Table of Contents
Foreword v
Preliminaries xv
Where do I come from? xv
Why such a book? xxi
Introduction xxvii
The theory of evolution, our biological programming xxx
From yesterday to nowadays xxxv
The new previsionism xxxix
Part 1 Today, the Facts 1
Chapter 1 How Did We Get There? 3
Life, death and immortality 3
Accelerated history 9
Tool, machine, system,…and what else? 13
The emergence of present novelties 17
Chapter 2 Nanotechnologies 23
Technologies from the micro-electronics 23
Direct applications 26
Nanometric extension 28
The domain of Quantum electronics 31
The dangers of Nanoparticles 32
Genetics, Nanotechnologies and Robotics (GNR) in general 34
Machine Darwinism 35
Nanotechnologies and the living 38
Chapter 3 Software and Information 41
Developing a new science 42
How and why "digital"? 44
Software 47
Information and communication 49
Internet knows nothing but can tell you everything 53
Hackers and Co. 56
Robotics 59
Robots versus man 65
Nanorobots 67
Al 69
What is intelligence? 69
How to make a machine intelligent? 72
The intelligent computer 75
Simulation and virtual words 78
Chapter 4 The Biological World 81
The Story of the microscope 82
Life and death of the cells 85
Stem cells 92
Preventing the death of the cells 97
Genetics 98
Gene sequencing 100
GMO 106
Cells and cancer 107
About mice and men 110
Chapter 5 Brain and the Cognitive Science 113
Experimental approaches 114
The extraordinary MRI 115
Other instruments 117
The neuron, the brain and the body 119
The neuron 119
The brain in a whole 125
The body 129
Thought, intelligence and the brain 131
Recent experiments 133
Information, communication and the brain 136
Mathematics 139
Part 2 Hope or Despair? 143
Chapter 6 Some Considerations about a Possible Future 145
What questions could be reasonably raised? 146
Big Brother or Big Google? 148
Google Strategy 149
Googel, an architect for a new order 152
A tour around this hegemonic empire 153
Is Google really almighty? 155
Changes are already on the way 156
Convergences and divergences towards singularities 161
Lengthen, duplicate, and synthesize life? 162
Age pyramid and longevity 168
Chapter 7 Towards What Kind of Research 179
From the lab to the everyday life, there could be a gap 179
The research and its evolution 183
Medical research and the computer 184
The classical approach 184
The new approach: Big Data 187
The new dimension of research 191
Intelligence and the computer 200
The weakened theory of evolution 205
Chapter 8 Could Man Change or Disappear? 209
Man, men and the society 210
Could genetics allow itself anything? 214
From the repaired man to the trans-human 221
Man/machine hybridization 228
Would we put "our fingers in our brain"? 234
Could the rationality of the machine be imposed? 236
Chapter 9 Towards a Zero Defect Man? 239
Bio-conservators versus trans-humanists 239
The biological man and the computer 246
Electronics and biology: same fight 247
Towards a "zero defect" baby 249
Would man still be necessary? 255
Chapter 10 Is God to Survive Science? 261
About gods and men 261
Greek science and the gods 264
The conflict to come 267
The science and the faith 274
The mutation towards trans-humans 277
Conclusion: The Crystal Bowl 279
Index 283