The big bang

A couple of recent events has inspired a new blog - and here it is.

In the beginning there was light... at the end of the tunnel

A recent article in the New Scientist (The Greening of Silicon Valley) brought a glimmer of hope in this dark and dirty world. It describes the way in which recent trends in Silicon Valley indicate greater and more focused funding for green technologies. Growth in seed capital for "Eco Tech" could, quite literally, be the worlds engine for a green revolution - and any indication that momentum is growing, in this area, must be good for all us.

And in the end, we live happily ever after

Coupled with this is Ray Kurzweil's recent writings on the "Biotechnology Singularity". For those of you who don't know, Ray Kurzweil is an inventor and futurist. He is famous, amongst other things for his calculations (using exponential graphing techniques) to predict the future time by which certain technological achievements will be reached.

For example, he predicted a number of years in advance, when the first Teraflop chip would be produced. He also, more famously, predicted, a decade in advance, when the a computer would beat a human at chess. The interesting thing about that particular prediction is that he was about a year out... on the conservative side. A computer beat a human at chess a whole year earlier than Kurzweil predicted - so if anything, he can be accused of being too conservative...

Not an accusation that his predictions usually inspire... at least not before they come true, anyway.

So... anyway... Kurzweil has a new prediction: that within 15 years biotechnology will have started to increase the average human lifespan by more than 1 year per year... in other words - anyone alive then, with a high enough quality of life to achieve the average life span will, theoretically, be able to live forever.

So what's point of it all anyway?

All of this, to me, points towards a revolution in human advancement and technological ability. A revolution that I would like to log - right here.

The inventions are coming thick and fast. The innovation is relentless - and I, for one, would like a central place to find all the most important Eco News around.

As often as I can can, I will pull together the most important, relevant and worthwhile news and current affairs relating to Green Technology and Environmentally Friendly Innovation.

Come back, sign-up and keep up to date with all things Eco Techno.

Welcome.


Related links:
Listen to Ray Kurzweil: Life in the Future
Building the Cortex in Silicon
Excerpt: The Age of Spiritual Machines, Chapter 6, by Ray Kurzweil
Environmental Technology