The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology (108 page)

110
. See
http://pubs.acs.org/cen/coverstory/8148/8148counterpoint.html
;
http://www.kurzweilAI.net/meme/frame.html?main=/articles/art0604.html?
.

111
. D. Maysinger et al., “Block Copolymers Modify the Internalization of Micelle-Incorporated Probes into Neural Cells,”
Biochimica et Biophysica Acta
1539.3 (June 20, 2001): 205–17; R. Savic et al., “Micellar Nanocontainers Distribute to Defined Cytoplasmic Organelles,”
Science
300.5619 (April 25, 2003): 615–18.

112
. T. Yamada et al., “Nanoparticles for the Delivery of Genes and Drugs to Human Hepatocytes,”
Nature Biotechnology
21.8 (August 2003): 885–90. Published electronically June 29, 2003. Abstract:
http://www.nature.com/cgi-taf/DynaPage.taf?file=/nbt/journal/v21/n8/abs/nbt843.html
. Short press release from
Nature
:
http://www.nature.com/nbt/press_release/nbt0803.html
.

113
. Richards Grayson et al., “A BioMEMS Review: MEMS Technology for Physiologically Integrated Devices,”
IEEE Proceedings
92 (2004): 6–21; Richards Grayson et al., “Molecular Release from a Polymeric Microreservoir Device: Influence of Chemistry, Polymer Swelling, and Loading on Device Performance,”
Journal of Biomedical Materials Research
69A.3 (June 1, 2004): 502–12.

114
. D. Patrick O’Neal et al., “Photo-thermal Tumor Ablation in Mice Using Near Infrared-Absorbing Nanoparticles,”
Cancer Lett
ers 209.2 (June 25, 2004): 171–76.

115
. International Energy Agency, from an R. E. Smalley presentation, “Nanotechnology, the S&T Workforce, Energy & Prosperity,” p. 12, presented at PCAST (President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology), Washington, D.C., March 3, 2003,
http://www.ostp.gov/PCAST/PCAST%203-3-03%20R%20Smalley%20Slides.pdf
; also at
http://cohesion.rice.edu/NaturalSciences/Smalley/emplibrary/PCAST%20March%203,%202003.ppt
.

116
. Smalley, “Nanotechnology, the S&T Workforce, Energy & Prosperity.”

117
. “FutureGen—A Sequestration and Hydrogen Research Initiative,” U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Fossil Energy, February 2003,
http://www.fossil.energy.gov/programs/powersystems/futuregen/
futuregen_factsheet.pdf
.

118
. Drexler,
Nanosystems
, pp. 428, 433.

119
. Barnaby J. Feder, “Scientist at Work/Richard Smalley: Small Thoughts for a Global
Grid,”
New York Times
, September 2, 2003; the following link requires subscription or purchase:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30C17FC3D5C0C718CDDA00894DB404482
.

120
. International Energy Agency, from Smalley, “Nanotechnology, the S&T Work-force, Energy & Prosperity,” p. 12.

121
. American Council for the United Nations University, Millennium Project Global Challenge 13:
http://www.acunu.org/millennium/ch-13.html
.

122
. “Wireless Transmission in Earth’s Energy Future,” Environment News Service, November 19, 2002, reporting on Jerome C. Glenn and Theodore J. Gordon in “2002 State of the Future,” American Council for the United Nations University (August 2002).

123
. Disclosure: the author is an adviser to and investor in this company.

124
. “NEC Unveils Methanol-Fueled Laptop,” Associated Press, June 30, 2003,
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/6203790.htm
, reporting on NEC press release, “NEC Unveils Notebook PC with Built-In Fuel Cell,” June 30, 2003,
http://www.nec.co.jp/press/en/0306/3002.html
.

125
. Tony Smith, “Toshiba Boffins Prep Laptop Fuel Cell,”
The Register
, March 5, 2003,
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/03/05/
toshiba_boffins_prep_laptop_fuel
; Yoshiko Hara, “Toshiba Develops Matchbox-Sized Fuel Cell for Mobile Phones,”
EE Times
, June 24, 2004,
http://www.eet.com/article/showArticle.jhtml?articleId=22101804
, reporting on Toshiba press release, “Toshiba Announces World’s Smallest Direct Methanol Fuel Cell with Energy Output of 100 Milliwats,”
http://www.toshiba.com/taec/press/dmfc_04_222.shtml
.

