Evangelicals and Nano-Gnosticism

Luddites to the left of me, the religious to the right; and here I am, stuck in the middle with nano. This Christianity Today article: "The Techno Sapiens Are Coming," is subtitled, "When God fashioned man and woman, he called his creation very good. Transhumanists say that, by manipulating our bodies with microscopic tools, we can do better. Are we ready for the great debate?" The author, C. Christopher Hook, director of bioethics education for the Mayo Graduate School of Medicine, and chairman of the Mayo Clinical Ethics Council, writes: "The ethical implications of nanotechnology are great, but even more troubling is the philosophy of some of its proponents, who subscribe to transhumanism. This is the belief that someday we will re-engineer our natures to such an extent that a posthuman species, or several new species, will be created that are "superior" to homo sapiens." Here's an issue that will need to be addressed. The evengelical lobby has tremendous influence with the current administration in Washington, and subscribers to a publication that reaches many of them are being told that some nanotech proponents are "transhumanists," which the author calls a "new incarnation of gnosticism." I'm guessing that the nanotech business leadership, already going through some bizarre intellectual contortions in order to distance itself from proponents of molecular nanotechnology, would certainly not want to be painted as gnostics. Yet, here, a pro-nano evangelical and a confused religion writer add their voices to the latest incarnation of ages-old questions of faith and science. Discuss Bioethics for Scientists Bioethics for Scientists provides an introduction to the ethics of modern life sciences and encompasses a wide range of environmental, social, scientific and medical issues. Subjects such as global warming, GM crops and the recent advances in genetics and cloning affect all areas of society. Scientists in all fields are frequently reminded of their own responsibilities, not just within their own profession but also to society. Confucian Bioethics Guiding Icarus: Merging Bioethics with Corporate Interests Bioethics from a Faith Perspective: Ethics in Health Care in the Twenty-First Century

News in a NanoSecond

NanoDot is debating NanoCreationism The Foresight Institute is a nonprofit looking for donations, but a guy named John says don't slip on the snake oil DF Moore likes his professors to be enthusiastic about SPMs and nanotribology "Professor X" had his spine repaired using nanotechnology. Further bulletins as they become available. Jeremy Shepherd is curiously contemplating naval science and nanotech Something is lost in the Google translation, but a German blogger is fascinated by the space elevator idea. And Google has no tool to translate this. I think he says something nice, though. Discuss Scanning Probe Microscopy and Spectroscopy: Theory, Techniques, and Applications, 2nd Edition Advances in Scanning Probe Microscopy of Polymers Exploring Scanning Probe Microscopy With Mathematica Scanning Probe Microscopy: Analytical Methods

dot-dot-dot, dash-dash-dash, dot-dot-dot

Last month, I showed you how I'm read in in very high places here and here. Now, here are a few more examples, taken from my Web stats. If blogging still isn't considered a legitimate way to get information, there sure are a lot of  people from important (and somewhat scary to this lone blogman!) agencies and governments paying attention to what I have to say.

Discuss

Writers who know what I meme

David Pescovitz and Mark Frauenfelder, BoingBoing bloggers, NanoBot advisers and legendary writers, have contributed some excellent work to Small Times in the past couple of days. David writes of how my daughter educates her dad on nanocool in: Nano's got the ways and memes for a viral assault on pop culture. David has since heard from Victoria Vesna and James Gimzewski, who pointed out their own article on the subject: The Nanomeme Syndrome: Blurring of Fact & Fiction in the Construction of a New Science Mark, recovered from Raratonga, writes about the L.A. "nano" exhibit in: For nanoart to imitate real life, exhibition goes back to basics You can read more of David's Small Times columns here, here and here. And cryonics believers might want to look at Mark's coverage here. Related Posts Unfrozen Cave Men Why the Nano Generation Doesn't Need Us Nanomation Discuss Mad Professor

Drexler: More Empty Arguments

Dear Howard, A recent review of Daniel and Mark Ratner's book, "Nanotechnology and Homeland Security," highlights the current tactics of the denialist camp. The Ratners embrace stain resistant pants as "real nanotechnology," but label the original Feynman nanotechnology concepts of molecular assembly as "science fiction", relegated to a section entitled "What Nanotechnology is Not." Following the example of Richard Smalley and others, the Ratners choose to attack straw men of their own fabrication instead of addressing the scientific literature or the specifics of molecular physics and engineering. These false denials of real opportunities and dangers, coupled with a questionable PR strategy, make the nanotech industry increasingly vulnerable to a public backlash. Best wishes, -- Eric Drexler Related Posts: Drexler on Drexlerians The Impossible Dream Drexler: 'Bait and Switch -- The Coverup' Discuss Nanosystems: Molecular Machinery, Manufacturing & Computation Engines of Creation

