My Telomeres are longer than yours.

Do you know your biological age? Biological age is different from chronological age which is the amount of time that has passed since the day you were born. Your biological age is affected by factors such as genetics and lifestyle choices and maybe more or less than your chronological age. As a matter of fact the lower your biological age in relation to your chronological age the healthier you are considered to be. A major indication of your biological age is the length of your telomeres. Telomeres are caps at the end of your
chromosomes, protecting them much as plastic tips protect shoelaces from fraying.

 As we age and cells divide, our telomeres get shorter. There are things we can do to slow the rate at which our telomeres shorten, such as exercising regularly, eating healthy food, and choosing not to smoke. Scientists have developed a new test that can measure the length of telomeres and give an indication of the overall health of a patient. The test is not expected to be available to the general public until at least the fall but it shows great promise. The test can be a tool doctors can use to show their patients the affect of an unhealthy lifestyle.

Scientists that study telomeres and aging seek a better understanding of the aging process and believe that one day it may be possible to slow aging and may even be possible to stop aging altogether. That sounds nice but for now I'll just stick with a healthy diet, regular exercise, no smoking or excess of alcohol, plenty of sleep and keeping stress at a minimum.

A Connected World

The reality of the Internet becoming more integrated into everyday life is already apparent. This can be seen with the advent of smart phones. It is a common sight these days to see people constantly checking their phones for status updates of their friends , sending text messages, or browsing the Internet. These smart phones have become more than just mobile devices, they are our constant companions and our connection to the world.

This trend is  expected to increase exponentially as time goes on. According to Moore's Law, the amount of transistors that can be placed on a microchip doubles roughly every 18 months, which in turn doubles the processing power of that chip. Moore's Law has been accurate for the last 40 years and is expected to continue for at least the next decade. Even then,  most scientists believe that new materials and technologies such as quantum computing will enable Moore's Law to continue.

Ironically, as transistors double, the size of hardware is shrinking exponentially. Pictured at right is an Osbourne Executive portable computer from 1982 and an IPhone from 2007. The Executive weighs 100 times as much, has nearly 500 times the volume, cost 10 times as much, and has a 100th the clock frequency of the iPhone.

Nanotechnology will be the Holy Grail of miniaturization. Nanotechnology will lead to unimaginable advances in technology that the world has never seen before. It will impact society as much as, if not more than, the Industrial Revolution but will be packed into a few years compared to a couple of centuries.

One of the exciting applications of nanotechnology will be will be in the field of medicine. Scientist envision a future where tiny robots called nanobots, can enter the bloodstream and deliver medicine only where needed. An example of this are nano bees. Scientist know that bee venom is an excellent cancer drug. It works by destroying cancer cells, unfortunately it also destroys healthy cells.  Nano bees offer a solution to this problem. They can be programmed to target individual cancer cells destroying them and leaving  nearby healthy cells intact. These have only been tested on mice in laboratories for now but may some day be used in humans.

Other applications for Nanotechnology include virtual reality. Nanobots injected into the body will attach themselves to neurons inside the brain and block out signals from the real world and only project stimuli from the virtual world. This may seem like science fiction but many top scientists believe this will become a reality possibly within the next 50 years.

The future will definitely be exciting and where all this technology will take our species is unknown. What is known is that technology evolves and will continue to evolve. This evolution, or "Technolution", is tied to our own evolution and one possible outcome is the merger othef man and machine. Futurists, scientists, and technologists believe this is where we are headed. As technology progresses we will see more intermingling of man and machine until the lines between them have become blurred. We will become something more than humans, we will become what is known as trans humans. We will become ever more connected to one another through the Internet and communication will be instantaneous. With just a thought we will be able to communicate with one another in a practical form of telepathy.

So the next time you are connected to the Internet with your smart phone, or the next time you are playing an online video game or making a video call think about what all this is leading to, of what we will become.

What is "The Singularity"?

A technological singularity is a theoretical event that occurs when artifical intelligence surpasses human intelligence. When this happens, an "intelligence explosion" will occur and technology will advance so rapidly that ordinary humans will be unable to follow it. The possibility of a technological singularity is a notion that both exictes and intrigues me. What would it mean for humanity? The possibilities are staggering and would transform our world dramatically. One of the most revolutionry possibilities is the rapid advancement of medical technology which would lead to a cure for all diseases, organs that never fail, halting the aging process and eventually reversing it, and even immortality.

How likely is it that The Singularity will happen? This is a question that scientists and futurists debate among themselves and there seems to be no clear answer. Some scientists believe it will happen as soon as the year 2045. These scientists claim that when you take into account the exponential progress of technolgy, that date does not seem so far-fetched.

The expontential nature of technology is obvious when you look at the fact that not too long ago a camera, a video recorder, a computer, and a phone would cover the entire surface of your desk. Today all that technology exists in my mobile phone that I carry around in my pocket. As a matter of fact, I have posted this blog entirely from my mobile phone using its speech recognition feature. That is pretty exciting stuff to me.

Futurists predict that soon we will be wearing our devices in the form of glasses that project images into our retinas and utilize augmented reality. In the future, we will see the Internet become more integrated into every aspects of our lives. Tiny, discreet webcams that are worn in our clothing, hats, glasses, etc. will enable "Lifeblogging", where we will be able to capture every waking moment of our lives with audio and video. The implications of this could be huge. Forget where you left your keys? Search your database to see where you last saw them. We will no longer have to rely on our unreliable memories for what we or other people said. There will be a record for everything that we say and do so there will be no debating it.

This could be a godsend or a nightmare depending on your perspective. While this could lead to people being much more honest, many people will not like the idea of their every move being forever documented. Privacy issues will definitely be at the heart of this issue.

The technologies presented here don't even scratch the surface of what may be available to us in the future. More blogs will follow to discuss more possible future technologies and chronicle the latest technological breakthroughs. One thing is for sure, the future will definitely be exciting.