The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology (112 page)

205
. “Search and Rescue Robots,” Associated Press, September 3, 2004,
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/09/02/1093939058792.html?oneclick=true
.

206
. “From Factoids to Facts,”
Economist
, August 26, 2004,
http://www.economist.com/science/displayStory.cfm?story_id=3127462
.

207
. Joe McCool, “Voice Recognition, It Pays to Talk,” May 2003,
http://www.bcs.org/BCS/Products/Publications/JournalsAndMagazines/
ComputerBulletin/OnlineArchive/may03/voicerecognition.htm
.

208
. John Gartner, “Finally a Car That Talks Back,”
Wired News
, September 2, 2004,
http://www.wired.com/news/autotech/0,2554,64809,00.html?tw=wn_14techhead
.

209
. “Computer Language Translation System Romances the Rosetta Stone,” Information Sciences Institute, USC School of Engineering (July 24, 2003),
http://www.usc.edu/isinews/stories/102.html
.

210
. Torsten Reil quoted in Steven Johnson, “Darwin in a Box,”
Discover
24.8 (August 2003),
http://www.discover.com/issues/aug-03/departments/feattech/
.

211
. “Let Software Catch the Game for You,” July 3, 2004,
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99996097
.

212
. Michelle Delio, “Breeding Race Cars to Win,”
Wired News
, June 18, 2004,
http://www.wired.com/news/autotech/0,2554,63900,00.html
.

213
. Marvin Minsky,
The Society of Mind
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988).

214
. Hans Moravec, “When Will Computer Hardware Match the Human Brain?”
Journal of Evolution and Technology
1 (1998).

215
. Ray Kurzweil,
The Age of Spiritual Machines
(New York: Viking, 1999), p. 156.

216
. See chapter 2, notes 22 and 23, on the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors.

217
. “The First Turing Test,”
http://www.loebner.net/Prizef/loebner-prize.html
.

218
. Douglas R. Hofstadter, “A Coffeehouse Conversation on the Turing Test,” May 1981, included in Ray Kurzweil,
The Age of Intelligent Machines
(Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1990), pp. 80–102,
http://www.KurzweilAI.net/meme/frame.html?main=/articles/art0318.html
.

219
. Ray Kurzweil, “Why I Think I Will Win,” and Mitch Kapor, “Why I Think I Will Win,” rules:
http://www.KurzweilAI.net/meme/frame.html?main=/articles/art0373.html
; Kapor:
http://www.KurzweilAI.net/meme/frame.html?main=/articles/art0412.html
; Kurzweil:
http://www.KurzweilAI.net/meme/frame.html?main=/articles/art0374.html
; Kurzweil “final word”:
http://www.KurzweilAI.net/meme/frame.html?main=/articles/art0413.html
.

220
. Edward A. Feigenbaum, “Some Challenges and Grand Challenges for Computational
Intelligence,”
Journal of the Association for Computing Machinery
50 (January 2003): 32–40.

221
. According to the serial endosymbiosis theory of eukaryotic evolution, the ancestors of mitochondria (the structures in cells that produce energy and have their own genetic code comprising thirteen genes in humans) were originally independent bacteria (that is, not part of another cell) similar to the
Daptobacter
bacteria of today. “Serial Endosymbiosis Theory,”
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Serial%20endosymbiosis%20theory
.

Chapter Six: The Impact . . .

1
. Donovan, “Season of the Witch,”
Sunshine Superman
(1966).

2
. Reasons for the reduction in farm workforce include the mechanization that lessened the need for animal and human labor, the economic opportunities that were created in urban areas during World War II, and the development of intensive farming techniques that required less land for comparable yields. U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Statistics Service, Trends in U.S. Agriculture,
http://www.usda.gov/nass/pubs/trends/farmpopulation.htm
. Computer-assisted production, just-in-time production (which results in lower inventory), and offshoring manufacturing to reduce costs are some of the methods that have contributed to the loss of factory jobs. See U.S. Department of Labor,
Future-work: Trends and Challenges of Work in the 21st Century
,
http://www.dol.gov/asp/programs/history/herman/reports/
futurework/report.htm
.

