Technology Amuck!

The last few days have seen an explosion of news stories that I consider fairly important.  Everything from nanotechnology to computer desktop manipulation to virtual reality life simulations.

The nontechnology story is easily the most important. I've been saying for the last couple of years that Nanotechnology and Artificial Intelligence are the two areas of science that you should invest in. These are the two things that are going to revolutionize everything. I'm not talking about little tiny robots the size of an atom nor do I envision Data from Star Trek walking around anytime soon. What I'm talking about is the real world, incremental discoveries in these fields. All new discoveries are trumpteted as amazing but this particular one actually is. These scientists have developed an automated procedure to create Nanotubes (an already existing and tested material) at the rate of about 10 sq. ft. per minute. That's not blindingly fast but its fast enough to actually make the material practical and it's only going to get faster and cheaper.

Google's desktop announcement is just another in a long line of things in which Google has shown that quality matters in software. Customized interfaces are coming into their own and this is a big first step. I haven't played with it yet but I'll probably mess around with it tonight and give a full report tomorrow.

The final article is more of a press piece for a MMORPG. But it's intrigueing in it's concept. I remember reading about the idea several years ago. Essentially, they want to create a 2nd world for people. They have encouraged the economy to grow and actively offer exchange rates so that people can buy things online. Their community is small (40k is a drop in the bucket in this industry...) but they're not exactly advertising everywhere. They're trying to grow by word of mouth and it seems to be working. The idea is something right out of a Sci-Fi movie but its not that far from becoming a reality.