Is there enough fuel to create energy to feed the demand of a growing world, that is living longer? If so, can it be used in a way that does not raise the temperature of the Earth? The Earth’s temperature is rising. How do we continue to create energy and reverse rising temperature? What alternative’s exist and are feasible? What about land use? These are a few of the complex and controversial questions that were raised on Day 4 at Singularity University.
Gregg Maryniak provided an overview of the current supply of Earth’s fuel reserves and demand suggesting we likely have enough. He discussed grid 2.0 & transmission systems, energy storage technology & systems, including fuel cells; efficient transportation systems.
Meanwhile, Saul Griffith using compelling facts and data created a call for action that now is the time to act for clean energy and that many citizens in the developed world must adjust lifestyles ASAP – consume less wine, and far fewer days airplane trips! His compelling presentation created environmental and energy 101 literacy with the attendees. Saul identified future breakthroughs in renewable energy production, including solar, wind, ocean, geothermal, biological (albeit pessimistic), and nuclear. He demanded energy conservation & efficiency and laid out grand challenges for us to focus on in the immediate future, including food and water security, waste management and recycling, and environmental contamination and clean up; in other words quit drinking bottled water!
Credit union considerations….Now is the time for green, sustainability and corporate responsibility credit union strategies.
Moore’s law of exponential growth in electronics has been the driver for revolutions in information sciences. Brad Templeton helped us understand the ramifications of what life in a networked world means, and the implications of a deeply connected world, where people, devices and the very building blocks of our cities remain in constant communication. He was especially passionate about the depth of the problems we face in securing and in protecting our rights and privacy in our a data-driven world. Imagine a future where artificial intelligence is able to review every action you have ever taken on-line, phone call, text, ATM you have used, where your car has been and with public cameras everywhere, tracking your every movement….Big brother?
Life-long and prosper. A field trip to a real start up Halcyon Molecular was mind-numbing. The company just moved from a garage into a lab. The CEO William Andregg’s dream is to extend human lifespans long enough to travel to other star systems. William’s early focus on astronomy and physics eventually gave way to intense study of biology for that reason.
Halcyon’s focus: DNA sequencing has the potential to transform medicine into an information science. But in order to realize this potential, the technology must be mature enough to enable: Full, 100% complete genomes without errors and low enough cost to be considered a routine diagnostic. Halcyon believe’s electron microscopy is the best technology to achieve these aims. In fact, electron microscopy was the first proposed and first attempted method to sequence DNA. Richard Feynman proposed it in his 1959 talk There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom. Despite its potential, a number of technological hurdles have previously stalled its development. Halcyon’s breakthroughs have overcome those hurdles, and will enable them to develop EM as an ultimate DNA sequencing technology. The key enabling features of Halcyon technology is extraordinarily long read length.
NOTE: The VC firm behind this start-up is Founders Fund, an early investor in Facebook, with partner “Luke Nosek”: http://www.foundersfund.com/lukenosek.php a founder of Pay-Pal. Luke was very personable, down-to-earth, and actually spent significant time with us at the offices of Halcyon.
The day ended with Ray Kurzweil who teleported into our meeting in Silicon Valley from Boston using a new 3-D video conferencing technology that looked like a 3-D hologram. His two hour lecture was focused on his book the “The Singularity is Near”:http://www.singularity.com/. The Singularity is an era in which our intelligence will become increasingly nonbiological and trillions of times more powerful than it is today—the dawning of a new civilization that will enable us to transcend our biological limitations and amplify our creativity. Imagine in 20 years a PDA the size of a blood cell and a billion times more powerful. Would you implant it? Is it the first step towards life in the Matrix
My head really hurts…I still have another day of Nanotechonology – complex molecular machines that can manufacture new products….
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