Visions CONTENTS PREFACE Hide LevelPART ONE¡X VISIONS Hide Level1¡X Choreographers of Matter, Life, and Intelligence Emerging Consensus Among Scientists Hide LevelThe Three Pillars of Science The Quantum Revolution The Computer Revolution The Biomolecular Revolution From Passive Bystanders to Active Choreographers of Nature From Reductionism to Synergy The Wealth of Nations Hide LevelTime Frames for the Future To The Year 2020 From 2020 To 2050 From 2050 To 2100 And Beyond Toward a Planetary Civilization Hide LevelPART TWO¡X THE COMPUTER REVOLUTION Hide Level2¡X The Invisible Computer The Disappearing PC Three Phases of Computing The Third Phase and Beyond Moore's Law What Drives Moore's Law? Sensors and the Invisible Computer The Smart Office and Home of the Future The MIT Media Lab Wearable Computers The Smart Room Smart Cards, Digital Money, and Cyber Cash Smart Cars Virtual Reality and Cyber Science Doomed by the Point One Limit? Hide Level3¡X The Intelligent Planet Why No Policeman on the Block? How the Internet and Other Technologies Came About The Mother of All Nets The Historical Significance of the Internet To 2020: How the Internet Will Shape Our Lives Bottlenecks on the Internet The Merger of TV and the Internet Wall Screens Speech Recognition From the Present to 2020: Intelligent Agents 2020¡V2050: Games and Expert Systems Common Sense is Not So Common The Encyclopedia of Common Sense Hide LevelA "Week in the Life" in 2020 6:30 A.M. June 1, 2020 4 P.M. Evening Midnight, Wednesday Thursday night Saturday night Conclusion Hide Level4¡X Machines That Think Creating the Future Cross-Fertilization of the Three Revolutions Preprogrammed Robots From 2020 to 2050: Robotics and the Brain Talking Robots Robotics Meets Quantum Physics What are Dreams? Cog Can Robots Feel? Beyond 2050: Robot Consciousness Degrees of Consciousness Hide Level5¡X Beyond Silicon Cyborgs and the Ultimate Computer Into the Third Dimension Beyond 2020: Optical Computers Holographic Memory DNA Computers Beyond 2020: Quantum Transistors The Ultimate Computer Beyond 2050 Bionics Merging Mind and Machine The Distant Future: Growing Cyborgs in the Lab Hide Level6¡X Second Thoughts Will Humans Become Obsolete? Eavesdropping on the Internet Roadkill on the Information Highway Jobs Which Will Flourish Industries Which Will Change¡Xor Die Winners and Losers Increase the Pie What Creates Wealth in the Twenty-first Century? Robotic Dangers: Self-aware Robots Robots as Killing Machines Robots That Go Mad Can Three Laws Protect Us? Hide LevelPART THREE¡X THE BIOMOLECULAR REVOLUTION Hide Level7¡X Personal DNA Codes Mapping the Human Genome Predictions for the Future Molecular Medicine What is Life? From Quantum Physics to DNA Reading the Code of Life Of Microbes, Mice, and Men The Human Family Tree DNA Testing Crime, Punishment, and DNA Synergy Between Computers and DNA Research The Birth of a New Science: Computational Biology DNA on a Chip Post-Genome Era: From 2020 to 2050 Hide Level8¡X Conquering Cancer¡XFixing Our Genes The Father of Gene Therapy Three Stages in Medicine The Scourge of Cancer A Unified Theory of Cancer P-53: The Key to Most Cancers Telomeres: The "Fuse" for Cancer Cancer in 2020 Hereditary Diseases: Ancient Scourge How Hereditary Diseases Have Altered History From Now to 2010: Gene Hunting The Final Frontier: SCIDS From 2020 to 2050: Polygenic Diseases From 2020 to 2050: Germ-Line Therapy? Hide Level9¡X Molecular Medicine and the Mind/Body Link Molecular Medicine Through 2020: Eliminating Killer Viruses The Origins of Viruses HIV: Paradigm for the Twenty-first Century Computers and the AIDS Family Tree Unraveling the AIDS Genome New Microbes Too Much of a Good Thing Designer Molecules Of Molecules and Mystics Mind/Body Link Imaging Devices in the Twenty-first Century Hide Level10¡X To Live Forever? The Search for