While I’m on the subject of foundational concepts in the relationship between science and engineering, here’s the outline of a methodology for applying current science to assess lower bounds on the capabilities of a select subset of future technologies. (As many of you know, some of those lower bounds are startlingly high.)
A subset of the [...]
The heart of the problem(Full image below)
Science and engineering are inseparable fields, linked by a shared language of mass and energy, molecules and thermodynamics, physical systems and physical law. This shared language makes communication deceptively easy — easy, because scientists and engineers can see every detail in the same way; deceptive, because they see these [...]
Not really a separate world
When Slashdot runs the slightly misleading headline, “Real Nanotechnology Getting Closer, Says Drexler” (with a link to the technology roadmap — lots of downloads!), the Tech Talk blog at IEEE Spectrum quite naturally reports this as “Eric Drexler has just been quoted as saying ‘Real nanotechnology is getting closer’”… and thus [...]
Science-intensive engineering
Engineering-intensive science (launch to Saturn included)
Inquiry is the essence of science, design is the essence of engineering, and in their pure forms, these activities are utterly different. Scientific inquiry draws observations from the world to reshape the mind; engineering design projects ideas from the mind to reshape the world. One is an eye, [...]The section below, adapted from a longer work, discusses the physical basis for understanding atomically precise fabrication systems: first, a very general class of systems, and second, the specific characteristics of high-throughput systems of a kind several technology levels above where we are today. (In my previous post, “A Telescope Aimed at the Future” I [...]
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Often a good approximation
Our time in history is unique in that physical knowledge and computational methods enable partial understanding of technology levels above our own — and in some areas, far above. Because we understand the universal physical laws that govern matter and energy, we understand the physical laws that will govern the material structures [...]I was up in San Francisco this morning for the annual meeting of the International Society for Minimally Invasive Cardiothoracic Surgery (ISMICS). These are the innovative surgeons who’ve been developing instruments and procedures that greatly reduce the collateral damage of surgical interventions, accomplishing what must to be done with less damage to skin, muscle, fascia, [...]
Why More is Less
In standard theories of rationality, it is practically axiomatic that having more choices is always better. It should come as no surprise that this isn’t true of real human beings: Too much choice can make us miserable.
In The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less, Barry Schwartz unfolds a broad picture of [...]