More pieces of Feynman

Driving under the influence of Feynman seems to have touched off some discussion over at Blogcritics, where I repost some of my work. Scroll down to the end to read and participate in the Feynman free-for-all. If you're interested, here are some of my other Blogcritics posts, all of which have also appeared on NanoBot. Blogcritics is an excellent conglomeration of bloggers, by the way, and it certainly gets my vote for a blog site that will "make it" after the blog hype settles down and only the profitable survive. Not that I'm any kind of Website soothsayer, but way back during the go-go late '90s, I had faith that Beliefnet.com would live to tell the greatest economic boom story ever told, and I was right. Some of my contributions from a few years and career turns back can be found here and here. Back to Feynman. In my previous post, I talked about how the nanotech founding father's words get me through my morning commute. Feynman was big on making science understandable to everyday slobs like me. I've written about this subject before, and I do wish that I had been around during his heyday. But I wonder how I would have handled this interview, relayed by Robert P. Crease in a March 2001 article in Physics Web, Revenge of the Science Writer. "In my own encounter with Feynman - which, incidentally, is recounted in the epilogue to James Gleick's biography Genius ( ) - I asked him questions about episodes of his intellectual development. Feynman's replies were direct, but accompanied by intense curiosity about why I was asking; he sought to learn. Then I asked him about progress in science. This did not interest him. A physiological change in his face told me that I had abruptly gone from scholar to scribbler. All at once he grew angry, stood up, and began shouting. "It's a dumb question," he yelled, "I don't know how to answer it. Cancel everything I said!" He slammed his fist into the mountains of papers on his desk, then strode to the door. "It's all so stupid. All of these interviews are always so damned useless." He walked down the corridor, shouting: "It's goddamned useless to talk about these things! It's a complete waste of time! The history of these things is nonsense! You're trying to make something difficult and complicated out of something that's simple and beautiful!" In that instant, witnessing his curiosity evaporate, I realized this had nothing to do with me, nor with contempt for outsiders, nor with scorn for history. Rather, it had everything to do with Feynman's absorption in his own work - the same kind of absorption that made him a great physicist. That was one tape I kept." I suppose flying off the handle is not the sole duty of business public relations specialists. If you're still with me, I wanted to quote some more Feynman and then throw a question out to everybody. This is another passage from the book I'm "reading" (listening to), "The Pleasure of Finding Things Out" ( ). It's from a 1979 interview he did with Omni magazine: Omni: Will a historian of science someday trace the careers of your students as others have done with the students of Rutherford and Niels Bohr and Fermi? Feynman: I doubt it. I'm disappointed with my students all the time. I'm not a teacher who knows what he's doing. Omni: But you can trace influence the other way. Say, the influence on you of Hans Bethe or John Wheeler. Feynman: Sure. But I don't know the effect I'm having. Maybe it's just my character. I don't know. I'm not a psychologist or sociologist. I don't know how to understand people, including myself. You ask, 'How can this guy teach? How can he be motivated if he doesn't know what he's doing?' Well, as a matter of fact, I love to teach. I love to think of new ways of looking at things as I explain them, to make them clearer. But maybe I'm not making them clearer. Probably what I'm doing is entertaining myself. I've learned how to live without knowing. I don't have to be sure I'm succeeding, as I said before about science. I think my life is fuller because I don't know what I'm doing. I'm delighted with the width of the world." I've seen CalTech in my site stats before. Do any of you have a Feynman story you'd like to share? I'm not really an "historian of science," but I'd like to hear from some of Feynman's former students to see how far his influence stretched. If nothing else, we can all at least read some more bongo-playin' "Feynman stories." Discuss Related Post: Driving under the influence of Feynman Related Small Times story Nanotech for the Common Man PACKAGE: The Feynman Lectures on Physics: Commemorative Issue, Three Volume Set

News in a NanoSecond

From The Guardian: "A Horizon investigation into the dangers of nanotechnology was watched by 2.1 million, 300,000 more than watched The Diana Conspiracy, Channel 4's investigation into the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. 1 femtotesla: Is that one-quadrillionth of an '80s hair band? Modzelewski Employment Watch: Day 1. More here and here But enough strife, nanotech should build bridges. This site doesn't threaten me at all, but this one looks really interesting. Who would have thought that a microscopy conference could sound so exciting! IBM = Nano = Buy Nanomedicine on a five-year mission. Discuss Gocollect.com :: How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying - Movie Posters - Comedy -

