Converging TechnologiesInspired From Dr. Denis Poussart

Université Laval, Canada

GE 301 Science, Technology and Society

Ahmet S Ucer

contents

• What• Why• How

• Where to• When

• But

Sample from news….

First light for one-atom laser‘Physicists in the US have built a laser with a single atom for the first time. Jeff Kimble and colleagues at the California Institute of Technology made the device by trapping a cold caesium atom in an optical cavity. The one-atom laser produces nonclassicallight that could have applications in quantum information technology’

http://physicsweb.org/article/news/7/9/10

J McKeever et al. 2003, Nature pp. 425-268

Multilevel Memory Based on Molecular Devices

Chao Li et al. Applied Physics Letters,

2004, 84, pp. 1949-1951University of Southern California,

Center for Nanotechnology, NASA Ames Research Center

http://www.aip.org/enews/physnews/2004/split/676-2.htmlhttp://www.sciencemag.org/content/vol301/issue5641/index.shtml

‘Multilevel molecular memory devices are proposed and demonstrated for nonvolatile data storage up to three bits (eight levels) per cell, in contrast to the standard one-bit-per-cell (two levels) technology.’

“moletronics”

‘Duke University researchers have used self-assembling DNA molecules as molecular building blocks called “tiles” to construct protein-bearing scaffolds and metal wires at the billionths of a meter, or nanoscale’

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-09/du-ds092403.php

DNA-Templated Self-Assembly of Protein Arrays and Highly Conductive Nanowires

Science 2003, 301, pp.1882-1884Duke University

Yan et al.,

Carbon Nanotube* Enables Ultra High Performance Transistor

‘Corporation today announced development of a stable fabrication technology for Carbon NanoTube transistors. Through this development NEC verified that CNT transistors produced by using this fabrication technology attain more than 10 times greater transconductance than silicon MOS transistors’(September 19, 2003)

http://www.eedesign.com/silicon/OEG20030929S0083http://www.nec.co.jp/press/en/0309/1901.htmlDiscovered by Dr. Sumio Iijima in 1991

2002 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Physics *

PAST

>Σsynergy

IT started to affect all other technologies

Mega Trend

convergence

Advances at the edge of traditional disciplinesConnections becoming the core of technology

Claude Monet, Fishing Boats Leaving the Harbor, Le Havre, 1874http://www.artchive.com/galleries/1874/74frm098.htm

Π

Convergence fuels convergence

http://www.kurzweilai.net/meme/frame.html?main=memelist.html?m=1#476

InfoNano

Bio…

PRESENT

NanotechnologyBiotechnology

Information technology Cognitive science

NBICsometimes

NBICSWith Sociology

Converging Technologiesfor Improving Human Performance,2002

http://www.infocastinc.com/NBIC/nbichome.htmhttp://itri.loyola.edu/ConvergingTechnologies/http://cordis.europa.eu/search/index.cfm?fuseaction=lib.simpledocument&DOC_ID=78571191&CFID=10564696&CFTOKEN=73264088

NBIC Convergence 2004

Converging Technologies for a Diverse Europe, 2004

What is the driver?

Why??

HOW

There's Plenty of Room at the BottomAn Invitation to Enter a New Field of PhysicsAnnual meeting of the American Physical Society

29 December 1959

Richard P. Feynman(1918 - 1988, Nobel 1965)

1959Nano dateline …

Nano dateline …

Helmut Ruska had invented the Electronic Microscope

1929

1981 Gerd Binnig & Heinrich Rohrer invent the Scanning Tunelling Microscope (STM) at IBM in Zurich

Nobel Prize for physics1986

1986Eric Drexler publishes Engines of Creation: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology

1996Richard Smalley, Robert Curl & Harold Krotoawarded Nobel Prize for Chemistry for their discovery of a new Carbon molecule, the fullerene

Buckminster Fuller

Bucky-ball C60

http://www.chem.sunysb.edu/msl/fullerene.html

Fullerenes

0.7 x nM

ONE transistor of a Pentium IV is 180 nM wide

http://www.nano.gov/html/res/IntlFundingRoco.htm

3,024700%

2,367543%

1,535355%

825191%

687159%

559129%

423100%

Total (% of 1997)

~800~550~380110968370Other

849774697465270255190116USA

~800~720~465245157135120Japan

~650~400~225200179151126W. Europe

2004R200320022001 2000199919981997Region

R&D EXPENDITURE

Blending of tools

TrendsBlending of real and virtual

Blending of natural and synthetic

Smaller is more

Reverse engineering

Some converged technological outputs

http://www.artchive.com/galleries/1874/74frm098.htm

Design of a Nanomechanical Fluid Control Valve Based on Functionalized Silicon Cantilevers:Coupling Molecular Mechanics and Classical Engineering DesignSantiago Solares et al.Materials and Process Simulation CenterCalifornia Institute of Technology

http://www.wag.caltech.edu/nanovalve/

Hardware Feeds Biotech R&DOpen Source Biology …

1950 1970 1990 2010

0.001

0.1

10 Estimated Shortest Timeto Protein Structure

person / year

Redrawn fromRobert Carlson

The Pace and Proliferationof Biological Technologies

Biosecurity and Bioterrorism, 1, 2003

Year --> Hours

http://www.molsci.org/~rcarlson/http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/WEBONLY/resource/may01/spea.html

