Nano Race Cars, Synthetic Life & Cyber-Workers, Oh My!

Nanotechnology has advanced quite significantly over the years up to the point where we've seen some really useful practical use, most of which people are unaware of, partially because it sounds like science fiction.

But first, let's define nanotechnology.  It is generally technology that is on the nano scale, which is one billionth of a meter.  We're dealing with the realm of the atoms and molecules.  Hence any technological application where we're manipulating materials at the atomic/molecular level can be called nanotechnology.  What is going into applications or already in application has already started to change our lives.

In this article I would like to discuss specifically what most people think of when it comes to nanotechnology.  Yep, you heard it, nano robots and the like.

I discuss the philosophical implications in the video below:

Bio-engineering
I've written quite a bit about how we're now able to manipulate molecules to be able to create tiny organic machines.  Well, that's one form of nanotechnology using organic molecules of course!

In the past, we've explored the great advancements we've made using the CRISPR-Cas9 protein complex, a complex that we've modified from bacteria to do a simple job:  repair defective genes with great precision.  With it, we can cure over time all genetic diseases, repair mutated genomes and even cut out viruses that are hiding in our cell's nuclei (viruses like Herpes etc...).

We're also capable of creating our very own chromosomes and we've also made the first synthetic form of life, through engineering fairly recently.  Pretty cool that we're able to do this right?  Though that one is old news since the first was in 2010!

Cybernetics
In 2015, a company in Stockholm, Sweden, decided that it would be practical to implant their 2,000 odd workers with tiny chips in their hands to be used as passes for security purposes as well as allow them to wave their hands in order to make purchases on site with the distribution system knowing exactly to which account flag the purchase.  With this tech, it would be possible to also know exactly when each employee is taking breaks, when they come in, when they leave, whether they are healthy or in distress etc...  The list goes on and on.  The company says they did this to be at the forefront of technology and be seen as a technologically advanced company in Stockholm.  Though the information I have doesn't exactly state all the features they may have integrated into the nano-chip but the workers don't seem to mind.  The device has very small components and don't impede their work at all.

This though makes them all cyber-workers all of a sudden transmitting through their hands their identity... something that is hard to fake.  You can't exactly leave this chip to a friend to enter onto the premises and if one day someone had part of their hand cut out, it would come out as pretty suspicious, and security would definitively investigate a breach...

Personally, I'm not a fan of any kind of surgery... heck I don't even like the prospects of getting a small tattoo (one day?).  But frankly, if its pretty superficial and I can get serious benefits from the small implant, I would go for it too and follow the buzz!

Nano racing cars
In 2011, scientists started building actual moving machines, including cars at the nano level.  This year, 2017, is the first nano-car race competition.  These things are very small, and truly "nano" with wheels 60 atoms wide organized on a carbon atom chassis.  Heck they will even create a nano racetrack with actual atomic obstacles for the competition.  How can you participate?  Well, you have to be pretty expert and have the right equipment to make cars of that size.

But don't fret, some labs have even thought of creating IKEA-style rules and numbered parts so you could make your own car (in this case, nano biocars using a hard material skeleton and muscle cells that act as drivers).  Once the novelty of the races will pass, I'm sure we'll start getting pretty good at making hybrid or technological machines on the same scale that would have more practical uses, like perhaps build things atom by atom.  Not a far-fetched idea in our world of 3D Printing tech.

I for one, am excited that we've figured out increasingly innovative and efficient ways to build machines, organic or non-organic, that can do tasks at that scale.

Super-Intelligent "Robots will outnumber Humans in 30 years"

Don't take my word for it.  This comes straight from Japan's SoftBank Group CEO, Masayoshi Son.

If you've been following along my blog and videos, that statement shouldn't be very surprising.  For those of you just tuning in or reading these lines, here is the jist of it:

• Around 10 years from now, one of our computers will be able to do as many computations per second as a human brain.
• By then, there should be over 20 times the amount of smart devices as there are people on the planet, all interconnected (what we call the Internet of Things (IoT) nowadays).
• A few years later than that, there would be more devices, in more parts of our lives, and each one of those devices could potentially be as powerful as a human brain (though most would not need to be to assume their role).
• 29% of the 140 acquisitions of Artificial Intelligence companies in the world in the last 5 years were made in 2016 alone.  It is anticipated that there will be 300% more acquisitions than that in 2017.
• This year, China has already started using the first autonomous Security Robot, beyond the facier industrial robots, that can track bombs, criminals and other stuff as well as identify potential criminal intent on the fly.  I think it can give out directions too, like any good beat cop can.  It's the first robot that I know of that is in actual use in public.
• Autonomous self-driven cars are on the way by all major manufacturers along with outliers like Tesla Motors, NVidia,, Google, Intel and several others.  There are already self-driven vehicles on the road in England and other European countries as well as many self-driven trucks in the mining industry etc....  Major manufacturers for privately owned-vehicles still plan to start selling their personal self-driven vehicles on our around 2020.
• And of course you are aware of autonomous delivery systems being tested by several large companies (Amazon included) around the world.  UPS has joined the list of companies in this game.  A bunch of other entrants are giving a shot at the delivery game too, such as LastMileRobotics.  Of course, they likely would get acquired or become suppliers for larger firms if their designs hold up.

So with all that activity and integration of really smart devices and sensors running about... in 30 years, robots will be in fact everywhere in our lives, and they will likely be in larger numbers than human beings, and those robots will be severely outnumbered by smart devices embedded into most of our home devices and infrastructure.  Not everything smarter than us will actually look like a robot and vice versa.

I talk about how this will look like in the video below:

In a nutshell though, in 30 years, it is very reasonable to assume that we'll be surrounded with robots of varying intelligence, size, purpose, including possibly nano-robots in our bloodstream.

What does it mean for us simple dumb humans?

Well, it means we can enjoy life then because all that interaction between super-smart robots means they can basically take care of running everything we don't want to run, more efficiently, and with more competence than all the experts of the planet combined.

It means, sharing space with these robots and enjoying ourselves.  We no longer speak of work.  We speak of having occupations because believe it or not many humans want to be involved as a driving force behind our art, culture, science and society.  Humans will be basically fully integrated into a network of intelligence and robots.  

And don't think we won't have robotic lovers (mechanical or organic in nature).  Even today we've figured out how to give robots "senses".  It is thus quite reasonable to assume in 30 years, we'll have mechanical robots fully capable to feel and even be sensual just like a real human lover would.  

And why not?