William Kamkwamba

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Segway inventor creates a Artificial Arm.

I’ve seen this one in blog.TED.com. Dean Kamen’s received a visit of a very senior government officer requesting him to invent an artificial arm according to few very simple specifications: he wanted the returing troopers of war, which had losen their arms, be able to pick a berry, and feel it size, weight and texture.

As a consequence of a SuperTech behaviour, and its ability to enhance human body, I check it both as SuperTech and HumanTech technology.

See more on: IEEE.org

Super Tech and Limit Tech Evolutionary Dispute.

Hi,

Few days ago while talking to a friend of mine, Tammy, I remembered a discussion we had when we were in high school. It was an essay we had to write about human biological evolution, what Human would be in 100,000 years. My friend took a Super Tech approach and I took a Limit Tech approach.

Here it follows:

Tammy: – Well, we can say for sure that humans will be taller. Because each generation children are taller than the parents.

I: – I don’t agree with you, because you know, there will be a strong food shortage and this lack of nutrition will lead to smaller humans.

Tammy: – No way, my brother is taller than my father… I am taller than my mother. We’ll be very very tall.

I: – Gosh, I envy you. I am smaller than my father, my mother and my sister…

Tammy: – And you eat a lot, so the food has nothing to do with height.

I: – Hold you horses, Tammy. I eat a lot indeed, but your theory is not working as well. I am not taller than anyone of my family. It seems we have a point here, wouldn’t you say?

Actually we were both right and wrong. Indeed genetics and nutrition are responsible for proper human growth. Countries with ethnicities of tall people, such Scandinavians, are taller than others, such Brazilians – that is the genetic part of the argument. But also proper nutrition, people starving in Africa are usually shorter than other Africans better fed.

The whole point of our discussion is: the next 100,000 years will be of superabundance, on which people would get taller each generation; or scarcity, on which people would shorten each generation?

I strongly believe that none shall completely fulfil. Humans will not have a superabundance available for everyone nor there will be a complete lack of resources. By the year of 2007 we see each country, depending upon the size and its own vision of future, choosing one line of development over another. I see European and Chinese people shorten, because they’ll have problem with fields to raise crops, and Brazilians and Canadians getting taller due to their relatively small population and huge room for dwelling and sowing.

I think the greatest challenge about future, resources and technologies is create a coherent and unique way of developing things. Super Tech behaviour has already shown to us that it is able to provide cohesion to the world: be bigger, stronger and better. It is proselytist.

On the other hand, Limit Tech and Local Tech are not able to produce such results – not because they have weak theoretical base, but by definition they are not expansion-driven behaviours.

Human Tech, also fails on this point, because each Human Being is different and this will make the whole idea of cohesion dreadful. “I do not want to lose my individuality”.

Nature Tech produces cohesion, but it is not proselytist – mainly because humans nowadays are dissidents of Mother Nature protection. Man decided to take its own future by hand, and yet it is learning how to deal with it.

I ask myself: Is Super Tech the only conceivable future? Will not the others fade away because they cannot spread their importance to others? Will man-kind be able to choose Limit Tech or Local Tech rather than Super Tech?

This cohesion is very important, not only to understand what shall happen in 5 ou 50 years, but also of how Homo Sapiens Sapiens will develop along the ages: like a short parasite or a medium-size nature-balanced creature.

Human Tech – Caffeine may trigger Panic crisis.

Study carried on by the UFRJ, Rio de Janeiro Federal University, demonstrates that caffeine may trigger Panic crisis.

They used 480mg of caffeine, as much as 5 cups of coffee, ingested in 15 minutes. The group was composed of 40 patients either healthy or whom suffered of Panic Syndrome, depression and few other psychiatric.

Those who suffered of Panic Syndrome or depression associated to Panic Syndrome display more crisis after ingesting this ammount of caffeine than the other groups.

According to the psychiatrist Antonio Egídio Nardi, professor of UFRJ medicine school, this discovery may be used in future treatments for Panic Syndrome, he says: “With a controlled dose, it might be possible to produce a light version of crisis and help the patient to deal with them”.

