Word: scenario
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...This scenario, in which crypto-wielding cybercriminals take over the world, has become a standard plot device in turn-of-the-century science fiction. I've even used it once or twice. But there is good news on this front. Running the world turns out to be surprisingly challenging. It isn't something an evil mastermind can do just by hitting return on his keyboard...
More important, however, is the software of intelligence. The most compelling scenario for mastering that software is to tap into the blueprint of the best example we can get our hands on: the brain. There is no reason why we cannot reverse-engineer the human brain and copy its design. We can peer inside someone's brain today with noninvasive scanners, which are increasing their resolution with each new generation. To capture the salient neural details of the human brain, the most practical approach would be to scan it from inside. By 2030, "nanobot" technology should be available for brain...
...constructing them one by one is expensive and laborious. So most assemblers will need the additional ability to make copies of themselves. To make a skyscraper, for example, a handful of assemblers would first clone themselves into an army of trillions of tiny robots, then start building (see NIGHTMARE SCENARIO...
NIGHTMARE SCENARIO Self-replication is the best way to build a few trillion nanobots in a hurry: each one makes two more, and each of those makes two and so on. But if they don't stop, the entire planet could rapidly be reduced to a teeming mass of robots. Nanotechnologists plan to program their tiny creations to stop reproducing after a certain point. But it takes only one rogue self-replicator to cause a disaster. If you thought computer viruses were a problem...
...resumes direct talks with North Korea over missiles. Long-term peace on the peninsula would certainly allow the U.S. to remove 37,000 troops from harm's way along the world's most potentially volatile border. But that would also lose Washington a key foothold in any future conflict scenario in the region against either China or Russia...