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Tiny devices to eradicate poverty? (nanotechnology is coming)
Al Jazeera ^ | 04/13/2005 | (Reuters)

Posted on 04/14/2005 7:37:43 AM PDT by bedolido

Futuristic microscopic devices may be able to store energy, raise farm output and purify water to help the world reach 2015 goals of curbing poverty.

According to scientists at the University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics (JBC), nanotechnology - the design and use of molecule-sized devices - is also likely to have wide uses in diagnosing disease and cutting air pollution.

"This is the most educated of educated guesses," JCB director Peter Singer said of the most likely applications for nanotechnology in 10 years, predicted in the JCB poll of 63 experts from around the world.

(Excerpt) Read more at english.aljazeera.net ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: devices; eradicate; poverty; tiny
do we need a grain of salt to take this as true? It's from Al Jazeera.
1 posted on 04/14/2005 7:37:46 AM PDT by bedolido
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To: bedolido
JCB director Peter Singer...

That's all I needed to know.
2 posted on 04/14/2005 7:39:11 AM PDT by mike182d ("Let fly the white flag of war." - Zapp Brannigan)
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To: mike182d
JCB director Peter Singer

why is that?

3 posted on 04/14/2005 7:40:09 AM PDT by bedolido (I can forgive you for killing my sons, but I cannot forgive you for forcing me to kill your sons)
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To: mike182d

Is that the same Singer of infanticide infamy?


4 posted on 04/14/2005 7:41:37 AM PDT by Rutles4Ever
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To: bedolido

Bloodshot bump.


5 posted on 04/14/2005 7:42:30 AM PDT by Thrusher (Remember the Mog.)
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To: mike182d
Not the same Peter Singer... Unfortunate name for a bioethicist.


6 posted on 04/14/2005 7:47:13 AM PDT by Rutles4Ever
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To: Rutles4Ever
Is that the same Singer of infanticide infamy?

That's what I had thought. I could be wrong though, but I'm not willing to take that chance... :-)
7 posted on 04/14/2005 7:47:17 AM PDT by mike182d ("Let fly the white flag of war." - Zapp Brannigan)
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To: bedolido
>JCB director Peter Singer
>>why is that?

A chilling rationale: killing children for their own good

8 posted on 04/14/2005 7:47:24 AM PDT by theFIRMbss
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To: Rutles4Ever

Oh. Then I stand corrected :-)


9 posted on 04/14/2005 7:47:43 AM PDT by mike182d ("Let fly the white flag of war." - Zapp Brannigan)
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To: mike182d

No kidding. Singer's solution is to kill all the babies and then poverty will go away.


10 posted on 04/14/2005 7:48:42 AM PDT by Ditto ( No trees were killed in sending this message, but billions of electrons were inconvenienced.)
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To: Ditto
Well you just kill all the poor people, not just the babies...

Besides I can cure poverty over night. I'm just surprised it hasn't been done yet. Keeping with the traditional American standards we'll cure it like we cure everything else, That's right change the definition! We'll define the current poor as middle class, middle class get upgraded to uppers class, and the current upper class becomes super class. No need to Thank me, I'll be here all week.
11 posted on 04/14/2005 7:51:56 AM PDT by tfecw (Vote Democrat, It's easier than working)
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To: bedolido

Surely the prophet - a piece of him be on you - must have condemned this devil technology.


12 posted on 04/14/2005 7:55:04 AM PDT by DManA
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To: tfecw

You know of course that in fact just the opposite is the truth. We define the middle class as poor and the well fed as hungry for the sake of getting government money to "fix" these problerms, and to use in heart breaking ads to bilk money from the duped!


13 posted on 04/14/2005 7:57:12 AM PDT by Laserman
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To: bedolido

I think a far more realistic solution to the potable water problem was devised by Mitch Kapor - it was powered by something most people don't even know about - the Stirling engine.


14 posted on 04/14/2005 8:08:20 AM PDT by George Smiley (This tagline deliberately targeted journalists.)
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To: bedolido
molecule-sized devices

Pretty small ... I guess that's why the article didn't include a picture. Or, maybe it did and I just couldn't see it.

15 posted on 04/14/2005 8:34:52 AM PDT by layman (Card Carrying Infidel)
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To: bedolido

I read a cia report that basically said nano tech, while having plenty of good uses, will also be a major national as well as a human threat in the wrong hands in the coming years. It will someday be possible to create nanobots that can totally attack and ruin a countrys infrastructure or, more frighteningly, attack/kill anyone with a specific dna; killing off a specific race of people or anyone with blue eyes, for example.


16 posted on 04/14/2005 8:41:14 AM PDT by KillTime (Western Civilization herself breathes a sigh of relief as President Bush wins 4 more years.)
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To: bedolido

The problem isn't growing the food or securing good water. The problem is distribution. If the dictators of Zimbabwe, North Korea, Cuba, and so on are removed from the picture, food and water will make it to those who need it. And at some point those people will be able to provide for themselves (again).

Zimbabwe is the perfect example -- the "Breadbasket of Africa" turning into "Hell on Earth" because of a sick culture embodied in one man, Mugabe.


17 posted on 04/14/2005 8:47:26 AM PDT by Theo
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To: bedolido
"eradicate poverty..."

Now that is just about the dumbest phrase I've heard all week. These morons think it's only the right magic we're missing. Nothing ever requires work, or responsibility, or action, or direction, or helping each other over the wall, or consistent values, etc. etc...

a little magic will do.... Poof! poverty is eradicated....

::sigh:: no wonder Bill Clinton was elected twice.... makes me seriously consider whether allowing everyone to "vote" is such a good idea after all.....

18 posted on 04/14/2005 8:52:44 AM PDT by Lloyd227 (American Forces armed with what? Spit balls?)
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To: bedolido; layman
Related item:

Tiny Porphyrin Tubes Developed By Sandia May Lead To New Nanodevices

19 posted on 04/14/2005 9:35:36 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach (This tagline no longer operative....floated away in the flood of 2005 ,)
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