Source: UOL – Science Channel

http://cienciaesaude.uol.com.br/ultnot/2007/12/10/ult4477u256.jhtm

Human Tech – Sex and chocolate enhances brain capacity.

The book Teaching yourself: Training Your Brain from the authors Terry Horne and Simon Wootin analises how life style interfere with people’s mental capacities.

Many of the suggestions sustained on the book are based on chemicals released by the body when doing certain activities like eating chocolate and having sex.

The advise people to live the BLISS life style – body pleasure, joy, involvement, satisfaction and sex in order to enhance mental activities.

Source: BBC Brazil

http://www.bbc.co.uk/portuguese/reporterbbc/story/2007/12/071203_chocoesexo_fp.shtml

Human & Nature Tech – Skin ageing ‘reversed’ in mice

Californian researchers had found a protein – NF-kappa-B – acknowledged to play a role in numerous aspects of ageing.

They managed to rejuvanate the skin of two-year old mice.

According to the leader scientist of the research, Dr. Chang from Stanford School of Medicine, these findings support the theory that ageing process is result of genetic change, therefore they could be reversed later in life.

Source: BBC Health

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7119552.stm

Nature Tech – Pomegranate as natural medicine for sexual impotence.

A study published in Journal of Impotence Research by researchers of University of California suggests that Pomegranate has blood properties similar to Viagra, and therefore might be used for healing sexual impotence.

However, the researches claims that further studies should be done to prove its efficiency.

Source: BBC Brazil

http://www.bbc.co.uk/portuguese/reporterbbc/story/2007/11/071130_romaimportencia_fp.shtml

Five Regions of the Future – First Thoughts.

I’ve read Joel Barker and Scott Erickson’s “Five Regions of the Future”.

The book reveals itself as a framework which helps cataloging the technologies and views of the future into five categories, which they call Regions. However this approach might sound simplistic, the its simplicity makes it very useful and valuable.

After reading the book, the patterns applied in R&D and its commercial implications became all too obvious, yet thought provoking because the book itself only scratches the possibilities of each category.

These Regions are:

1. Super Tech – The bigger, the stronger and the faster – all of them, the better.
2. Limit Tech – Resources are few and we are endangered running out of resources.
3. Local Tech – Scaling properly. There will be the sufficient for everyone, only the sufficient.
4. Nature Tech – Mother nature has the solution for everything, she’s been trying and experimenting for 2 billions years.
5. Human Tech – The humans has the solutions for themselves, within themselves.

I guess it summarises regions.

I have been provoked by the book to develope the following list.

Which regions do few countries fit best?

I picked up only two: China and Brazil.

• China: Super Tech.
  • Super Tech – China is big and it’s getting bigger. There are approximately 1,4bi of chineses. Everyday I read on papers the audacious goals China holds for the future.
  • Super Tech – China is consuming resources from all over the world, provoking the raise of the inflation on many commodities.
  • Super Tech – China is one of the most pollution producers of the world.
  • Super Tech – China has been developing military strength.
• Brazil: Nature Tech and Local Tech – Trying to change to Super Tech through the “Desenvolvimentismo” (developmentism)
  • Nature Tech – Embrapa is one of the most efficient public companies in the world regarding agropecurial research.
  • Nature Tech – The Amazon Forest is acknowledged as a source of huge biodiversity. Several researchers seek in its wild life solutions for several issues ranging from health to engineering.
  • Local Tech – The regional folklore has became product of exportation, such sandals Havaina.
  • Local Tech – The over-crowded cities like São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro created a massive migration wave to the country side, and a net of medium size cities is emerging.
  • Super Tech – Petrobrás in 1970s manage to find petroleum in the coast beneath the salt layer, and in the year of 2007, Lula’s government initiated efforts in pumping it.
  • Super Tech – Greatest agropecurial production. Worldly chief exporter of soybeans, cattle and raw minerals.

I shall search for more technologies in the newspapers and eletronic media, and post them here tagging them according to the Five Regions – resume the Joel Barker’s job. He stopped in the December of 2006.