The Nano Revolution: More than Human

CBC -The Nature of Things with David Suzuki - - The Nano Revolution: More than Human

This video apparently is only viewable in Canada. It is an excellent view of the future of nano technology at the "point of care" in medicine. It also has an excellent scenario of "post humans". It is worth watching just for the computer graphics effects on nanotechnology models.

Quantum Computing and eHealth

If you want a glimpse of the future, subscribing to IEET is probably the best way to go, though I think many writers tend to be overly optimistic.  This article on Quantum Computing and the future of health in 20 years might be one such, but who knows. I didn't know that a Canadian company D-Wave, developed the first QC machine.  Their website has an interesting article on how QC programming is different from regular programming, which reminds me a little about Bell's theorum.

Quantum Computers: Headband Telepathy, Medical Advances, and more!

Dick Pelletier

Dick Pelletier
Positive Futurist

Posted: Sep 22, 2012

Quick: without grabbing your cell phone, tablet or PC, when did Earth population reach 7 billion? In the near future, the answer might be immediately whispered into your ear, “October 31, 2011.”

Any query you can think of will soon be answered with a headband that gathers data from the Internet and feeds it directly into your brain, say Peter Schwartz and Rita Koselka in this Fortune Magazine article. 

Stuart Wolf, Nanostar director at University of Virginia predicts an even more Earth-shaking change. Within 20 years, he says, instead of cell phone conversations, we will have “network-enabled telepathy;” communicating directly to another person’s headband, using just our thoughts.   

Recognizing thoughts instead of ‘voice-speak’ may be confusing at first, experts say, but with training, “thought-talking” could one day become the preferred way for humans to communicate with each other.   

How do quantum computers think? This 5 minute video explains. The world’s first QC, D-Wave One, was made and sold by D-Wave Systems to Lockheed Martin, to solve security issues. The 7-minute video below offers more details on this groundbreaking project:

  

QCs will accelerate advances in medical technologies. In a paper published recently in Nature Scientific Reports, Harvard researcher Alan Aspuru-Guzik presented results of the largest protein folding problem solved to date using a quantum computer. QCs will accelerate advances in many areas of life sciences, including drug and vaccine design, Aspuru-Guzik says.   
The following scenario imagines what life could be like in tomorrow’s quantum computer future:   

“It’s the year 2030, and as I glance around my bedroom, I feel secure knowing that microscopic sensors embedded throughout the house constantly monitor my breathing, heart rate, brain activity and other vital health issues. For example, blood extracted last night by the bathroom sink checked for free-radicals and precancerous cells, and then ordered all the necessary preventative drugs from the home nano-replicator. 

  
As I step into the shower, wall tiles display the day’s top headlines: ‘Mars mission launches ahead of schedule;’ ‘Military drones destroy another terrorist training camp using ‘smart dust;’ and ‘today is the 20th anniversary of the first quantum computer.’

Glancing in the mirror, I find it hard to believe that I will celebrate my 100th birthday later this year. Having recently opted for total body rejuvenation, my reflection displays the image of a healthy twenty-something, with wrinkle-free skin, perfect sight, original hair color, strong muscles and bones; and an enhanced brain that, although it took some getting used to, has greatly increased my intelligence.

Getting ready to fly to a conference, my auto-drive electric car rolls its top down on this warm day. I manually drive to the electronic roadway on-ramp, and then relinquish the wheel to the vehicle. Arriving at the airport, my ‘smart’ car drops me off at the terminal, and then returns home. An ‘intelligent cam’ scans my mind and gives an instant approval, no waiting for ticket-check or security.

While boarding the plane, I see a familiar face. My headband immediately flashes his identity data and displays it on my eyes. Dr. Jones, I call out. It’s so nice to see you again. How was the conference? Only a slight flicker of Jones’ eyes betrays that he is Googling my details too. Hi Dick; the conference was great; and congratulations on your Estonia presentation.”

Welcome to the future! Headbands, because they can access all of the information on the Internet, enables us to think of any issue; then immediately receive data pertinent to that issue in our eyes or ears.

In another application for the technology, the necessity to learn languages would disappear. This would allow more friendships to develop; and if the devices were cheap enough, which experts claim will be a certainty with nano-replicators expected in this future time, headbands would be affordable for everyone.

These techno-wonders hold great promise to improve relationships. No more forgetting names and details, plus increased intimacy generated by thought-talking could bring people around the world closer together, creating a Global Village; a society acting as one voice to advance peace. Comments welcome.

