[extropy-chat] Smalley, Drexler and the monster in Lake Michigan

[Brett Paatsch]

Robert J. Bradbury wrote:

> On Sun, 7 Dec 2003, Hal Finney wrote:
>
> > It's disappointing that the recent nanotech bill
> > has explicitly removed funding for Drexlerian nanotech.
>
> But it didn't Hal!  ...

> ....the original bill was heavily
> contributed to by the NanoBusiness Alliance I'm wondering
> if they messed up and used the wrong term.  Or perhaps
> some of the molecular electronics folks wanted a study
> to show how difficult self-assembly was (perhaps to justify
> increased funding).
>
> At any rate it would appear that someone deleted the study
> from the floor of the Senate sometime between when it was
> proposed (January) and when it got sent to committee (September).
> I would love to know who and why.

Surely this stuff must be available online somewhere. The record
of changes made in parliament in Australia is the Hansard and
its available online the following day.

I'd imagine it would be similar with whatever the equivalent record
is in the US. Does anyone know what it is?

3 back issues of Science for November arrived in the mailbox
recently and in one of them I noted that Brownback seems to
be trying to get "human organism" whatever that means (that's part
of the problem) excised from things that can be patented. This
would affect the amount of work that would be able to be done
in that area.

I think it might be useful if extropes and transhumanists added
another image to the notion of the singularity as a technological
spike. The picture is of a political spring that gets overcompressed
whenever the rate of change gets too fast. It pushes back against
the technology slowing at least to some extent (an extent much stronger
than I think is commonly recognized) the rate of technological change.

On the broad canvas of human history I think one could bet confidently
on technology. But in 2003 the one that made the bet might not be alive
to collect or to see the singularity because of the political spring pushing
back.

Regards,
Brett