Conventional CMOStransistor

Molecular switch(benzene rings)

Gold

gold

carbon

nitrogen

hydrogen

oxygen

sulfur

Could it replace silicium?

Biological - like “transistor”

Scientific American, june 2000

High Performance Computing, Modeling & Simulation Feed Biotech R&D

Artificial RetinaMachelle T. Pardue; Neal S. Peachey;

Sherry L. Ball; Alan Y. Chow;Jay I. Perlman; Evan B.

Stubbs, Jr.; Vince Y. Chow

http://www.optobionics.com/artificialretina.htmhttp://www.varrd.emory.edu/Tech-Transfer/retina.html

http://www.vitreoussociety.org/pr2001/abstracts/symposium-4.html

Synthetic organs

2 mm5000 photodiodes

5 millions cones120 millions rods

1 million axons

http://www.nicolelislab.net/NLNet/Load/Papers/TechReview.pdfhttp://www.plos.org/downloads/plbi-01-02-carmena.pdf

Learning to Control a Brain-MachineInterface for Reaching and Grasping by PrimatesM. A. L. Nicolelis et al. Duke University

Grand Challenges for Computing Research Sponsored by the UK Computing Research Committee, with support from the

Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Counciland National e-Science Centre

http://www.nesc.ac.uk/esi/events/Grand_Challenges/index.html

- In Vivo <=> In Silico- Science for Global Ubiquitous Computing - Memories for Life - Scalable Ubiquitous Computing Systems - The Architecture of Brain and Mind - Dependable Systems Evolution - Journeys in Non-Classical Computation

Computers

21st CenturyTOOLS

Networks Nanotech

Biotech

Inspired from James Canton, Institute for Global Futures

Bits

21st CenturyBricks

Neurons Atoms

Genes

Inspired from James Canton, Institute for Global Futures

Computers

21st CenturyArchitecture

Networks Nanotech

Biotech

GenesBits

Neurons Atoms

Inspired from James Canton, Institute for Global Futures

Challenges of Converging Technologies

What is possible ? physics

What is implementable ? engineering

What is feasable ? economics

What is desirable ? social

And how to manage Complexity ?

far more

http://theregus.com/content/28/26754.html

How to deal with complexity?

Do NOT touch these wires !

Systems of (Systems of Systems)

Complex SystemsSystems of Systems

• Huge number of elements

• Huge dynamic range (from sub-nano to macro)

• Huge range of elements (from devices to processes)

• Multiple scales in time and space

• Wide range of variables, hard, soft, symbolic

• Unclear boundaries

• Conflicting performance metrics

Systems of (Systems of Systems)

Complex SystemsSystems of Systems

• Behaviors emerge from dynamic interactionsbetween all components, as well as the environment

• Very hard to predict ( … impossible ?)

• Not amenable to classical reductionist analysis

Complex Systems• Stable and adaptable• Reliable and controllable• Persistent and dynamic• Deterministic and chaotic• Random and predictable• Ordered and disordered• Cooperative and competitive• Selfish and altruistic• Logical and paradoxical• Averaging and non-averaging• Universal and unique

In great need of new design methodologies

Redrawn from http://www.kurzweilai.net/articles/art0134.html?printable=1

19001800 2000

40 000

80 000

120 000

160 000

US Patents Granted

Exponential Growth of KnowledgeLaw of Accelerating Returns (Ray Kuzweil)

Where toRay Kurzweil

“Supercomputers will achieve one human brain capacity by 2010, and personal computers will do so by around 2020. By 2030, it will take a village ofhuman brains (around a thousand) to match $1000 of computing. By 2050, $1000 of computing will equal the processing power of all human brains on Earth.”

On the Singularity, 2002The Age of Spiritual Machines, 1999

http://www.kurzweilai.net/

Singularity

Bill Joy

‘Each of us has our precious things, and as we care for them we locate the essence of humanity. In the end, it is because our great capacity of caring that I remain optimistic we will confront the dangerous issues before us’.

Why the future doesn't need usWired, April 2000

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.04/joy.html

http://www.kurzweilai.net/meme/frame.html?main=/articles/art0408.html

Center for Responsible NanotechnologyCenter for Responsible Nanotechnology

Singularity, can it be true?

What can prevent it?