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Dick Pelletier is a weekly columnist who writes about future science and technologies for numerous publications. He's also appeared on various TV shows, and he blogs at Positive Futurist.

Automatic Tape-collecting Lathe Ultramicrotome (ATLUM) device - In search of Immortality

I have always thought that one of the goals of ehealth was towards life extension, and this research article is indicative of the advances being made towards immortality, specifically - mind uploading - and a new word that I wonder might make head way in the English language lexicon - connectomics!

The strange neuroscience of immortality

July 30, 2012

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Kenneth Hayworth with his Automatic Tape-collecting Lathe Ultramicrotome (ATLUM) device (credit: Kenneth Hayworth)

Neuroscientist Kenneth Hayworth believes that he can live forever, the Chronicle of Higher Education reports. But first he has to die.

“The human race is on a beeline to mind uploading: We will preserve a brain, slice it up, simulate it on a computer, and hook it up to a robot body,” he says.

He wants that brain to be his brain. He wants his 100 billion neurons and more than 100 trillion synapses to be encased in a block of transparent, amber-colored resin — before he dies of natural causes.

The connectome grand theory

To understand why Hayworth wants to plastinate his own brain you have to understand his field — connectomics, a new branch of neuroscience. A connectome is a complete map of a brain’s neural circuitry. Hayworth looks at the growth of connectomics — especially advances in brain preservation, tissue imaging, and computer simulations of neural networks — and sees a cure for death.

Among some connectomics scholars, there is a grand theory: We are our connectomes. Our unique selves — the way we think, act, feel — is etched into the wiring of our brains. Unlike genomes, which never change, connectomes are forever being molded and remolded by life experience.

A human connectome would be the most complicated map the world has ever seen. Yet it could be a reality before the end of the century, if not sooner, thanks to new technologies that “automate the process of seeing smaller,” as Sebastian Seung puts it in his new book, Connectome: How The Brain’s Wiring Makes Us Who We Are.

Hayworth looks at the growth of connectomics — especially advances in brain preservation, tissue imaging, and computer simulations of neural networks — and sees something else: a cure for death. In a new paper in the International Journal of Machine Consciousness, he argues that mind uploading is an “enormous engineering challenge” but one that can be accomplished without “radically new science and technologies.”

Hayworth has founded the Brain Preservation Foundation, which offer a cash prize for the first individual or team to preserve the connectome of a large mammal. A dependable brain-preservation protocol is possible within five years, Hayworth says. “We might have a whole mouse brain preserved very soon.”

The foundation has published a Brain Preservation Bill of Rights on its Web site. ”It is our individual unalienable right to choose death, or to choose the possibility of further life for our memories or identity, as desired,” the document declares.

Hayworth’s brain-preservation and mind-uploading protocol

Before becoming “very sick or very old,” he’ll opt for an “early ‘retirement’ to the future,” he writes. There will be a send-off party with friends and family, followed by a trip to the hospital. After Hayworth is placed under anesthesia, a cocktail of toxic chemicals will be perfused through his still-functioning vascular system, fixing every protein and lipid in his brain into place, preventing decay, and killing him instantly.

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Preserved in amber resin (Credit: Bad Robot/Fringe)

Then he will be injected with heavy-metal staining solutions to make his cell membranes visible under a microscope. All of the water will then be drained from his brain and spinal cord, replaced by pure plastic resin.

Every neuron and synapse in his central nervous system will be protected down to the nanometer level, Hayworth says, “the most perfectly preserved fossil imaginable.”

Using a ultramicrotome (like one developed by Hayworth, with a grant by the McKnight Endowment Fund for Neuroscience), his plastic-embedded preserved brain will eventually be cut into strips, and then imaged in an electron microscope. The physical brain will be destroyed, but in its place will be a precise map of his connectome.

In 100 years or so, Hayworth says, scientists will be able to determine the function of each neuron and synapse and build a computer simulation of the mind. And because the plastination process will have preserved his spinal nerves, the computer-generated mind can be connected to a robot body.

“This isn’t cryonics, where maybe you have a .001 percent chance of surviving,” he said. “We’ve got a good scientific case for brain preservation and mind uploading.”

