PhilCon – Sunday, Nov. 18th
Unfortunately, we had to leave the convention early. I notified ConOps that I wouldn’t make my last Panel at 3PM. But, we did get to the panel on nanotechnology.
Nanotechnology (11AM) Panelists: Seth Goldstein (moderator), Kevin Roche. Description: The nanotechnology revolution is no longer “coming” it is here. Nanomaterials are being manufacture and are poised to revolutionize fields from electronics to materials science to medicine. Panelists will discuss current nanotechnology, its applications and what we can expect to see in the near future, as well as longer term possibilities, and concerns about potential problems.
Again the discussion was far ranging. As I understand what was said was that the main problem with nanotechnology right now is power. How do you power something that small? There was talk of using quantum effects/spintronics for powering the units. There’s also a problem in that people talk of tiny computers but at the nano size you need to have them be self-assembling and then program them with very few instructions and they then do their thing. Questions asked about photovoltaics, solar power efficiencies, Moore’s Law (or as was explained Moore’s ‘economic’ Law as it relates more to economics than to computer processing power/hardware/software). That’s just the highlights that I remember. I’m probably not truly stating what they said but this seems to be what I remember that most of the ground work has been done and that nanotechnology and innovation is possible now but that the problems of power and movement will take a while to solve so it could be a while before more applications hit the market. (They also talked a bit about 3-D photocopiers. I found that interesting because I’ve heard about them but never seen one or the resulting ‘copy’ from one. Evidently the result is layers of polymer plastic in the shape of the object and that a matrix can be used that can later be dissolved in a solution to retain empty areas within the object — this allows for faster prototyping in some areas.)
Then since I was definitely at the start of a migraine cycle and we had a 3-4 hour drive home, we notified ConOps and headed for home. However, the convention didn’t end until 4PM (or later if you attended the gripe session). Sorry, not to be able to write up the next 3 hours of program items.
Next year, PhilCon hasn’t picked dates or signed with a hotel so they’re listing themselves as Unstuck in Space and Time. I hope they manage to find a time and place to land for 2008.