Everything about Emerging Technologies totally explained
Emerging technologies and
converging technologies are terms used interchangeably to cover the
emergence and
convergence of new and potentially disruptive
technologies such as
nanotechnology,
biotechnology,
cognitive science,
robotics, and
artificial intelligence.
Overview
Various writers, including
computer scientist Bill Joy, have identified clusters of technologies that they consider critical to humanity's future. Advocates of the benefits of
technological change typically see emerging and converging technologies as offering hope for the betterment of the human condition. However, critics of the risks of technological change, and even some advocates such as
transhumanist philosopher
Nick Bostrom, warn that some of these technologies could pose dangers, perhaps even contribute to the
extinction of humanity itself; for example, some of them could involve
existential risks.
Much
ethical debate centers on issues of
distributive justice in allocating access to beneficial forms of technology. Some thinkers, such as
environmental ethicist Bill McKibben, oppose the continuing development of advanced technology partly out of fear that its benefits will be distributed unequally in ways that could worsen the
plight of the poor. By contrast,
inventor Ray Kurzweil is among
techno-utopians who believe that emerging and converging technologies could and will
eliminate poverty and
abolish suffering.
Acronyms
NBIC, an acronym standing for
Nanotechnology,
Biotechnology,
Information technology and
Cognitive science, is currently the most popular term for emerging and converging technologies, and was introduced into public discourse through the publication of
Converging Technologies for Improving Human Performance, a report sponsored in part by the U.S.
National Science Foundation. The term may have been chosen for its obvious immediate parallels to
NBC weapons of mass destruction (
Nuclear,
Biological and
Chemical).
Various other acronyms have been offered for essentially the same concept such as GNR (
Genetics,
Nanotechnology and
Robotics). Journalist
Joel Garreau in
Radical Evolution: The Promise and Peril of Enhancing Our Minds, Our Bodies — and What It Means to Be Human uses "GRIN", for
Genetic,
Robotic,
Information, and
Nano processes, while
science journalist Douglas Mulhall in
Our Molecular Future: How Nanotechnology, Robotics, Genetics and Artificial Intelligence Will Transform Our World uses "GRAIN", for
Genetics,
Robotics,
Artificial Intelligence, and
Nanotechnology. Another acronym coined by the
ETC Group is "BANG" for "
Bits,
Atoms,
Neurons,
Genes".
Further Information
Get more info on 'Emerging Technologies'.
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