REFERENCES:

• Kenneth J. Hayworth, Electron Imaging Technology for Whole Brain Neural Circuit Mapping, International Journal of Machine Consciousness, 2012, DOI: 10.1142/S1793843012400057

RELATED:

• ‘Mind uploading’ featured in academic journal special issue for first time
• A Connectome Observatory for nanoscale brain imaging

Two ehealth mysteries

One well known ehealth mystery is typified in the Infoway TV commercial called "Knowing is Better" but takes that scenario one step further.  The comatose patient arrives in the ER with absolutely no identification. How should medics treat the patient?  RFID chip implants was proposed as one solution and there are cases where this may have saved patients. For many reasons the implant idea is not catching on. Nanotechnology might be able to create an identification code, written into our cells, that when scanned leads to a "break the glass in case of emergency" login to an EHR. Research has shown that most patients want the ER to have their health information in an EHR if they were to arrive there from out of the blue.  The same high percentage is equally concerned about the privacy and security of their health information.

The next ehealth mystery is one that is actually being developed now, but by small increments.  It is the scenario of ubiquitous computing, where any contact with the healthcare system generates digital information which is potentially transportable and interoperable through the Health Information Access Layer (HIAL) to a personal health record (PHR).  Everything would be interconnected through Service Oriented Architecture (SOA).  I have heard citizen advocates for PHR say that all forms of healthcare and wellness should be integrated.  That means anytime you visit the dentist, naturopath, personal gym trainer,  use a mobile device like fitbit, nutritionist, physiotherapist, psychologist, data from that interaction is captured, transported, tracked and analyzed in the PHR.  This is a Big Data world where public health and research have consent access to de-identifiable information. This is also the world where the "virtual self" continues to exist long after one is gone. 

Tricorder Project

The X Prize Foundation announced a Tricorder competition not long ago, but a McMaster graduate and  researcher has been working on one for quite some time. See Jansen Tricorder Project. I say just add a geiger counter feature and this will fly off the shelves the next time there is a nuclear error. Hat tip to the Hamilton Spectator for publishing this.

The dire need to improve healthcare and health in the U.S. is a problem whose solution has evaded the brightest minds. The Qualcomm Tricorder
X PRIZE is a $10 million competition to stimulate innovation and integration of precision diagnostic technologies, making definitive health assessment available directly to “health consumers.” These technologies on a consumer’s mobile device will be presented in an appealing, engaging way that brings a desire to be incorporated into daily life. Advances in fields such as artificial intelligence, wireless sensing, imaging diagnostics, lab-on-a-chip, and molecular biology will enable better choices in when, where, and how individuals receive care, thus making healthcare more convenient, affordable, and accessible. The winner will be the team that most accurately diagnoses a set of diseases independent of a healthcare professional or facility and that provides the best consumer user experience. Visit the competition website to learn more.

This prize is made possible by a generous grant from the Qualcomm Foundation.

TRICORDER is a trademark of CBS Studios, Inc. Used under license.

Trying a Dyson Sphere on for Size

Futurist and ethicist George Dvorsky wrote this article about how to build a Dyson Sphere. He makes nanotechnology robots building solar panels in the solar system by totally mining Mercury (and then Venus) for materials sound simple. I like the comment on the article by the guy who asks if mining Mercury - every last bit of it - is ethical. This reminds me to try and find a post on nanomedicine and ehealth - another subject to be considered by futurists and ethicists.

The wireless transmission of electricity from the solar arrays is a vision Nicholas Tesla would be proud of. How better to get the electricity to the Nissan Leafs we will all be driving, without waiting to plug in and recharge.

Qualcomm Tri-corder x-prize

After the Watson supercomputer TV show Jeopardy contest, the next exponential technology to watch out for is the Qualcomm Tri-corder X-PRIZE competition.It had it's birth as TV entertainment as well - in the Star Trek series. Smartphone apps can do a lot things, but just pointing one at a patient and getting diagnostics, repair tissue, etc. is something only the physician science fictional character "Bones" could do. I would first double check to see if there isn't already one on the Qizmodo, the Gadget Guide website. When I was writing papers for my ehealth degree, I didn't want to reference Qizmodo - too much "grey literature" - but new devices with medical or health informatics applications frequently answered the question. The first question was whether or not it was FDA approved.

Regenerative Medicine - Organ Printing

Not so much science fiction anymore. Machines that work like ink jet printers, print cells on layers of dissolvable "cell paper" thus creating three dimension organ structure. This reminded me of a science fiction movie staring Jude Law and Scarlet Johansen called "Island". For a great list of science fiction movies I recommend this list at Ray Kurzweil's Accelerating Intelligence site: http://www.kurzweilai.net/films-we-like