2020 Science in 2020
Andrew Maynard
The post 2020 Science in 2020 appeared first on 2020 SCIENCE ARCHIVE.
emerging technology
A book club guide for Films from the Future
Andrew Maynard
The same structure that makes Films from the Future ideal for undergrads, also makes it perfect for an extremely engaging book club - one where you not only read a book together, but you get to watch films as well! The post A book club guide for Films from the Future appeared first on 2020 SCIENCE...
Sci-fi movies are the secret weapon that could help Silicon Valley grow up
Andrew Maynard
If there’s one line that stands the test of time in Steven Spielberg’s 1993 classic “Jurassic Park,” it’s probably Jeff Goldblum’s exclamation, “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.” Goldblum’s character, Dr. Ian Malcolm, was...
The Honest Broker meets Dan Brown’s Inferno
Andrew Maynard
Each week between now and November 15th (publication day!) I’ll be posting excerpts from Films from the Future: The Technology and Morality of Sci-Fi Movies This week, it’s chapter eleven, and the movie Inferno. Inferno may seem like an odd choice of movie in a book about science fiction films...
A Nanoscale Perspective on The Man in the White Suit
Andrew Maynard
Each week between now and November 15th (publication day!) I’ll be posting excerpts from Films from the Future: The Technology and Morality of Sci-Fi Movies This week, it’s chapter ten, and the movie The Man in the White Suit. The Man in the White Suit is a 1951 Ealing Comedy that’s as dry as it...
Being Human in an Augmented Future (From chapter seven of Films from the Future)
Andrew Maynard
The forthcoming book Films from the Future: The Technology and Morality of Sci-Fi Movies explores the complex dynamics between emerging technologies and society through twelve science fiction movies. This excerpt comes from the chapter on the 1995 Japanese Anime movie Ghost in the Shell. Through a...
Social inequity in an age of technological extremes (from chapter six of Films from the Future)
Andrew Maynard
On September 17, 2011, a small group of social activists occupied Zuccotti Park in New York City. The occupation became the spearhead for the global “Occupy” movement, protesting a growing disparity between “haves” and “have-nots” within society. Two years later, the movie Elysium built on this...
Limitless: Pharmaceutically-Enhanced Intelligence (from chapter 5 of Films from the Future)
Andrew Maynard
In2004, the academic and medical doctor Anjan Chatterjee wrote a review of what he termed “Cosmetic Neurology.” He was far from the first person to write about the emergence and ethics of cognitive enhancers, but the piece caught my attention because of its unusual title... The post Limitless:...
Minority Report: Predicting Criminal Intent (From chapter four of Films from the Future)
Andrew Maynard
There’s something quite enticing about the idea of predicting how people will behave in a given situation. It’s what lies beneath personality profiling and theories of preferred team roles. But it also extends to trying to predict when people will behave badly, and taking steps to prevent this......
Jurassic Park: The Rise of Resurrection Biology (from chapter two of Films from the Future)
Andrew Maynard
I was a newly minted Ph.D. when I first saw Jurassic Park. It was June 1993, and my wife and I were beginning to enjoy our new-found freedom, after years of too much study and too little money. I must confess that we weren’t dinosaur geeks. But there was something about the hype surrounding the...
Book update: New title, Amazon Listing, Publication Date, Contents, and more …
Andrew Maynard
After a hectic summer of writing and editing, I’m pleased (if a little frazzled) to report that the book formerly known as “The Moviegoer’s Guide to the Future” is on schedule to be published mid-November of this year. Just to whet your appetite, here’s a quick update on where things stand: What’s...
The Sounds of the Moviegoer’s Guide to the Future
Andrew Maynard
I must confess that, over the past year, I’ve taken immersing myself in the movies at the core of The Moviegoer’s Guide to the Future rather seriously — perhaps too seriously! Of course, I’ve watched the movies many, many times. But I’ve also been submersed in their soundtracks; often in the hope...
Nootropics
Andrew Maynard
Excerpted from a early draft of Films from the Future: The Technology and Morality of Sci-Fi Movies (out November 2018); inspired by the movie Limitless. In 2004, the academic and medical doctor Anjan Chatterjee wrote a review of what he termed “Cosmetic Neurology”.[1] He was far from the first...
