Managing Nano-Bio-Info-Cogno Innovations - World Technology ...

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4. NBIC Convergent Technologies and the Innovation Economy
others. No doubt this will become a feature of the Innovation Economy of the
21st century as we struggle with the limits and laws that will certainly impact
our society, our evolution, and our civilization.
Summary
NBIC technologies may come to offer many new choices to society, but
if NBIC is to be relevant, then innovations that offer cost-effectiveness,
provide quality of service, and enable access to resources (with health care
and energy as examples) are important markers of relevance. At the same
time, NBIC will play a role in redefining health care and perhaps will
contribute to providing access to other resources such as energy.
The Innovation Economy is coming. I forecast that over two-thirds of
American GDP will be contributed by innovation products and services. The
rest of the world will follow suit. Nanoscience investments by other
governments and the private sector now eclipse those by the United States
Government, which led the way initially. As we forge a new interdisciplinary
model of science, illustrated by NBIC, perhaps we can prevent the
geostrategic crises in energy and health care that will threaten to destabilize
peace and security in the future.
This is not to pretend that NBIC will be a new magic bullet, able to
bridge the gap between the haves and have-nots, or be the slayer of social
inequality. NBIC innovations will create a new set of tools, products, and
solutions, as well as whole new industries. If we focus the NBIC resources on
enhancing human performance and developing human potential, then we
might provide new solutions to the challenges we will most certainly face in
the future. It would be for the good that the nation that won the Cold War,
that is the last of the true superpowers, to take the lead in using science to
plan for a more sustainable, peaceful, and secure future for all. This is a
future in which the rights of individuals to make free choices must be the
gold standard of every society. If dictators or rogue private interests are
allowed to subvert these NBIC technologies, disaster could well be the
outcome and threaten the free world.
NBIC technologies are in the vanguard of this Innovation Economy,
offering a new paradigm of discovery. This paradigm recognizes that the
problems we face today and will face in the future require a more integrated
interdisciplinary solution to better manage global crises and challenges. This
is the challenge before us as we map the future of NBIC. Economic
prosperity, security, and quality of life can be geostrategic goals we focus the
tool set of NBIC to address, if leaders will heed the call and rise to meet the
challenge.