living Organisms
10 Detecting Only a Few Molecules of a Disease
11 Nanomaterials That Seek and Destroy Disease
12 How Nanomaterials Improve Drug Delivery
DISC 3
13 Delivering Drugs with "Smart" Nanocapsules
14 Nanoscale Surgical Tools
15 Nanomaterials for Artificial Tissue
16 How Nano Research Gets Done
17 Nanomotifs-Building Blocks, Complex Structures
18 Using Nanotechnology to Capture Sunlight
DISC 4
19 Photons to ElectricityNano-Based Solar Cells
20 Nanotechnology for Storing Energy
21 Nanotechnology for Releasing Energy
22 Energy's Holy Grail-Artificial Photosynthesis
23 Nanorobots and Nature's Nanomachines
24 On the Horizon and in the Far Future
Some place I have a list of all the universities, etc. woring on nanotechnology.