3
. For example, see Natasha Vita-More, “The New [Human] Genre Primo [First] Posthuman,” paper delivered at Ciber@RT Conference, Bilbao, Spain, April 2004,
http://www.natasha.cc/paper.htm
.

4
. Rashid Bashir summarizes in 2004:

Much progress has also been made in therapeutic micro- and nanotechnology. . . . Some specific examples include (i) silicon-based implantable devices that can be electrically actuated to open an orifice from which preloaded drugs can be released, (ii) silicon devices functionalized with electrically actuated polymers which can act as a valve or muscle to release preloaded drugs, (iii) silicon-based micro-capsules with nano-porous membranes for the release of insulin, (iv) all polymer (or hydrogel) particles which can be pre-loaded with drugs and then forced to expand upon exposure to specific environmental conditions such as change in pH and release the loaded drug, (v) metal nano-particles coated with recognition proteins, where the particles can be heated with external optical energy and can locally heat and damage unwanted cells and tissue, etc.

R. Bashir, “BioMEMS: State-of-the-Art in Detection, Opportunities and Prospects,”
Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews
56.11 (September 22, 2004): 1565–86.
Reprint available at
https://engineering.purdue.edu/LIBNA/pdf/publications/BioMEMS%20review%20ADDR%20final.pdf
. See also Richard Grayson et al., “A BioMEMS Review: MEMS Technology for Physiologically Integrated Devices,”
IEEE Proceedings
92 (2004): 6–21.

5
. For activities of the International Society for BioMEMS and Biomedical Nano-technology, see
http://www.bme.ohio-state.edu/isb.BioMEMS
conferences are also listed on the SPIE Web site,
http://www.spie.org/Conferences
.

6
. Researchers used a gold nanoparticle to monitor blood sugar in diabetics. Y. Xiao et al., “ ‘Plugging into Enzymes’: Nanowiring of Redox Enzymes by a Gold Nanoparticle,”
Science
299.5614 (March 21, 2003): 1877–81. Also see T. A. Desai et al., “Abstract Nanoporous Microsystems for Islet Cell Replacement,”
Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews
56.11 (September 22, 2004): 1661–73.

7
. A. Grayson, et al., “Multi-pulse Drug Delivery from a Resorbable Polymeric Microchip Device,”
Nature Materials
2 (2003): 767–72.

8
. Q. Bai and K. D. Wise, “Single-Unit Neural Recording with Active Microelectrode Arrays,”
IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering
48.8 (August 2001): 911–20. See the discussion of Wise’s work in J. DeGaspari, “Tiny, Tuned, and Unattached,”
Mechanical Engineering
(July 2001),
http://www.memagazine.org/backissues/july01/features/tinytune/
tinytune.html
; K. D. Wise, “The Coming Revolution in Wireless Integrated MicroSystems,” Digest International Sensor Conference 2001 (Invited Plenary), Seoul, October 2001. Online version (January 13, 2004):
http://www.stanford.edu/class/ee392s/Stanford392S-kw.pdf
.

9
. “ ‘Microbots’ Hunt Down Disease,” BBC News, June 13, 2001,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/1386440.stm
. The micromachines are based on cylindrical magnets; see K. Ishiyama, M. Sendoh, and K. I. Arai, “Magnetic Micromachines for Medical Applications,”
Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials
242–45, part 1 (April 2002): 41–46.

10
. See Sandia National Laboratories press release, “Pac-Man-Like Microstructure Interacts with Red Blood Cells,” August 15, 2001,
http://www.sandia.gov/media/NewsRel/NR2001/gobbler.htm
. For an industry trade article in response, see D. Wilson, “Microteeth Have a Big Bite,” August 17, 2001,
http://www.e4engineering.com/item.asp?ch=e4_home&type=Features&id=42543
.

