NASA Chief Offers A Hint Of Upcoming Technology

Talk, introduce or announce any new emerging technologies that have excited you.
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MrAlex
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NASA Chief Offers A Hint Of Upcoming Technology

Post by MrAlex »

Well,
No-one posts in these forums!
So taken from http://www-tech.mit.edu/V120/N50/50nasa.50n.html
Sounded quite interesting actually! :)
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Students packed Wong Auditorium on Monday night to hear NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin give a lecture on complex systems entitled “The Technology Base for the 21st Century.”

This talk was the second in the MIT System Design and Management Progam’s Distinguished Lecture Series.

“I’m not going to talk about the past today. I’m going to talk about the future,” Goldin said. His talk outlined what may be in store for NASA and systems technology in the coming decades.

Goldin described the future of aerospace systems and the revolutionary and key technologies which will ultimately be used to achieve advancement in science and engineering.

“Hopefully in this decade it will come together where we don’t take things apart” to understand them, but use that understanding to “build them up,” Goldin said.

Autonomy key for future systems

Looking ahead to exploration of Mars and other distant destinations, Goldin stressed the importance of reliable systems which function efficiently and adapt to changing conditions without constant human control.

In the twenty-first century, Goldin said aerospace systems will require several innovations, including the autonomy to think for themselves, resiliency to withstand harsh conditions as well as to self-diagnose and repair damages, and the ability the evolve in terms of form and function to meet increasing demands.

Goldin also outlined three areas of technology central to the development of these future systems: nanotechnology, biotechnology, and information technology.

Goldin envisioned that with these technologies, “factories of the future will be manipulating atoms ... [and] building better small devices for lower cost.”

He described robots that would mimic biological systems by embedding biological elements to create hybrid systems. These would apply biological knowledge and techniques to produce innovative engineering.

“God wrote all the basic rules. All we have to do in the next few decades is to figure them out,” Goldin said.

Future information technology will feature interactive tools with real time perceptual user interfaces, Goldin said. He stressed the importance of investing in forms of computing other than silicon chips for future advancements.

Goldin also suggested the concept of “amorphous computing” which would mimic biological mechanisms and model-based reasoning.

Science fiction tomorrow’s truth

While jokingly referring to The Matrix and Star Trek, Goldin said “This is not science fiction. We are working on it now.”

The revolutionary implications of technologies developed for space exploration will ultimately impact every facet of science and technology, Goldin said.

“This is not theoretical stuff that only relates to Mars. It relates to everything we do,” Goldin said.

Goldin noted that many of these technologies will be “problems left to the student.”

However, Goldin warned, “We will have to bring up the level of scholarly research within ethical boundaries and not take short-cuts.”

He ended the talk by emphasizing the importance of a learning environment where “everything will have to come together” to acquire more fundamental understanding and general skills for adapting to future change. “Collaborate, integrate, innovate, or stagnate or evaporate,” Goldin said.

In the question and answer section following the lecture, audience concerns ranged from changes in the infrastructure of NASA to accommodate future needs to the concern of scientific ethics in developing these technologies.


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thetarget
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Post by thetarget »

I'm sure some activists will oppose this idea.
This was envisioned in the early 1800s tho.. I read it somewhere.
TheCrymsonLegends
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Post by TheCrymsonLegends »

Great all we need now is Artificial Intelligence that will far surpass any human ability. Go ahead and replace everything with machines and just let us live off the dirt on the ground!

For space exploration I wouldn't mind that cause I would love to get off this heap, but as far as any AI which will be able to control itself instead of having a giant human input will end up bringing all these Sci-Fi movies to life when AI decides to take their own course in the world and forget the human input.

I oppose AI but bring on Space Exploration! WOOT!
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MrAlex
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Post by MrAlex »

Long Live AI!!!
Joking :)
Yeh...AI is scaring me,
but a computer is as good as the person who made it.
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thetarget
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Post by thetarget »

There will be a point, where AI replaces most of the things we do. Eg, road system in I-Robot.

There will also be a point, where laws are hard coded into the machines, to obey the masters etc.

The best part of having an AI that can think faster than humans is that, they can provide solutions for us. ie. Think for us.
MrAlex
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Post by MrAlex »

Well,
that would make us EVEN more lazy then we already are.
I think people should think before they make choices,
because they could end up making the wrong choice...
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Tails5
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Post by Tails5 »

Just so long as it never gets to the point it does in Terminator III :)
Really though, machines could rule the world, except they are incapable of ambition, they can only do what's in their program, or what their program evaluates as the only option :P But it couldn't change its program and recompile, because a program cannot overwrite itself :P
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MrAlex
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Post by MrAlex »

They COULDN'T take over the world,
because they can't maintain themselves,
they need US,
Just as much as we need THEM.
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sobkisu
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Post by sobkisu »

Its a big story :D Im really bored
Life is only one. so don't make it complex:)
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