"Emlyn" <emlyn@one.net.au> writes:
> Anders wrote:
> > Another tidbit I noted: the number of basepairs that can be sequenced
> > or synthetized together into strands per day and person appears to
> > increase superexponentially right now. I saw some plots comparing it
> > to Moore's law, and it was much more dramatic. After listening to
> > Craig Venter, I have the feeling that we should look for a biotech
> > singularity rather than a nanotech one :-)
> >
>
> Isn't that the same thing? I thought the vision was that nanotech
> would come out of biotech, particularly the protein folding stuff,
> as general nanotech would bootstrap from protein based work?
Maybe, I think it is likely. But we should remember that there are
many ways technology can develop beyond the ones we consider
'obvious'. Maybe biotechnology leads to a very different society with
goals that instead create some other kind of singularity than the one
we are usually talking about? I don't know what it could be or if it
is likely, but we should avoid becoming technological determinists.
-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension! asa@nada.kth.se http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/ GCS/M/S/O d++ -p+ c++++ !l u+ e++ m++ s+/+ n--- h+/* f+ g+ w++ t+ r+ !y
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