11
. See Freitas’s books
Nanomedicine
, vol. 1,
Basic Capabilities
(Georgetown, Tex.: Landes Bioscience, 1999), and
Nanomedicine
, vol. 2A,
Biocompatibility
(George-town, Tex.: Landes Bioscience, 2003), both freely available online at
http://www.nanomedicine.com
. Also see the Foresight Institute’s “Nanomedicine” page by Robert Freitas, which lists his current technical works (
http://www.foresight.org/Nanomedicine/index.html#MedNanoBots
).

12
. Robert A. Freitas Jr., “Exploratory Design in Medical Nanotechnology: A Mechanical Artificial Red Cell,”
Artificial Cells, Blood Substitutes, and Immobilization Biotechnology
26 (1998): 411–30,
http://www.foresight.org/Nanomedicine/Respirocytes.html
.

13
. Robert A. Freitas Jr.,“Clottocytes: Artificial Mechanical Platelets,”
Foresight Update
no. 41, June 30, 2000, pp. 9–11,
http://www.imm.org/Reports/Rep018.html
.

14
. Robert A. Freitas Jr., “Microbivores: Artificial Mechanical Phagocytes,”
Foresight Update
no. 44, March 31, 2001, pp. 11–13,
http://www.imm.org/Reports/Rep025.html
or
http://www.KurzweilAI.net/meme/frame.html?main=/articles/art0453.html
.

15
. Robert A. Freitas Jr., “The Vasculoid Personal Appliance,”
Foresight Update
no. 48, March 31, 2002, pp. 10–12,
http://www.imm.org/Reports/Rep031.html
; full paper: Robert A. Freitas Jr. and Christopher J. Phoenix, “Vasculoid: A Personal Nanomedical Appliance to Replace Human Blood,”
Journal of Evolution and Technology
11 (April 2002),
http://www.jetpress.org/volume11/vasculoid.html
.

16
.Carlo Montemagno and George Bachand, “Constructing Nanomechanical Devices Powered by Biomolecular Motors,”
Nanotechnology
10 (September 1999): 225–31; “Biofuel Cell Runs on Metabolic Energy to Power Medical Implants,”
Nature
online, Nov. 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; Carlo Montemagno et al., “Self-Assembled Microdevices Driven by Muscle,”
Nature Materials
4.2 (February 2005): 180–84, published electronically (January 16, 2005).

17
. See the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Web site (
http://www.llnl.gov
) for updated information about this initiative, along with the Medtronic MiniMed Web site,
http://www.minimed.com/corpinfo/index.shtml
.

18
. “Direct brain-to-brain communication . . . seem[s] more like the stuff of Hollywood movies than of government reports—but these are among the advances forecast in a recent report by the U.S. National Science Foundation and Department of Commerce.” G. Brumfiel, “Futurists Predict Body Swaps for Planet Hops,”
Nature
418 (July 25, 2002): 359.

Deep brain stimulation, by which electric current from implanted electrodes influences brain function, is an FDA-approved neural implant for Parkinson’s disease and is being tested for other neurological disorders. See Al Abbott, “Brain Implants Show Promise Against Obsessive Disorder,”
Nature
419 (October 17, 2002): 658, and B. Nuttin et al., “Electrical Stimulation in Anterior Limbs of Internal Capsules in Patients with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder,”
Lancet
354.9189 (October 30, 1999): 1526.

19
. See the Retinal Implant Project Web site (
http://www.bostonretinalimplant.org
), which contains a range of resources including recent papers. One such paper is: R. J. Jensen et al., “Thresholds for Activation of Rabbit Retinal Ganglion Cells with an Ultrafine, Extracellular Microelectrode,”
Investigative Ophthalmalogy and Visual Science
44.8 (August 2003): 3533–43.

20
. The FDA approved the Medtronic implant for this purpose in 1997 for only one side of the brain; it was approved for both sides of the brain on January 14, 2002.
S. Snider, “FDA Approves Expanded Use of Brain Implant for Parkinson’s Disease,” U.S. Food and Drug Administration,
FDA Talk Paper
, January 14, 2002,
http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/ANSWERS/2002/ANS01130.html
. The most recent versions provide for software upgrades from outside the patient.