GM Agriculture and Terminator Technologies - Another Blow Against the Third World?

So called 'terminator technologies', at least in the agribusiness world, are essentially those GM or genetic modification technologies that allow seed companies to 'improve' and patent seeds for specific crops. This insures that everytime a farmer wants to plant a new crop, they have to go back to the seed or GM company to get a new supply of seeds. This is partially because most of these GM crops are designed to be sterile in the field, and partially because intellectual property laws preclude unlicenced (non paid) use of any seed products containing one or more of the gene sequences patented by the GM company *even those grown by the farmer themselves*.

Now in the first world agricultural producers have for the most part abandoned the practice of keeping personal stocks of 'seed grain', or grain saved from a previous crop in order to plant a new crop, in favor of purchasing these stocks from commercial suppliers some time ago. So for these customers, the difference between buying GM seeds for the next crop versus buying non-GM seeds is a matter of degree rather than kind.

For farmers in the third world, however, its a different and more disturbing story. Most agricultural producers in the developing world rely on maintaining personal stocks of seed grain in order to minimize the costs associated with planting and harvesting each crop. It turns out that once they buy into the hype associated with genetically modified crops, it is very difficult to reestablish themselves as traditional 'seed grain' producers, and very difficult to make enough of a profit to pay for next years GM seeds. A disturbing prospect, and one reason governments in the third world are pushing modernized versions of traditional methods rather than buying into the capital intensive methods pushed by agribusinesses in the first world.

The Water of Life - Bacteria, Nanofilters and Filtration

The importance of clean water to quality of life cannot be overestimated, and as in almost every other area of human endeavor the technology used to filter water is undergoing a continuous process of improvement. Current state of the art continuous water purification is accomplished via reverse osmosis, activated carbon filtration, ultraviolet light, and ceramic and membrane filters. The new generations of nanopore filters which can filter particles as small as one nanometer are an essential part of 'ultrafiltration'. The problem with these filters (and membrane filters in general) is that they become clogged fairly quickly during use and must be replaced or cleaned with some frequency. One way researchers are currently addressing this problem is by inoculating the nanofilters with a variety of bacterial colonies which digest the various types of filtered contaminants, thereby cleaning the filters. It is especially interesting that this process is a closed cycle, meaning that the bacterial colonies are self sustaining and cannot escape through the nanoscale pores on the filters, and that the filters no longer have to be replaced or cleaned.

Hybrid technologies that take advantage of cutting edge nanotechnologies and biotech to accomplish tasks currently beyond the reach of either alone. Rest assured that you will be seeing more of these hybrid technologies in the future.

Aging and Technology

In just over a decade, a quarter of Europe's population will be over 65 - and populations throughout the first world are also aging. This article takes a quick look at how technology is being developed to ease the burdens and risks associated with age. There is a wide range of technologies that could make living longer easier, from robotic assistants (quite actively pursued in Japan) to better interactive communication devices that track location and condition issues and can autonomously notify caregivers of error conditions like falls or low blood sugar.

This is an interesting second order problem - as world populations live longer, healthier lives as a result of developments in geriatric medicine and aging research, technologies will be needed to support active and healthy lifestyles for this older demographic.

Is Intellectual Capital More Important than Natural Resources?

It is interesting to contemplate - has intellectual capital become more important to GNP around the globe than the exploitation of natural resources? The claim is really a twofold one. First, that the intellectual capital required to efficiently exploit natural resources tends to be held predominantly by first world countries, and therefore represents a hidden 'tax' on third world countries who require this expertise to take advantage of their own natural resources. Second, that *all* methods of wealth generation will increasingly rely on intellectual property and capital moving forward.

It seems to me that both claims are pretty clear - the first is readily demonstrable now, especially as China has joined the rest of the first world countries who have been doing this since colonial times and begun to make huge strides in using its intellectual capital to exploit the resources of less advantaged countries, specifically in Africa.