Small Tech Business Directory is online

If I can get all commercial on you for a moment, I've been meaning to highlight the great work going on at Small Times. Our crack team of researchers (no mild-mannered librarians are they -- two of them are experts at Tae Kwan Do), have invested a great deal of time, effort and eyestrain into the 2004 Small Tech Business Directory. If you're involved in small tech in any way -- even as a consultant -- you need to be listed in there, since this is the bible that industry insiders are using. If you're missing, drop them a note. And despite the impression you might get on this blog, the job that pays me is all about the business of small tech. Much of what you read on smalltimes.com is assigned, edited and posted by me, and I'm especially proud of the large databank of company profiles we've amassed, with the help of some of the best freelance writers and karate-choppin' researchers in the biz. Directory of Venture Capital Kate Lister and Tom Harnish deliver information on more than 6000 sources of venture capital in this revised edition.

A Game of Risk

Joel Achenbach of the Washington Post writes: "Just when you absorb one type of danger, someone invents a new one – SARS or avian flu or something enigmatic called nanotechnology."

Don't send your angry letters to Joel, though. He's just the messenger. Achenbach mentions nano as part of a larger report on risk assessment. And, like it or not, your local paper has probably already featured headlines that warn of nanotech's "risks." So, what are you going to do about this perception?

Discuss

Related Posts
A Sad Jab at the 'Bad Rad Lab'
'Societal concerns' vs. scientific accuracy
The Golems of our Era

---

Breaking the Vicious Circle: Toward Effective Risk Regulation Stephen Breyer explores three difficulties currently plaguing efforts to cope with health risks.

InstaMission

Good evening, Mr. Phelps, The Speculist and CRN have joined your IM (InstaMail? InstaAntiModz?) Force.

Discuss

Related Post
Ripples in the Nanoblogosphere

---

Blog On Todd Stauffer is the author or co-author of over 20 books on computing.

Unauthorized uses of 'Nano'

As before, cease and desist orders are being sent to the following perpetrators:

Risotto rice: Arborio is the most widely available, but also worth buying is the creamy vialone nano and carnaroli, which is especially good with seafood.

Adidas Men's Nano-Second Synthetic leather upper with TPU side panel. CMEVA midsole with adiPRENE® heel insert provides flexibility and comfort, TorSion® System. Forefoot feather construction with carbon rubber outsole. (Blogger's Note: Why is it nano? Dunno)

Nano Survives Second Storming A 2,000-strong crowd of protesters attempted to storm the office of Albanian Prime Minister Fatos Nano on 8 February and called for his resignation, following a 4,000-strong demonstration the day before.

Discuss

Driving under the influence of Feynman

One of my dirty little secrets is that I listen to audiobooks from audible.com (My commute from suburban Detroit to Ann Arbor keeps me in my car about two hours a day). This morning, I "read" (OK, had read to me), Richard Feynman's "The Pleasure of Finding Things Out." (

)

I'm a caffeine addict, but Feynman's words had, as the nanofather himself would say, a "kick" all its own. Here are a couple of quotes that stayed inside my brain:

"It is not necessary to understand the way birds flap their wings and how the feathers are designed in order to make a flying machine. It is not necessary to understand the lever system in the legs of a cheetah — an animal that runs fast — in order to make an automobile with wheels that goes very fast. It is therefore not necessary to imitate the behavior of Nature in detail in order to engineer a device which can in many respects surpass nature's abilities."

The quote had me rushing to my notes when I got to the office this morning. It reminded me very much of something one of Feynman's successors (in fact, a winner of the 2003 Foresight Institute Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology), told me during an interview last fall. Carlo Montemagno of the University of California, Los Angeles, won the prize in experimental nanotechnology. He's making hybrid devices, or "taking components you would find in living systems and import them into engineered systems." I asked him whether that is what they're talking about when I hear the term "biomimetics." He responded that he's working on a different level than, say, an engineer who is creating "a robot that moves its fin like a fish, or a flying object that flies by flapping like a bird."

"The work that I do is a little more basic than that in the sense that I'm looking at trying to make materials and devices in terms of sensors and actuators that incorporate the same sort of molecular, biological complexity and structures that enable these to behave almost exactly like a living system. So, it's a little bit different. I'm at a smaller scale. So, I'm looking at making membranes that convert energy from one form to another, or filter chemicals or pump molecules just like a living membrane would do."

