[extropy-chat] Three-quarters of N. American's support stem cell research

[Adrian Tymes]

--- Chris Phoenix <cphoenix at CRNano.org> wrote:
> devon fowler <dfowler282004 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>   [in response to Chris Phoenix
> <cphoenix at CRNano.org>]
>  >  I'm assuming you've already answered these
> questions:
>  > -yes research can and is being slowed down
>  > -and there is and will be a substantial effect on
>  > develpment.  Correct me if my guesstimates are
>  > wrong...
> 
> That would be my guess.  But there's a lot I don't
> know about how 
> research happens, having never been a paid academic
> researcher. 
> Information and insights will help.

Consider: I, who would like to be a researcher, have a
number of different issues I would like to research.
Which ones can I get paid for?  Which ones have a
perceived real chance of landing me in jail just for
practicing it - accused of "crimes against humanity"
or similar charges, with due process suspended as
those who now hunt terrorists (and used to hunt
communists) move on to hunt "irresponsible renegade
scientists" (or whatever label they come up with)?
Both factors affect my choice of path - the latter
more substantially, but note it does not apply to
most fields of science.

> Also, if my guess is right, how come I was the first
> person to point it 
> out, after days of focusing on venture capital as
> the main issue?

Maybe because a lot of people are looking to private
funding as the best near-term solution, given the
current federal funding ban?

> 1) It's hard to grasp molecular manufacturing. 
> Engineering from the 
> molecules on up (as opposed to biology)... automated
> general purpose 
> manufacturing, with its counterintuitive cost
> implications... 
> ridiculous-sounding performance projections
> (shrinking computers and 
> actuators by eight orders of magnitude)...

Not to mention that the exact process by which one
would accomplish this has yet to be defined.  (Maybe
something like a stage which holds the being-assembled
part, seeded with the first atom, and a small robot
arm that slides around to various bins of elements,
grabs an atom that's zapped off with a laser or
electron beam, slides back to the stage, then lets go
once the stage has moved the assembly into proper
relative position; or maybe sheets of material,
extruded 1 atom thick, which an electron beam rams
into a substrate at select locations, cutting the
sheet where it hits, then dump/recycle the cut sheet
and extrude the next sheet.  Or maybe something else.)

> BTW, several people have suggested to me that U.S.
> mainstream denial is 
> a deliberate disinformation campaign: that the U.S.
> has a molecular 
> manufacturing program, and is trying to delay
> foreign programs.  I have 
> no idea whether this is true, so I mention it only
> for completeness.

The U.S. does, arguably, have a molecular
manufacturing program.  It's nowhere near actually
being able to manufacture things atom by atom yet,
but that's the direction things are trending towards.
And it's not helping foreign science and industry
nearly as vigorously as its own, but this is to be
expected: the U.S. government invests first and
foremost in the U.S., while the rest of the world
primarily matters insofar as it does or could affect
the U.S.  Nothing inherently conspiratorial about that
when one looks at the reasons behind it.  (Besides,
something as broad and diffuse as mainstream denial
is, frankly, beyond the resources of the U.S.
intelligance agencies.  Heck, just to meet a majority
of the movers and shakers and politely ask them to
follow along - without any resources used on coercion
of any sort - would strain their resources, if not
exceed them outright.)