the Fountain of Youth Animals That Are "Immortal" How Old Was Juliet? The Physics of Aging Aging: You're Just Getting Rusty From the Present to 2020: Hormones, the Elixir of Life? Cancer and Aging Long Shots Beyond 2020: It's All in Our Genes Reversing Aging: From Animals to Humans How Long Can We Live? Aging Research from 2020 to 2050 You Aren't What You Eat: The Caloric Theory From 2020 to 2050: Growing New Organs Hide Level11¡X Playing God Designer Children and Clones Manipulating the Genes of Animals and Plants To 2020: Transgenic Animals and Plants Clones Beyond 2020: Polygenic Traits Hide Level2020 to 2050: Designer Children? Genes For Body Shape Genes For the Face and Scalp Genes for Behavior Beyond 2050 Master Genes for the Eye "Master Architects" for the Body Beyond 2050: Angels in America Hide Level12¡X Second Thoughts The Genetics of a Brave New World? Nuclear Energy vs. Genetic Revolution You Can't Recall a Crop "Who Owns the Genome?" Genes and Privacy Are Genes Us? After 2020: Manipulating Our Germ Line? To Clone a Human The Eugenics Movement Biological Warfare Legislating the Genome Hide LevelPART FOUR¡X THE QUANTUM REVOLUTION Hide Level13¡X The Quantum Future Nanotechnology: Molecular Machines From Now to 2020: MEMS 2020 to 2050: Building Molecular Machines Room Temperature Superconductors: The Holy Grail Maglev Trains Fusion: Harnessing a Piece of the Sun Fusion Versus Fission Breeders and Terrorism Here Comes the Sun The Electric/Hybrid Car The Next Generation of Lasers Beyond 2100: Antimatter Engines Hide LevelDefying the Known Laws of Physics Portable Ray Guns Force Fields Transporters and Replicators Invisibility Hide Level14¡X To Reach for the Stars From Now to 2020 Mars: The Frozen Desert The Space Station in 2002 X-33: Workhorse of the Twenty-first Century The Orient Express From 2020 to 2050 Extra-Solar Planets in Space Finding Earth-like Planets in Space Creating a Garden of Eden in Space Beyond 2050: To Build a Starship Nuclear Pulsed Rocket Photonic Engines and Sails Suspended Animation Beyond 2100: Our Place Among the Stars Cosmic Collisions To Die in Fire and Ice Aliens from Space Will They Look Like Us? Hide Level15¡X Toward a Planetary Civilization Dangers Faced by Type 0 Civilizations Type I: A Planetary Civilization Type II Civilizations: Invulnerable to Any Natural Disaster Type III Civilizations: Conquering the Galaxy Toward a Planetary Civilization Planetary Collapse Population Explosion vs. Diminishing Resources Reversing the Great Diaspora The End of the Era of Nations? The Rise of the Middle Class De Facto Planetary Language and Culture Hide Level16¡X Masters of Space and Time Matter. Life. The Mind. The Fourth Pillar: Space-Time Black Holes and Wormholes Time Travel Problems with Wormholes and Time Machines Toward a Theory of Everything Two Polar Opposites Superstrings The Tenth Dimension What Happened Before the Big Bang? The Multiverse The Distant Future: The Fate of the Universe Conclusion Hide LevelNOTES Chapter 1¡X Choreographers of Matter, Life, and Intelligence Chapter 2¡X The Invisible Computer Chapter 3¡X The Intelligent Planet Chapter 4¡X Machines That Think Chapter 5¡X Beyond Silicon: Cyborgs and the Ultimate Computer Chapter 6¡X Second Thoughts: Will Humans Become Obsolete? Chapter 7¡X Personal DNA Codes Chapter 8¡X Conquering Cancer¡XFixing Our Genes Chapter 9¡X Molecular Medicine and the Mind/Body Link Chapter 10¡X To Live Forever? Chapter 11¡X Playing God: Designer Children and Clones Chapter 12¡X Second Thoughts: The Genetics of Brave New World? Chapter 13¡X The Quantum Future Chapter 14¡X To Reach for the Stars Chapter 15¡X Toward a Planetary Civilization Chapter 16¡X Masters of Space and Time Hide LevelRECOMMENDED READING Part One¡X The Computer Revolution Part Two¡X The Biomolecular Revolution Part Three¡X The Quantum Revolution Show LevelINDEX