Montemagno's "end-game" is to make devices that have "embedded intelligence," or whose "functionality is greater than the individual pieces." And before I bore the business-minded among you, he's not doing this merely for the pleasure of finding things out. He said he's about two years away from commercialization. The first application? Water filtration. Remember those two words, by the way. They will make the headlines this year as a number of nanotech research and business plans grow ready for prime time.

And speaking of the news, let me leave you with one more Feynman quote from the book I've been listening to:

"To decide upon the answer is not scientific. In order to make progress, one must leave the door to the unknown ajar. Ajar only. We are only at the beginning of the development of the human race, of the development of the human mind, of intelligent life. We have years and years in the future.

It's our responsibility not to give the answer today as to what it is all about, to drive everybody down in that direction and to say, 'This is the solution to it all,' because we will be chained, then, to the limits of our present imagination. We will only be able to do those things that we think today are the things to do. Whereas, if we leave always some room for doubt, some room for discussion and proceed in a way analogous to the sciences, then this difficulty will not arise.

I believe, therefore, that although it is not the case today, that there may someday come a time, I should hope, when it will be fully appreciated that the power of government should be limited, that governments ought not to be empowered to decide the validity of scientific theories, that this is a ridiculous thing for them to try to do, that they are not to decide the various descriptions of history or of economic theory or of philosophy. Only in this way can the real possibilities of the future human race be ultimately developed."

UPDATE: Here's a link to more on Carlo Montemagno, which includes a short video of the nanotech researcher explaining "biobots." At right is a picture I took (all rights reserved, etc., etc.) of Montemagno giving his Foresight Institute Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology acceptance speech at a conference last October.

Discuss

Related Posts
The Impossible Dream?
2003: The Year of the Straw NanoMan
Merkle and the case of the misleading metaphor

---

Six Easy Pieces Essentials Of Physics Explained By Its Most Brilliant Teacher

News in a NanoSecond

• The Everlasting Phelps has an open letter to members of the NanoBusiness Alliance.
• Something's lost in translation here, but I think we get the idea.
• The Peking Duck is worried that Kim Jong-Il might learn to cook.
• Floyd says: "If you don't have an opinion on nanotechnology, get one."
• Aussies and Brits have launched a new nano portal, AZoNano.com, but I'm confused as to which accent should be used for pronunciation.

Discuss

---

Perspectives of Fullerene Nanotechnology The first ever book on the applications of fullerenes and nanotubes. World's experts on the industrial use of these new forms of carbon contributes chapters, that are based on lectures given in a large workshop held on February 2001, and expanded thereafter. The contents are intended for those who are interested in the exploration of industrial applications of fullerenes and carbon nanotubes.

News in a NanoSecond

• "In the world of Nano-science ... man goes more nearer to the creator in his understanding of nature."
  
  
• Ninth-graders out in Hackensack need some nano help
  
  
• Nano good for brain, nano bad for brain
  
  
• The reason journalism is so much more fun than fiction: You just can't make this stuff up.

Discuss

---

Computational Studies, Nanotechnology, and Solution Thermodynamics of Polymer Systems This volume combines two symposia, Computational Polymer Science and Nanotechnology, and Solution Thermodynamics of Polymers, both held at the Southeastern Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society, October 17-20, 1999, in Knoxville, Tennessee. Both symposia brought together leaders, pioneers, and promising researchers in the area of the physical chemistry of polymers. The first meeting concentrated on computational techniques, while the other presented recent work on both experimental and theoretical works in the physical chemistry of polymers.

What up with BBC doc?

Small Times London Correspondent Ben Wootliff  brought this to my attention. The BBC is airing the above documentary tonight.

The picture is of theoretical physicist Michio Kaku, but the headline highlights Hendrik Schon, a former Bell Labs researcher who was disgraced in 2002 for allegedly manipulating and misrepresenting data.

Small Times Correspondent Jack Mason reported in Sept. 2002 that some of his work might yet prove to be groundbreaking in areas such as molecular electronics.

I'm not sure what the Beeb doc will focus on, but maybe one of my British readers can watch it and let me know?

UPDATE: Richard Jones and Sheila Nicholas have answered my transatlantic SOS and supplied some great commentary here. Thanks!

ANOTHER UPDATE: BBC has posted a transcript of the program here, and a "What are Nanobots?" breakout box here.

---

Visions: How Science Will Revolutionize The 21st Century Quantum mechanics, artificial intelligence and biogenetics will forever change the way humans live in the 21st century. Visio...