The “Science” of Predicting Bad Behavior
Andrew Maynard
Excerpted from a early draft of The Moviegoer’s Guide to the Future; inspired by the movie Minority Report. In March 2017, the British newspaper The Guardian ran a web-story with the headline “Brain scans can spot criminals, scientists say”.[1] Unlike in Minority Report, the scanning was carried...
The Moviegoer’s Guide to the Future: Beginnings
Andrew Maynard
As The Moviegoer’s Guide to the Future book comes together over the next few weeks, I thought it would be interesting to post excerpts from the early drafts. These will change during editing — drastically so in some cases I suspect. But they might pique your interest, and give you a sense of the...
The BS and the Science of Nanotechnology
Andrew Maynard
In case you missed it, Elon Musk called BS on the field of nanotechnology last week. The ensuing Twitter spat was admittedly rather small on the grand scale of things. But it did throw up an important question: just what is nanotech, and where does the BS end and the science begin? I have a […]...
I just signed a book deal – The Moviegoer’s Guide to the Future’s happening!
Andrew Maynard
The big news is that I’ve just signed a book deal with the publisher Mango! The working title for the book is The Moviegoer’s Guide to the Future (Update: the final title is Films from the Future: The Technology and Morality of Sci-Fi Movies), and it’s going to be a roller coaster ride through...
10 potential risks of artificial intelligence we should probably be thinking about now
Andrew Maynard
To unpack some of the challenges around the risks and benefits Artificial Intelligence, Risk Bites has a 5 minute introduction to ten potential risks of AI we should probably be thinking about now The post 10 potential risks of artificial intelligence we should probably be thinking about now...
What is the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and why should you care?
Andrew Maynard
We have a new video up on the YouTube Risk Bites channel that asks what the fourth industrial revolution is, and looks at the technological trends underpinning it. If you’ve ever wondered what the fourth industrial revolution is, why it’s so important, what whatever happened to the previous three,...
Dear Elon Musk: Your dazzling Mars plan overlooks some big nontechnical hurdles
Andrew Maynard
Elon Musk has a plan, and it’s about as audacious as they come. Not content with living on our pale blue dot, Musk and his company SpaceX want to colonize Mars, fast. They say they’ll send a duo of supply ships to the red planet within five years. By 2024, they’re aiming to send the […] The post...
Have spacesuit, will travel?
Andrew Maynard
This week, Elon Musk gave the world a sneak-peek of the new SpaceX space suit on Instagram. I was passingly intrigued when I saw it. But then came the request from Fortune.com to write an article tying in the new suit to the future of space tourism … First picture of SpaceX spacesuit. More in […]...
Will driving your own car one day be as socially unacceptable as smoking in public?
Andrew Maynard
In 2014, over 32,000 people were killed in car crashes in the U.S. In 2012, more than two million Americans visited the emergency room as a result of car crashes. And an estimated 94 percent of the crashes that cause these injuries and fatalities are attributable to human choice or error. These...
Taking on the complex ethics of emerging brain technologies
Andrew Maynard
Imagine infusing thousands of wireless devices into your brain, and using them to both monitor its activity and directly influence its actions. It sounds like the stuff of science fiction, and for the moment it still is – but possibly not for long. Brain research is on a roll at the moment. And as...
Navigating the nanotechnology risk landscape – pointers for early career scientists
Andrew Maynard
Navigating the risk landscape that surrounds nanotechnology development can be a daunting task – especially if you are an early career researcher just getting started in the field. There are plenty of studies and speculations around what might – or might not – be risky about nanoscale science and...
A fifth grader (and up) introduction to nanotechnology
Andrew Maynard
The latest video from Risk Bites takes a four minute dive into what nanotechnology is, and why it’s important. It was created as a primer for 5th graders – which probably means that there’ll be a lot of 5th graders at heart watching it! It also takes a somewhat less than conventional approach to...
Elon Musk’s new master plan will take more than advanced tech to pull off
Andrew Maynard
Elon Musk – CEO of Tesla Motors – has just revealed the second part of his master plan for the company. And it’s a doozy. Not content with producing sleek electric cars (which to be fair, was only ever a stepping stone to greater things), Musk wants to fundamentally change how we live our lives....
How risky are the World Economic Forum’s top 10 emerging technologies for 2016?
Andrew Maynard
Take an advanced technology. Add a twist of fantasy. Stir well, and watch the action unfold. It’s the perfect recipe for a Hollywood tech-disaster blockbuster. And clichéd as it is, it’s the scenario that we too often imagine for emerging technologies. Think superintelligent machines, lab-bred...
