<![CDATA[io9: Grey Goo]]> http://cache.io9.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/io9.com.png <![CDATA[io9: Grey Goo]]> http://io9.com/tag/grey goo http://io9.com/tag/grey goo <![CDATA[New invention brings us one step closer to an all-consuming, self-replicating grey goo]]> Self-replication. If there's one thing that scifi has taught us it's that there's no possible situation where giving things that can't replicate the ability to do so is a good thing. Yet, against all our grey goo warnings, science has brought us one step closer. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5849351&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[When the world ends, will you be covered in grey goo?]]> How will life on Earth end? International nuclear bombardment? Another asteroid? Enslavement by aliens? The devouring of all of our resources by a Skynet-esque batch of self-replicating microscopic robots? You laugh, but a lot of people (including a batch of anti-science terrorists) believe our demise will come in the form of self-replicating nanobots. So let's take a look at whether such a thing could happen, and what we could do to stop it. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5836916&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[When science narratives go bad]]> In the following essay, Jennifer Ouellette explores what happens when otherwise normal science documentaries attempt to give their topics dramatic flourish...and fail hard. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5579156&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[What Are the Unlikeliest Futures for the Human Species?]]> Welcome to Ask a Biogeek, a column where you ask UC Berkeley researcher Terry Johnson any question you want - no matter how weird. Reader Matthew asks:
This is an odd question, but is there anything we're certain isn't coming? Most of my friends are all starry-eyed optimistic sci-fi readers, and they continually bombard me with what will be the "future of the human species" . . . from "meat vats" for growing cruelty free meat to clone armies. Anyway, is there anything that is solidly stymied at this point? Any futurist direction we know is blocked?
"Blocked" is perhaps too rigorous a standard, but there are certainly some futures far less likely than others. I can't prove a negative, but perhaps I can convince you that a few common science fiction or futurist tropes are, shall we say, favored poorly by probability. More »
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