Fascinating feature article in Wired on China's plan to become the world leader in theraputic cloning research. Confucian ethics permits a more utilitarian approach to cloning than Western philosophy and Chinese government officials are eager to fill the vaccumm as Western governments race to ban all related research.
Charles Mann makes a strong argument that free speech advocates must abandon the commonly held idea that "information wants to be free" and that therefore "the internet is uncontrollable." He argues that this idea is counterproductive because "..by claiming that the Net is inherently uncontrollable, (activists) are absenting themselves from the inevitable process of creating the system that will control it."
The current economic boom is likely due to increases in computing speed and decreases in price. Charles Mann argues that there are some good reasons to think that this trend may be over as technology may soon be no longer able to produce the dramatic increases in computing power predicted by Moore's Law.
A scathing critique of modern software engineering practices and a call of arms against the UCITA that would prohibit the reverse engineering techniques necessary to fix most software.
Genetic engineering will be essential to feed the world?s billions. But could it unleash a race of ?superweeds?? No one seems to know. And nobody?s in charge of finding out.