The second is less clear - it is fairly apparent that at some point in the future intellectual property, capital, and expertise will take the lead in wealth generation against the commodity markets. I would guess that this has not happened yet, although a study comparing the different contributers to GDP around the world by type would be instructive and might assist in predicting when this crossover point will be reached.

The moral is clear: build and protect intellectual capital and provide a secure environment for this process to take place. This is true on an individual, corporate, and national scale.

MagLev Wind Turbines

The concept of the magnetic levitation based wind turbine is a simple one. Vertical vanes rotate in a plane parallel to the ground surface and use electromagnetic repulsion to isolate the vanes from the hub instead of ball bearings, as well as utilizing electromagnetic coupling to generate electricity when the vanes spun by the wind. Benefits include 500 year operational lifespan, reduced surface area requirements, they can make use of much lower *and* much higher average wind speeds for power generation, and significantly reduced maintenance costs and operating overhead.

Of course, I am always skeptical of technologies like this until one is actually constructed. But even if only one or two of the claims of competitive advantage are borne out, this concept could still contribute much to the hunt for worthy renewable energy sources.

Death and Technology

I ran across this article recently, which discusses how changes in medical technology have had a historical and continuing effect on our definition of death. First we died when we stopped breathing, then we died when our hearts stopped beating, then it was the cessation of brain activity that determined time of death, etc.

While i found the historical perspective interesting, the more compelling aspects of the continuing relationship between death and technology lie in projecting this relationship forward into the future. How far are we going to be able to push the boundaries between life and death as our technological tools continue to improve faster and faster?

Nanoprinting Gets Better. Again.

Nanoprinting refers to the process of laying down very small (nanoscale) particles on a substrate with precision. This type of technology is an essential precursor to building a wide range of MEMs, micro machines and other nanotechnologies at anything approaching an industrial scale. IBM has been at the forefront of this effort after the first time researchers used a scanning tunneling electron microscope to draw the IBM logo with individual gold atoms.

This particular technology has a DPI (dots per inch) resolution of around 100,000 - or can print individual dots around 60 nanometers in size. This is quite good for a printing technology even if manual techniques currently allow the manipulation of single atoms in some environments.

New Ultraclean Combustion Technology, the Low Swirl Injector

Large electrical generation plants are historically known for non-minimal emission of combustion byproducts. The Low-Swirl Injector (LSI) technology has been shown to significantly reduce nitrogen oxide and carbon oxide emissions during combustion of hydrogen, natural gas, and other feedstocks. Further research is ongoing.

Any efficiency enhancements to traditional power generation methods should be embraced even as we continue to explore alternative generation strategies via renewable resources. The great thing about technologies like this is that they are equally applicable to very conservative and very progressive power technologies.

Technology and the Legal System, a Recipe for Pain

Technology has had a significant historical effect on how we live our lives as well as the social and cultural matrix in which we operate. It should be no surprise that a legal system initially drafted in a time of horse drawn carriages, hand carried mail, manual printing presses, and clipper ships may not integrate well with some of the technologies we take for granted in our every day lives. In this spirit then, I applaud PC World for pointing out some of the more glaring issues.

The Worst Technology Laws

Digital Rights Management in the Networked Age

The issue of copyrights in the age of digital copies and networking technologies has been a thorny one. Copyright holders have developed literally hundreds of different mechanisms by which to prevent unauthorized copying and use of their property, and consumers and users have continued to find ways around these mechanisms both to protect their fair use rights and, in some cases, to abuse these rights. Accordingly, the technology associated with Digital Rights Management (DRM) is in a state of almost constant flux. Even more, because so many different attempts have been made to address this issue, very few DRM technologies can interoperate. An interesting problem, and one that must be addressed if copyright holders can ever hope to effectively protect their rights using DRM.

In the long run, it is not at all clear to me that there is *any* feasible way to use DRM to fully protect the rights of copyright holders in all cases. It may be that fundamental changes in trademark and copyright law are required to take into account the changes in technological infrastructure that have occurred.