Money and Finance
- Gene Breakthroughs Spark A Revolution In Cancer Treatment
Kellie Carey's doctor finally stopped dodging questions about how long she had to live six weeks after he diagnosed her lung cancer. "Maybe three months," he told her in his office one sunny May morning in 2010, she recalls. Yet she is still alive,...
- Ted Talk: Juan Enriquez And Ray Kurzweil On Brains, Tattoos, And The Quest For Immortality
TEDx Silicon Alley took place a few days ago in New York City, and the theme, “Rise of the Machines,” was centered around the convergence of technology and humanity. Ray Kurzweil, who is one of the most widely known and respected futurists in the...
- Garrett Hardin And Michael Lewitt Quotes (human Fallibility, Technology)
“You don’t have to be an expert to have a healthy respect for human nature. In fact, laymen often are better at evaluating reliability than are the experts. The expert who looks for “the light at the end of the tunnel” can all too easily end up...
- Soon, $1,000 Will Map Your Genes
SAN FRANCISCO—The quest to harness the power of DNA to develop personalized medicine is on the threshold of a major milestone: the $1,000 genome sequencing. Life Technologies Corp., a Carlsbad, Calif., genomics company, plans to introduce Tuesday a...
- Kevin Kelly On Econtalk
Kevin Kelly, author of What Technology Wants, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about technology and the ideas in the book. Kelly argues that technology is best understood as an emergent system subject to the natural forces underpinning all emergent...
Money and Finance
John Mauldin’s Outside The Box: 2012 – The Most Important Year Yet in Technology – by Alex Daley
Many of us fondly remember the announcement that rang with the turning of the millennium: "the first map of the human genome is complete!" It was a momentus achievement to be sure, even if it did take 13 years and cost about $3 billion. That's because none of that mattered. It was going to rush in the age of the genetic medicine, and chronic disease would be a thing of the past. Even aging could be reversed.
So, what happened to all the promise? you may wonder. Well, it's still there. But the problem is, science fiction authors and technology magazine scribes love to announce the arrival of the future as soon as the first scientific discoveries hint at its possibilities. That creates irrational expectations, because the progress of science – from an experimenter's vision through to technology that can be widely distributed in a commercially viable way – is not instant. Of course, industry insiders know this, and analysts like Gartner even have entire reports dedicated to the "hype cycle" concept. But, that does not stop the average journalist from prognosticating about the possibilities.
Nevertheless, progress does march forward steadily, in the background. And, when it finally breaks through from the lab to the market… boom! You have an iPhone, a flat screen television, a multi-billion dollar blockbuster drug. The last few years have brought some incredible changes, for sure. But, the big promises – genetic medicine among them – might still seem unfilled to many. But, change can come in bunches, making certain years stand out as watersheds in technology. And, 2012 might surprise you as one of those.
Consider just a few of the most vaunted areas of technology to not quite fulfill their promise just yet:
- Gene Breakthroughs Spark A Revolution In Cancer Treatment
Kellie Carey's doctor finally stopped dodging questions about how long she had to live six weeks after he diagnosed her lung cancer. "Maybe three months," he told her in his office one sunny May morning in 2010, she recalls. Yet she is still alive,...
- Ted Talk: Juan Enriquez And Ray Kurzweil On Brains, Tattoos, And The Quest For Immortality
TEDx Silicon Alley took place a few days ago in New York City, and the theme, “Rise of the Machines,” was centered around the convergence of technology and humanity. Ray Kurzweil, who is one of the most widely known and respected futurists in the...
- Garrett Hardin And Michael Lewitt Quotes (human Fallibility, Technology)
“You don’t have to be an expert to have a healthy respect for human nature. In fact, laymen often are better at evaluating reliability than are the experts. The expert who looks for “the light at the end of the tunnel” can all too easily end up...
- Soon, $1,000 Will Map Your Genes
SAN FRANCISCO—The quest to harness the power of DNA to develop personalized medicine is on the threshold of a major milestone: the $1,000 genome sequencing. Life Technologies Corp., a Carlsbad, Calif., genomics company, plans to introduce Tuesday a...
- Kevin Kelly On Econtalk
Kevin Kelly, author of What Technology Wants, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about technology and the ideas in the book. Kelly argues that technology is best understood as an emergent system subject to the natural forces underpinning all emergent...