... machines that can alk.Space ShipsIf you had asked a person 200 years ago if mankind ould fly to the moon someday, heshe ould have laughed at you. Today it is possible to fly to the moon so perhaps in the next 200 years e ill fly beyond our solar system to other planets. In contrary to the other technologies I have mentioned before the scientists havent started to research the theories for flying faster than the light. ith our technical status it is not possible to check the theories the scientists have in mind. The internet and virtual realityThis result of our modern computerized society is certainly a future technology. The net gros and people are communicating ith each other all over the orld. The internet connected ith virtual reality is the next step. Perhaps in the future business meetings 5 men and omen ill sit in front of their computers ith I Intelligent -Glasses on 5 different places over the orld but their eyes ill see each other on a big table here they discuss problems.Nanotechnology a combination of VR technology, computers and gene engineering and Bio Cybernetics a combination of Computer technology gene engineering and nanotechnology.I ill explain these future technology further don. It is impossible to summarize them because these technologies are too complicated and there are so many possibilities, hich result out of these technologies that a summary could not be satisfy.Explanation and the future of gene technologyToday e are able to influence and add information to the DNA Code. hen the scientists ill have decoded the hole DNA of an organism, it ill perhaps be possible to configure or create this creature as e ant it to be. But hat is DNA e can see the genes hich consists of DNA in three ays1 Genes as structural units DNA, the chemical basis of genes, can be modified, cleaved and legated etc. In this sense it is about as interesting as sugar, lipids and other constituents of the cell, - putting it bluntly, relatively boring, or at least, no more interesting than chemical substances in general. Hoever, hat is exciting is the fact that it can be reintroduced into living organisms. DNA, as such, has nothing to do ith life. It is dead. It is as inert as salt. It does not create life, but it can be integrated into life processes. Results like those I have described demand further investigation and research. Identification of the 2,500 genes required for eye formation, their functions and interactions is a tremendous challenge for generations of molecular biologists. Identification and elaboration of the chromosomal organisation of the 80 - 100,000 genes of the human genome, their functions, regulation in time and space ill keep researchers busy for decades. And all the ork, all the experimentation, is set to follo the very same scheme manipulation and engineering, - for e live in the age of invasive biology. At this point these reflections could easily deviate into ethical and moral concerns, but I trust these ill be considered later. Suffice it to say here, this first level of reality could be called the technical instrumentalisation of life. 2 Genes as informational units Genes are carriers of information. From a given sequence of genes, the primary structure of proteins, its amino acid sequence, can be deduced. The flo of information from DNA to RNA to protein can be unequivocally predicted, but is by no means sufficient to dra any conclusion on function. Indeed, any undergraduate could derive the protein primary sequence from a given stretch of DNA, but the genome projects sho beyond any doubt that the function of a protein cannot simply be read from its amino acid composition. e are thus left ith the problem that either the molecular approach to life does not grasp the entirety of living beings or that there exists occult information in the gene besides that of the genetic code. e either embark on DNA mysticism or acknoledge the limitation of purely genetic explanations of life. 3 Genes as functional units Let us presume that e have identified a gene and elucidated the function of its product. e have already seen in the example of the eye formation that the function alone is not sufficient to explain its meaning or significance for the organism itself. More importantly, most of us are familiar ith the poorly understood situation in animal model systems, here human disease conditions are simulated. Often enough, transgenic animals ith the correct genetic changes can be generated, but the expected traits are lacking. One of the most important examples is the retinoblastoma gene. It is essential for cell cycle regulation in man and in its mutated form results in the formation of eye tumours. Mice ith the very same genetic change develop a number of abnormalities, but retinoblastomas have not been detected in a single animal. If the gene had first been discovered in mouse it ould not have been called the retinoblastoma gene. The genetic condition is necessary, but is obviously not sufficient for the formation of the organismic, phenotypic characteristics. But there are far more possibilities to use gene engineeringThe book Jurrasic Park shos one example ho e can use gene engineering in its on one hand fascinating and on the other hand dangerous ay.SummaryScientists develop a means of bringing dinosaurs to life using DNA taken from dino blood, hich has been preserved inside insects encased in amber. hilst Hammond is shoing off his dinosaur theme park to a selected audience ia layer Gerrano, mathematician Malcolm, dino expert Grant, palaeobotanist Sattler and his grandchildren Tim Lexs, hat the company has built there, e gradually discover, is a theme park inhabited by living dinosaurs cloned from fossils. As the projects presiding madman, John Hammond, explains the obstacles to making a profit on genetically engineered pharmaceuticals have proved insurmountable. No, think ho different it is hen youre making entertainment. Nobody needs entertainment. Thats not a matter for government intervention. If I charge 5,000 a day for my park, ho is going to stop me You fool, says Hammonds resident Cassandra, Ian Malcolm, ho is described as one of the most famous of the ne generation of mathematicians ho ere openly interested in ho the real orld orks. One cant clone hundreds of prehistoric dinosaurs, put them in an environment, and expect to control the results. Chaos theory tells us that a big complicated system like that defies understanding. There is a problem ith that island, Malcolm arns. It is an accident aiting to happen. And this accident happened hen Nedry computer expert disables the security system so that he can make his escape ith some stolen embryos. This enables all the dinosaurs to escape their enclosures. RobotsI ant to explain the future of robots by 2 examples. Data from Star Trek and Asimovs IRobotData has 100,000 terabytes of memory equiv to 100,000,000 one-GB hard drives. hen on trial, he stated that he had a storage capacity of 800 quad...
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