Nano is chocolate in silicon's peanut butter

I've written before on Intel's Nano Inside, and EE Times' report, Top chip makers tout nanotechnology, expands a bit more on these ideas. At the 90-nm node, gate lengths are 50 nm, which is "clearly nanotechnology by any definition," said George Bourianoff, Intel Corp.'s senior program manager for the strategic research group at Intel. Bourianoff said there's a "push-pull relationship" between the silicon industry and nanotechnology. He said carbon nanotubes and nanowires may extend CMOS scaling down to the 1 to 3 nm range. At the same time, he noted, the silicon manufacturing infrastructure is an ideal platform for enabling nanotechnology. A couple of days ago, I met Zyvex President Tom Cellucci at an Ann Arbor restaurant (Take a note, young entrepreneur wannabes: this high-powered nano honcho enjoys Greek salad and hummus, while this low-powered journalist just sat and chain-drank coffee), and we discussed a range of issues. Among them were the short-term commercialization steps the company is taking along the way to its goal of building a molecular assembler. (Yes, you read that correctly. A real company still has, as its stated goal anyway, the creation of the "impossible.") Cellucci was brought on board in late 2002 to, essentially, force the company to "get real" and start selling products after the initial hype surrounding Zyvex (one of the first nanotech companies to launch) had died down. I had assumed, then, that Cellucci would sluff off the "molecular assember" question, clear his throat and attempt to change the subject. So, of course, I asked the question. His answer surprised me. Me: "Would you say that Zyvex has pretty much turned around almost 180 from the goal of a molecular assembler, or is there still part of the corporate culture that's working toward that goal? Cellucci: Oh, no. No, we still are holding true to the long-term vision of developing a molecular assembler. What we've done, though, is we've gotten more detailed in what that technology development pathway needs to be, what capabilities we need to build and at the same time we looked at unsatisfied need in the marketplace. For example, we needed to develop a nanomanipulation capability. We needed to move things at the nanoscale. Well, we found out that there were a lot of companies, large companies like GE, Intel, Hewlett Packard, our customers today, who were doing R&D in nanotech, and very much could use these tools. That's how we launched the nanomanipulator line." Silicon and nanotech, as a colleague of mine would say, are the new Reese's of the tech world -- the "peanut butter and chocolate" that can help each other taste so much better. More on the silicon/small tech marriage will appear in the March/April issue of Small Times magazine. Related Posts Intel's 'Nano Inside' The Electric Kool-Aid Nano Test Discuss

Big Honor for Little Blog

Thank you, Nanotechnology Now, for naming the NanoBot one of the Best of 2003. They write: "Choice post in 2003 include - but are not limited to - Stairway to Heaven and Apocalypse Nano, The Hulk, Prince Charles and other scary things and 2003: The Year of the Straw NanoMan. This honor, plus my recent mention in Wired magazine as one of the Instapundit's top news sources, makes me wonder whether I should be reading my blog a bit more often. Apparently, there's some decent information in here. Discuss

Money for Nano, Clicks for Fee

I've sold my first ad through blogads. As you can see at left, somebody at Scientific American believes this blog is an actual, respectable publication (I won't say anything if you won't). So, if you were thinking of subscribing to SciAm, anyway, click on the ad and help support your friendly neighborhood NanoBot! The same goes for the Amazon ads at right. I hope they don't distract too much from the content of this blog, but if you see anything of interest, please click the Amazon links on this site on your way to the virtual checkout aisle. I try to make the products fit the content of individual blog posts – sometimes just for my own amusement. And your generous donations via my Amazon Honor System and PayPal links are always welcome. By the way, all proceeds from ad sales go directly toward costs associated with an important, cutting-edge nanoscience experiment. This concludes this commercial announcement. Discuss

Nano Virtuoso

From the blog of musical prodigy Chloe Trevor: "Hmm... well there isn't much to write about. Practiced until 9-5 and then went to the Omni hotel in Richardson. I played a concert there for some banquet in honor of this scientist that deals with.. nano particles or SOMETHING haha I don't really know I just play lol." The event honored Vladimir Agranovich, a spintronics virtuoso who celebrated his 75th birthday. According to the program, Chloe played Tchaikovsky's "Violin Concerto in D, I: Allegro moderato," and I'm sure she performed perfectly. Congratulations to both brilliant artists, young and old!

