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Convergence of Knowledge, Technology, and Society

Larry Bell

At our reverse site visit at NSF this week, Mihail Roco, NSF's Senior Advisor for Nanotechnology, suggested that NISE Net envision its activities in the years ahead to encompass the applications that will be made possible by convergence. See the just published report at this website: http://www.wtec.org/NBIC2-Report/

Cancer therapies with no side effects!  “Curing” diabetes by replacing a compromised pancreas!  Replacing a heart, liver, or kidney with a custom-manufactured version!  Producing a prosthetic that would be so human-like that a patient or an observer could not tell the difference from an actual human limb!  These are just a few of the applications described in the NBIC2 report.

I got to participate in the development of the report and you'll find mention of NISE Net in Chapters 5 and 8 of the report, including a chart I included to suggest a collaboration of centers and networks to take the next step beyond what we've done with nano for NBIC. This would be a convergence of  centers for societal implications and science communication working with a university research center network and and ISE network.