126
. Karen Lurie, “Hydrogen Cars,”
ScienceCentral News
, May 13, 2004,
http://www.sciencentral.com/articles/view.php3?language=english&type=article&article_id=218392247
.

127
. Louise Knapp, “Booze to Fuel Gadget Batteries,”
Wired News
, April 2, 2003,
http://www.wired.com/news/gizmos/0,1452,58119,00.html
, and St. Louis University press release, “Powered by Your Liquor Cabinet, New Biofuel Cell Could Replace Rechargeable Batteries,” March 24, 2003,
http://www.slu.edu/readstory/newsinfo/2474
, reporting on Nick Akers and Shelley Minteer, “Towards the Development of a Membrane Electrode Assembly,” presented at the American Chemical Society national meeting, Anaheim, Calif. (2003).

128
. “Biofuel Cell Runs on Metabolic Energy to Power Medical Implants,”
Nature Online
, November 12, 2002,
http://www.nature.com/news/2002/021111/full/021111-1.html
, reporting on N. Mano, F. Mao, and A. Heller, “A Miniature Biofuel Cell Operating in a Physiological Buffer,”
Journal of the American Chemical Society
124 (2002): 12962–63.

129
. “Power from Blood Could Lead to ‘Human Batteries,’”
FairfaxDigital
, August 4, 2003,
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/08/03/1059849278131.html?oneclick=true
. Read more about the microbial fuel cells here:
http://www.geobacter.org/research/microbial/
. Matsuhiko Nishizawa’s BioMEMs laboratory diagrams a micro-biofuel cell:
http://www.biomems.mech.tohoku.ac.jp/research_e.html
. This short article
describes work on an implantable, nontoxic power source that now can produce 0.2 watts:
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=31&art_id=qw111596760144B215
.

130
. Mike Martin, “Pace-Setting Nanotubes May Power Micro-Devices,”
NewsFactor
, February 27, 2003,
http://physics.iisc.ernet.in/~asood/Pace-Setting%20Nanotubes%20May%20Power%20Micro-Devices.htm
.

131
. “Finally, it is possible to derive a limit to the total planetary active nanorobot mass by considering the global energy balance. Total solar insolation received at the Earth’s surface is ~1.75 10
¹⁷
watts (IEarth ~ 1370 W/m
²
± 0.4% at normal incidence).” Robert A. Freitas Jr.,
Nanomedicine
, vol. 1,
Basic Capabilities
, section 6.5.7, “Global Hypsithermal Limit” (Georgetown, Tex.: Landes Bioscience, 1999), pp. 175–76,
http://www.nanomedicine.com/NMI/6.5.7.htm#p1
.

132
. This assumes 10 billion (10
¹⁰
) persons, a power density for nanorobots of around 10
⁷
watts per cubic meter, a nanorobot size of one cubic micron, and a power draw of about 10 picowatts (10
^–11
watts) per nanorobot. The hypsithermal limit of 10
¹⁶
watts implies about 10 kilograms of nanorobots per person, or 10
¹⁶
nanorobots per person. Robert A. Freitas Jr.,
Nanomedicine
, vol. 1,
Basic Capabilities
, section 6.5.7 “Global Hypsithermal Limit” (Georgetown, Tex.: Landes Bioscience, 1999), pp. 175–76,
http://www.nanomedicine.com/NMI/6.5.7.htm#p4
.

133
. Alternatively, nanotechnology can be designed to be extremely energy efficient in the first place so that energy recapture would be unnecessary, and infeasible because there would be relatively little heat dissipation to recapture. In a private communication (January 2005), Robert A. Freitas Jr. writes: “Drexler (
Nanosystems
: 396) claims that energy dissipation may in theory be as low as E
_diss
~ 0.1 MJ/kg ‘if one assumes the development of a set of mechanochemical processes capable of transforming feedstock molecules into complex product structures using only reliable, nearly reversible steps.’ 0.1 MJ/kg of diamond corresponds roughly to the minimum thermal noise at room temperature (e.g., kT ~ 4 zJ/atom at 298 K).”

134
. Alexis De Vos,
Endoreversible Thermodynamics of Solar Energy Conversion
(London: Oxford University Press, 1992), p. 103.

