A quick refresher: in terms of engineering, crowdsourcing is the use of “the masses” as a replacement for expensive research and development labs (think: MAKE geeks with garages).
Wired magazine discussed crowdsourcing last month. And a couple days ago Paul Kedrosky at Business 2.0, published an interesting article detailing the relatively low barriers to entry in the burgeoning field of basement biotechnology (from using genome sequencers and molecular blenders all in the comfort of your abode) — barriers which continually lower and can be capitalized off of through the use of crowdsourcing.
In addition, futurist Ray Kurzweil recently penned a germane column over at Scientific America that discusses the upcoming ability to reprogram and re-engineer our own DNA. Replicators anyone?
“Democide, a leading pathogen responsible for a million deaths each year.” – Doctor Recommended
Valleywag, the geek gossip weblog, chastised a number of wealthy geeks for not contributing to AIDS relief in Africa.
While I typically enjoy the jocular banter that Valleywag employs daily, in the words of Eric Cartman: I think that is bullshit.
Publicly guilting individuals into donating their own wealth to help others makes about as much sense as the self-appointed fashionistas that wear “Pro-Modesty” shirts in order to passively ridicule people that wear low-cut skirts and spaghetti string tops.
It is not only confrontational, but also hypocritical. Who are you guys to point a finger and tell someone what they should do with their wallet? Does Valleywag or its parent company donate large swaths of money to the destitute?
Furthermore, while AIDS is certainly an awful disease, why not lobby against a truly preventable epidemic: democide. Democide is the murder of people by their own government; it includes genocide, politicide and mass murder.
While not to downplay the fatalities wrought by AIDS, democide is an entirely premeditated criminal act that costs hundreds of thousands of lives each year. Yet despite the staggering statistics, there is very little outcry from international organizations that seek foreign aid provided by governmental organizations.
Perhaps it is because of Technocraticus busybodili — a government created blight that slowly infects and parasitically drains the lifeblood of its host for years upon end. In fact, it killed over 100 million people in the 20th century alone and shows no signs of letting up.
And no, this is not some granola-crunching appeal for the UN to police the world. I just think that geeks in particular should be able to put “injustices” into a more rational perspective.
So, sop up the river you just cried and ship it to Darfur.
Note: here is the video for the South Park episode, “Jared has Aides.”
If you have ever watched Star Trek, you are no doubt familiar with the technology that instantly materializes any type of substance vis-a-vis a Santa Claus machine (also known as a nanofactory).
Today, Wired News published a neat piece on the nascent industry of growing artificial meat. Yup, test-tube meat on-demand.
See also their investigation on factory-produced diamonds as well as the future of hydroponic food factories.
