John K. Davis, Independent Distributor, SendOutCards

Future Life TIME

A coming era of personalized genetic medicine, breakthroughs that radically extend the human lifespan, nanomedicine, and the merger of our biological species with our own technology were among the future visions presented at TIME's The Future of Life conference. Ray Kurzweil, one of the keynote speakers at the conference, has written a recap of the event and the ideas shared by many of those who spoke there. You can read his summary here:

http://www.kurzweilai.net/articles/art0554.html?printable=1

More Travel

Our visit with Steph and her family was wonderful. She is so beautiful! Her extended belly draws curious touching from family, friends and even strangers. Sydney cooperatively kicks, turns and nudges to communicate her presence. I spent time each evening rubbing Stephanie?s tummy and playing with Sydney.

Janet and Stephanie painted and prepared Jamison's bedroom for his move in anticipation of Sydney's arrival. We enjoyed confronting the weather to go out to breakfast or dinner a few times during our visit. Janet and I spent the day with Jamison while his parents worked and we had a great time with our grandson.

It was cold! Most days the high was in the mid twenties and the low usually flirted with zero. There was gentle snow falling much of the time. It was a little warmer when we went to Chicago, but it was still quite cold.

Janet got tied up with law school business during our stay in Chicago, but I enjoyed a terrific meal and good conversation at Bergoff's (German cuisine) with Bob and Mary Stolper.

I was ill most of the time we were away. I got my day and night medication mixed up, so much of the time I was sound asleep. It took me many weeks to shake the nagging cough that lingered, but I'm 100% now. Janet slept without earplugs last night.

Janet is planning to return to Michigan when Stephanie is ready to deliver the baby. My business is becoming more demanding of my time, so I will stay home and sell Scopeware.

Synergy

People are beginning to notice how the technologies all around us are creating amazing new synergistic capabilities that can be easily tapped. The insights are often focused on the interactions between closely related technologies. For example; speech recognition, interpretation software combined with camera-enabled cell phone create an opportunity for instantaneous translation. (See this article in Wired: Device: Arabic In, English Out

Occasionally I find an article that sees the synergistic capabilities being generated by widely disparate technologies and the unexpected consequences the fusion of these capabilities could have. One such article is creating a bit of a stir. It?s a long piece, about ten pages, almost 5,000 words, and it is an excellent piece. (See this article in Technology Review: Surveillance Nation)

DNA Bits & Bites

A year ago DNA was first used to build a programmable computer. The small device used ATP as its power source, a chemical that transports energy to cells for biochemical processes including muscle contraction and enzymatic metabolism. But now the same team that originally built this small device has now found a new power source; the DNA itself.

Using only spontaneous, energy releasing operations within the DNA to carry out computations to completion without any external source of energy, the upgraded device has many technologists all abuzz. A spoonful (5 milliliters) of "computer soup" can contain 15,000 trillion such computers, together performing 330 trillion operations per second. For more information, go here: http://www.wisdom.weizmann.ac.il/%7elbn/new_pages/Pree_Room.html

It would be great if I could eat whatever I wanted without worrying about gaining weight, and--as a bonus--avoid diabetes and live longer as well. A new study led by Joslin Diabetes Center researchers and published in the January 24 issue of the journal Science demonstrates how this was accomplished for genetically altered mice. For more details see: http://www.joslin.org/news/FirkoMouseStudy01.shtml