Nano makes it 'interesting'

Another review of Ratchet and Clank 2: Going Commando: His use of Nano-Tech, as the game calls it, certainly makes for a far more interesting experience and some of the weapon upgrades are great, especially the mini-Nuke. Nothing like some Mushroom Cloud shaped destruction to liven things up." Related Posts Why the Nano Generation doesn't need us Nanomation Nano by any memes necessary Blood-sucking Nanomachines Nano Goes 'Commando' 'When Pants Attack' Discuss

A Sad Jab at the 'Bad Rad Lab'

There were only 20-30 people at Thursday's "Bad Rad Lab" protests against the Molecular Foundry groundbreaking at Berkeley, but it bugs me, nevertheless. The contrarian in me understands the power of protest to make a point, but the journalist in me winces when the protests are based on uneducated assumptions. As I've written before, though, if the people are uninformed about science and technology policy issues, we in the niche media should be held partially responsible. The entire idea of the $85 million Molecular Foundry is to help scientists discover how things behave on the nanoscale, so that we can all make informed decisions on what to do with the technology, and where we need to worry. Unless the protesters know something the scientists don't know, let them do their work. A while back, I spoke to University of California, Berkeley, researcher Steven Louie, who is using carbon nanotubes to create the building blocks of molecular electronics and new types of sensors. Louie, who is also an adviser to nanotube startup Nanomix,was practically giddy last fall when he talked to me about the foundry, which broke ground last week and will be fully functional by 2006. Inside, he said, there are going to be engineers, chemists, biologists, even a place for theorists like him, to toss ideas around clear across different disciplines and departments. That's one thing about working on the nanoscale: Everybody is almost equally clueless, so they can make discoveries together. "It's a really fantastic opportunity for the next 5-10 years, for many disciplines getting together at this same scale," Louie said. "Foundry," though, was probably an unfortunate name for a research laboratory, since it creates an image of smokestacks belching out nano-who-knows-what. What's really happening now is that scientists are only beginning to ask the question of what the environmental impacts of nanomaterials might be, yet just the fact that the question is being asked in a public way is an invitation for some to reach a conclusion based on their own preordained world view. "Aha! See? Even the scientists are asking the questions!" The young superjournalists at the Berkeley Daily Planet have been doing an heroic job of keeping us all informed here and here and here. And more background on the foundry can be found here and here and here. Related Posts Lost and Foundry The Sequel Discuss

Nanotech and Tikkun

In my previous post, I made light of the "human enhancement" portion of the 21st Century Nanotechnology Research and Development Act (PDF, 56.1 KB), and I'm not the only one who's a bit puzzled by its safeguards against "potential use of nanotechnology in enhancing human intelligence and in developing artificial intelligence which exceeds human capacity." In all seriousness, I believe it's one of the few passages of the bill that looks far into the future and demands that we begin to think about what exactly it is we're trying to do here. It also presages a debate that is growing in not only environmentalist circles, but in religious ones as well. Take a look at a few paragraphs from this interview with C. Ben Mitchell, an assistant professor of bioethics and contemporary culture at Trinity International University, in the January 2004 issue of Christianity Today magazine. The Bible does not address nanotechnology, but does it offer any principles that should guide Christians as they think about it? The Bible's message is about redeeming that which has been lost and about caring for those who are in need and those who are suffering. It seems to me that the biblical obligation is to care for those who are the least of these, rather than make an effort to advance our species. Does the Bible prohibit enhancements? I don't know of a specific prohibition that says we ought not to try to enhance human beings. I find a number of cautions. The tower of Babel story is a powerful cautionary tale against trying to usurp God's authority. It's a warning that at least ought to give us pause. I'm curious as to where bionanotech scientists believe their limits should be. Ultimately, though, it's not even the scientists who will set those limits. It's those who will fund and commercialize the technologies, the market that demands them and the governments that will decide where to clamp down and say, "no further." The question is, who is doing the informing, and ultimately what will guide the governments' decisions? These questions will become increasingly important over time, and I'll have more to say on them soon. I approach these issues, by the way, as one whose belief system is grounded in both science and religion. There is a concept that is overused these days among believers in my particular faith, yet it brings me to an intellectual and spiritual place where science and religion can be reconciled: In Hebrew it is called "Tikkun Olam," or "repairing the world." It's a Kabbalistic concept that is often co-opted by individuals and organizations that stretch its meaning to fit their own particular missions. At its center, though, is the idea that creation has been shattered from its original pristine state, and that it is only through the actions of humankind that the shards, the sparks – the atoms, if you will – that were scattered from this once-perfect universe can regain their perfect order. Discuss Related Post The Golems of our Era