Exploring Future Technologies

Abstract

Brockman ( Afterwords ), founder of a society of intellectuals called The Reality Club, gathers a dozen intriguing essays from its members. MIT researcher K. Eric Drexler says the future will bring nanotechnology, with "computers and robotic arms smaller than a living cell . . . building up structures atom by atom" to construct ever more powerful computers and permit cellular surgeryp. 73 . James E. Lovelock, formulator of the controversial Gaia theory of the earth, explores how peer review, the academic "well-meaning but narrow-minded nanny," can discourage innovative approaches to research. Theoretical physicist Richard Morris tells how to distinguish "crackpot" pseudoscience from genuine, if seemingly bizarre, scientific theory. Biologist Lynn Margulis suggests that the popular Neo-Darwinism, which views the world as mechanistic, could be ripe for challenge from "autopoiesis," a concept of life focusing on its "dynamic, self-producing, and self-maintaining activities." Entertaining and stimulating, these pieces give nonscientists glimpses of lively, ongoing scientific inquiries.