Australia has an interesting if sometimes irritating national radio program
called The Science Show, run by veteran broadcaster Robyn Williams. Robyn
and I go way back, although we rarely cross paths except in the odd public
panel he happens to have been flown in to chair. His show blends gung-ho
gosh-wow with fearful Green warnings of biodoom. Today was mostly the
upside, with a long chat between him and Professor Sir Harold W. Kroto,
University of Sussex, Brighton, U.K., who shared a Nobel with Rick Smalley
(as he called his fellow laureate) and Professor Robert F. Curl, Jr., like
Smalley at Rice University, Houston, USA. This was followed by a positive
and entertaining grab from one of the IBM fullerene researchers, a Scot
with a Polish name who works in Switzerland (of course). Both these
notables were favorable in their discussions of the prospects of molecular
nanotech. Kroto told us to go the Web for nice sims of rotating nano
gadgetry, and I believe they both cited Feynman. Was Drexler or Foresight
Institute mentioned? No. Was Merkle cited? Not on your nellie. Were space
elevators mentioned? Yes, as it chanced, although they tended to be called
`tethers'; Arthur Clarke was acknowledged for his efforts in promoting the
idea. Was Moravec mentioned? You're joking.
Ah well. The bottom line is that the experts both spoke contentedly of the
prospect of molecular assemblers (going to extreme lengths, it seemed to
me, not to use that term - `assembly machines', etc), and despite the
mind-boggled faux-amazement of the presenter (I *hope* it was feigned) at
the incredibly novel idea of a space elevator - gosh is NASA *really*
thinking about such things? - this will help prepare Aussies, at least, for
an extrope future...
Meanwhile, however, the national Murdoch newspaper The Australian outdid
itself with a color supplement showing on the cover a patchwork girl and
the inevitable brainless heading: FRANKENSCIENCE. In the land of Greg Egan,
unknown to most of his fellow citizens, this is vomit-making.
Damien
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