The world faces an estimated 70 percent chance of a nuclear, biological or chemical attack in the next decade, according to analysts surveyed in a recent Senate Foreign Relations Committee study. During the Cold War, the possibility of a nuclear battle that could kill every American made it imperative to avoid conflict. But today, we are still not safe. A suicide bomber hiding a weapon of mass destruction in a suitcase could murder a million Americans; twice as many as died in both twentieth century World Wars combined. Though some believe the eventual solution to ending today’s terrorist threats lie in improving the welfare of have-nots, former Defense Advanced Research Project Agency manager, Dr. Robert Popp, says we must also get better at intelligence. “We need more Arabic speakers, more experts who understand tribal relations, and more diplomats to capture audiences on Al Jazeera.” Join discussion...

1. Intel has made millimeter size 2d and 3d catoms for claytronics 2. Niel Gershenfeld, Center for Bits and Atoms at MIT, showed a programmable matter project. Small 3d objects would use local rules which would result in 100 cube components turning themselves into the shape of a wrench. 3. Intel will be making all digital radios [digital multi-radio] in 2009. The intention is to reinvent radios to make them cheaper, more reliable and able to work together. They want to make 7 trillion of them over the next few years, 1000 radios for every person. Join discussion...

Also known as "embodied virtuality". Computers that are an integral, invisible part of people's lives. In some ways the opposite of virtual reality, in which the user is absorbed into the computational world. With ubiquitous computing, computers take into account the human world rather than requiring humans to enter into the computer's methods of working. See Mark Weiser, "The Computer for the 21st Century" Scientific American Sept. 1991, Jim Morrison and Ubiquitous Computing at Xerox Parc. Join discussion...

A machine capable of constructing anything that can be constructed. The physical analog of a "universal computer", which can perform any computation. Join discussion...

Machine which is able to build a working copy of itself using materials in its environment. This is often proposed as a cheap way to mine or colonize the entire solar system or galaxy. An early fictional treatment was the short story "Autofac" by Philip K. Dick, published in 1955, which actually seems to precede John von Neumann's original paper about self-reproducing machines (von Neumann, J., 1966, The Theory of Self-reproducing Automata, A. Burks, ed., Univ. of Illinois Press, Urbana, IL.). See also the John von Neumann page at Xerox. Join discussion...

[edit] Background (highlights) Terrorism - Advances in Biotechnology lead to the possibility of relatively small sects producing lethal weapons on a previously unimaginable scale. To counter this threat Information Control is used to mislead, trap, and generally mitigate the danger. Nevertheless a number of new plague diseases emerge which are unquestionably the result of genetic engineering. Climate Change - Increasingly variable and severe weather coupled with rising sea levels are experienced. Parts of the Netherlands and San-Francisco bay area are repeatedly flooded. A novel solutions emerges. New housing interconnected by walkways is developed, rising up on stilts to be above the periodic floods. The ground below is used outside of flood time. Cognitive Science - Break throughs in psychology and psychohistory arise from a synthesis of AI research and other disciplines. As a result: We now understand 'learning' at a far deeper level. Training towards acquire eidetic memory, with a minimum of smart drugs to assist, becomes a realistic goal for over 60% of the population. Education changes from being a baby-sitting service to fulfilling its true function. Psychologically motivated features are added to Mobile phones, providing stress/lie-detector analysis of the person you are talking to, allowing adjustments in the 'mood' of voice to be made. Advertising becomes vastly more effective, so much so that the newer forms of hypnosis derived advertising technique are banned in many countries, including the US. Resistance (to modern multi-media persuasive technique) becomes the fourth 'R' alongside the three R's - "Reading, (w)Riting, (a)Rithmetic". Computing - A Phase Transition In Computing leads to a very sudden increase in computer power. Even so computers do not achieve true AI status until 2070, in part because the 'Turing Test' is redefined. Talking as a convincing human on a phone line conversation is considered too simple a task when any Phone-Bot can 'hold the fort' for its owner for a brief conversation. Join discussion...