135
. R. D. Schaller and V. I. Klimov, “High Efficiency Carrier Multiplication in PbSe Nanocrystals: Implications for Solar Energy Conversion,”
Physical Review Letters
92.18 (May 7, 2004): 186601.

136
. National Academies Press, Commission on Physical Sciences, Mathematics, and Applications,
Harnessing Light: Optical Science and Engineering for the 21st Century
, (Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1998), p. 166,
http://books.nap.edu/books/0309059917/html/166.html
.

137
. Matt Marshall, “World Events Spark Interest in Solar Cell Energy Start-ups,” Mercury News, August 15, 2004,
http://www.konarkatech.com/news_articles_082004/b-silicon_valley.php
and
http://www.nanosolar.com/cache/merc081504.htm
.

138
. John Gartner, “NASA Spaces on Energy Solution,”
Wired News
, June 22, 2004,
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,63913,00.html
. See also Arthur Smith, “The Case for Solar Power from Space,”
http://www.lispace.org/articles/SSPCase.html
.

139
. “The Space Elevator Primer,” Spaceward Foundation,
http://www.elevator2010.org/site/primer.html
.

140
. Kenneth Chang, “Experts Say New Desktop Fusion Claims Seem More Credible,”
New York Times
, March 3, 2004,
http://www.rpi.edu/web/News/nytlahey3.html
, reporting on R. P. Taleyarkhan,“Additional Evidence of Nuclear Emissions During Acoustic Cavitation,”
Physical Review E: Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics
69.3, pt. 2 (March 2004): 036109.

141
. The original Pons and Fleischman method of desktop cold fusion using palladium electrodes is not dead. Ardent advocates have continued to pursue the technology, and the Department of Energy announced in 2004 that it was conducting a new formal review of the recent research in this field. Toni Feder, “DOE Warms to Cold Fusion,”
Physics Today
(April 2004),
http://www.physicstoday.org/vol-57/iss-4/p27.html
.

142
. Akira Fujishima, Tata N. Rao, and Donald A. Tryk, “Titanium Dioxide Photo-catalysis,”
Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology C: Photochemistry Review
1 (June 29, 2000): 1–21; Prashant V. Kamat, Rebecca Huehn, and Roxana Nicolaescu, “A ‘Sense and Shoot’ Approach for Photocatalytic Degradation of Organic Contaminants in Water,”
Journal of Physical Chemistry B
106 (January 31, 2002): 788–94.

143
. A. G. Panov et al., “Photooxidation of Toluene and p-Xylene in Cation-Exchanged Zeolites X, Y, ZSM-5, and Beta: The Role of Zeolite Physicochemical Properties in Product Yield and Selectivity,”
Journal of Physical Chemistry B
104 (June 22, 2000): 5706–14.

144
. Gabor A. Somorjai and Keith McCrea, “Roadmap for Catalysis Science in the 21st Century: A Personal View of Building the Future on Past and Present Accomplishments,”
Applied Catalysis
A:General 222.1–2 (2001): 3–18, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory number 3.LBNL-48555,
http://www.cchem.berkeley.edu/~gasgrp/2000.html
(publication 877). See also Zhao, Lu, and Millar, “Advances in mesoporous molecular sieve MCM-41,”
Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research
35 (1996): 2075–90,
http://cheed.nus.edu.sg/~chezxs/Zhao/publication/1996_2075.pdf
.

145
. NTSC/NSET report,
National Nanotechnology Initiative: The Initiative and Its Implementation Plan
, July 2000,
http://www.nano.gov/html/res/nni2.pdf
.

146
. Wei-xian Zhang, Chuan-Bao Wang, and Hsing-Lung Lien, “Treatment of Chlorinated Organic Contaminants with Nanoscale Bimetallic Particles,”
Catalysis Today
40 (May 14, 1988): 387–95.

147
. R. Q. Long and R. T. Yang, “Carbon Nanotubes as Superior Sorbent for Dioxin Removal,”
Journal of the American Chemical Society
123.9 (2001): 2058–59.

148
. Robert A. Freitas, Jr. “Death Is an Outrage!” presented at the Fifth Alcor Conference on Extreme Life Extension, Newport Beach, California, November 16, 2002,
http://www.rfreitas.com/Nano/DeathIsAnOutrage.htm
.