With carbon nanotubes in the news again, where’s the public interest in possible risks?
Andrew Maynard
Back in 2008, carbon nanotubes – exceptionally fine tubes made up of carbon atoms – were making headlines. A new study from the U.K. had just shown that, under some conditions, these long, slender fiber-like tubes could cause harm in mice in the same way that some asbestos fibers do. As a...
Three ways advanced genetic engineering could help address Zika and other mosquito-borne diseases
Andrew Maynard
In just a few short weeks, Zika has shot from being an obscure infection to a headline-hitting public health disaster. The virus is spreading rapidly across the Americas (and potentially beyond), is suspected of being associated with birth defects that affect brain development and currently has no...
Technology innovation and life in the 21st century: Views from Civil Society
Andrew Maynard
In 2009, I commissioned ten guest articles on technology innovation from people working for, associated with or generally reflecting the views of Civil Society groups. Over six years on, these essays still present insightful and often challenging views on technology innovation, and are well worth...
What if we approached risk like entrepreneurs approach innovation?
Andrew Maynard
If you’ve been following this month’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES), you’ll know with absolute certainty that the future is cool, shiny and stuffed to the brim with “must-have” gadgets. Reading the ebullient reports, you’d be hard-pressed to find anything other than overflowing optimism for how...
Five steampunk technology trends to watch for in 2016
Andrew Maynard
It’s that time of year again when technology pundits peer into their crystal balls, and predict the hottest tech trends of the coming twelve months. Let’s be honest though, these lists can get a little stale. So I thought I’d break ranks this year by imagining what a top tech trends list would...
Hoverboards and health: how good for you is this year’s hottest trend?
Andrew Maynard
Walking across campus to my office each morning this semester, I’ve found it hard to ignore the growing number of students using hoverboards to get around. These two-wheel self-balancing boards (they don’t really hover, Back-to-the-Future-style) are one of the hottest gadgets this holiday season....
What’s the real risk from consumer drones this holiday season?
Andrew Maynard
This holiday season, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is estimating that over one million small “Unmanned Aerial Systems” (sUAS’s) – drones, to the rest of us – will be sold to consumers. But as hordes of novice pilots take to the air, just how safe are these small bundles of metal,...
Making sense of gene drives and gene editing
Andrew Maynard
Gene editing and gene drives are rapidly emerging as the disruptive technologies du jour. But what are they, what can they do, and why should you care? Just last week, research was published that took us a step closer to being able to re-engineer whole species by driving specific genes through...
Are you breathing carbon nanotubes, and should you be worried?
Andrew Maynard
For over two decades, carbon nanotubes have been attracting attention. First, they were seen as a super-strong, super-conductive new form of carbon that could potentially revolutionize everything from space travel to drug delivery. Later, concerns were raised that these long, thin, fiber-like...
New report on sustainable hydraulic fracking
Andrew Maynard
Back in 2011 – while I was Director of the University of Michigan Risk Science Center – I was part of a larger team exploring the possibility of conducting a full-blown assessment of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) possibilities and pitfalls in Michigan. We were interested in applying the...
For tech innovation to succeed, we need parallel innovation in how we think about risk
Andrew Maynard
In October 2014, Google announced it was working on an innovative nanotechnology-based approach to avoiding and managing disease. The idea was to create a pill that would deliver magnetic, functionalized nanoparticles from the gut to the bloodstream. Once there, they would circulate — presumably...
Characterizing nanoparticles in the 1880’s
Andrew Maynard
On May 29th, there were 52,000 nanoparticles per cubic centimeter of air measured at the top of the Eiffel Tower. This may not seem the most compelling opening to an article, until you realize that the measurement was made in 1889 - over 100 years before nanotechnology and nanoparticles began...
Politics don’t always play a role in attitudes toward science issues
Andrew Maynard
Comments provided for GENeS on the launch of the Pew Research Center attitudes survey on Americans, Politics and Science Issues (July 1 2015) Political leanings are frequently associated with attitudes toward science and technology in the U.S. Yet as the most recent poll from the Pew Research...
A new home for Risk Innovation
Andrew Maynard
Five years ago, I joined the University of Michigan School of Public Health as Director of the U-M Risk Science Center. It's been a good five years. However, last year, the good folks at Arizona State University made me an offer I couldn't refuse - the opportunity to expand substantially my work...