| MOORE'S LAW, FEAR OF BIOTECH, ELECTRIC CARS, BIONIC EYE Moore's Law Is Dead, Innovation Isn't According to a new industry report, Moore's Law is dying. But that doesn't mean that innovation is going to stop as Silicon Valley finds other ways to keep making our computers cheaper and more powerful. "In order to fit more and more transistors on a silicon chip, the transistors themselves must shrink. But, what the ITRS states is that, after 2021, the transistor will stop shrinking and 'we will have exhausted all the various tricks that people have been using to create finer and finer geometries on silicon wafers,' said Eric Hanselman, chief analyst at 451 Research.... "However, this doesn't mean that manufacturers will give up on innovating in the transistor space. According to the report, chip makers will begin to experiment with new transistor designs, vertical geometries, and 3D structures.... "Hanselman said he believes there's a bigger question to ask: 'What are we doing with this kind of computing power?'" Moore's Law may end in a very strict and narrow interpretation. But there's no reason to think that the wider phenomenon it stood for--geometric growth in computing power--is going to end. --- Biotechnopanic A new survey shows that Americans are widely suspicious of or uncomfortable with biotechnological enhancement of humans. Gee, I wonder where they might have gotten that idea, except for, you know, from pretty much every Hollywood movie. "The survey examines public attitudes about the potential use of three emerging technologies that could fundamentally improve people’s health, cognitive abilities or physical capacities. The specific examples were: gene editing to give babies a lifetime with much reduced risk of serious disease, implanting brain chips to give people a much improved ability to concentrate and process information and transfusing of synthetic blood to give people much greater speed, strength and stamina. These are just three of many enhancements that scientists and bioethicists say could arise from biomedical technologies now under development. None of the three are currently available for the purpose of enhancing otherwise healthy babies or adults, though all are in a research and development phase or are being tested in very limited circumstances for therapeutic uses, such as helping patients to recover from a stroke or spinal cord injury." The headline number is the percentage who are uncomfortable with these technologies, about two-thirds. The more important result, however, is the number who are excited about them, which is about one-third or more. Which means there are going to be plenty of early adopters who will make the new technology seem normal and increase everyone else's comfort level. --- There's plenty more at our main page, including some skepticism about how "green" electric cars really are. Will Computers Eventually Replace Labs?
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Where Next for Solar-Powered Flight? Check it all out. --- We Have the Technology The era of technologically enhanced humans is already upon us. Everyone of a certain age, for example, remembers Steve Austin's bionic eye, right? Well, we have the technology. --Rob Tracinski
Editor, RealClearFuture Follow @RealClearFuture on Twitter. Like us on Facebook. Send comments, recommendations, and submissions to rob@realclearfuture.com. | 
