Nanotechnology and human extinction
Nanotechnology and human extinction Over the years man has always sought for ways to make life easy, comfortable and extremely comfortable for himself. He had sought for the very best of ways to do even the simplest of all things that need no aid whatsoever. Researches upon research have been conducted to make
is he working to make it better or working to make it a disaster? The this a reality. Question still lies;
taste of the pudding [they say] lies in the eating. Man is wise but has gotten even wiser than he can imagine. He sought for every single thing, even the ones that yields him no tangible result except for the knowledge, making the myth of man using only a tenth of his brain capacity sound like he is now using the complete capacity. He even sought for his “cousins” in the outer space just to know if he is alone in this whole confined called universe. All these extreme technologies seem to be helping in the advancement of civilization but then man refuse to put into consideration the secret dangers of the advantages he enjoys from his findings or rather the doom he is going to get from his breakthroughs.
DISASTERS We have had several disasters in the past and our environment bears the brunt of it with a grunt of repercussion – meaning us signing the eviction warrant that spells man’s extinction for
These disasters are seldom natural than it is artificial and these manmade those disasters created by man.
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disasters seem to have a very heavy repercussion. Most of the disasters we experience are due to our constant activities and “life improvement.” Take for example the indiscriminate occurrence of earthquakes. Yes we understand the movement along fault lines but what about the earthquake that occurs in Africa and the recent one in Tanzania with several tremors in the Nigeria’s north which experts speculate the incessant exploration of water (borehole) and other activities that induces earthquake. For earthquake, we know, it can be induces in so many ways; the building of dams and the excessive stress load the water subjects the earth crust to, mining and injection of chemicals and toxic waste to the earth crust and other several activities on the earth’s surface. It will be right to say that these man’s activities are to
but how about using these same invention to cause death like the nuke? If man is not better his life
careful he might destroy himself and wipe himself out into oblivion.
ORIGIN OF SCIENCE Science is the study of the natural world base on facts and empirical approach and observation, produced by scientists who insist on observation, explanation and prediction of the natural world phenomenon. The more man discovers good things the more he wants to explore the disadvantages, it should depend on our ability to care about the disadvantages so as to secure a safe future for our existence. The question whether science is for good or otherwise was given a clever illustration by Ajuzieogu D. I.Esq in a Whatsapp conversation he said; “The fruit of good and evil was science. What it did to man was to open his eyes, to unveil his ignorance and he saw he was naked and his next instinct was to Author: Oji Chukwudimma C.
Nanotechnology and human extinction make a covering and that was science. Science is good and evil, like that fruit. I believe God was trying to protect us from it.” The Holy book made mention that God gave stern warning to man in Genesis 2:17 “but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die." (NIV). Does this mean that God knew this from the start, from the creation that man (with science) will be so intelligent but that same intelligence will kill him? Ajuzieogu D. I.Esq also said that God had to curse His own creation so as not to allow man increase in the knowledge of himself and nature will always militate against his advancement putting him on check always. According to Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), we have nine countries in the world with clear access to nuclear weapons which is believed to be about sixteen thousand three hundred nuclear weapons and four countries out of these nine has illegal access to these nukes. However, Russia and the United States of America, under the Treaty on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive arms otherwise known as NEW START, which the two countries entered into in February 5th, 2011, brought about a reduction in nuke possession. According to Amanda Macias of the Business Insider
“Russia and the United States have reduced their inventories but still account for more than 93% of all operational nuclear warheads.” this, in all aspect, still keep the world very unsafe. According to SIPRI, below is the list of countries with nuclear weapons and details as published by SIPRI in 2014.
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Figure 1; country with nuclear weapons
NANOSCIENCE This branch of science is almost affecting all parts of our lives as humans. It is improving the efficiency of science, making the products of science smaller, lighter and super effective. Imagine our TV how bulky it used to be that nanoscience gave us the insight to make it slimmer, curvy, and so on and even more effective as we can have a crystal clear vision. This field of science is rapidly evolving and every professional is interested in this trying to harness the advantages for the various field of man’s profession. Nanoscience is the study of structures and materials on the scale of nanometers, according to the Texas Materials Institute of which I totally
A nanometer is 109meters (1/109m) which means 1 meter divided by 1,000,000,000. agree
with.
Let me make it very clear to a 6th grader, when you divide a meter into one billion just a part of that is a nanometer. In comparison a strand of your hair is about 100,000nm (One Hundred Thousand nanometers) thick. Imagine how thin Author: Oji Chukwudimma C.
Nanotechnology and human extinction the hair is and how big the value in nanometer is? Take again for instance the molecule of water that is less than a nanometer and a typical germ, we do not really see with our naked eyes, is about 1000nm. Imagine one out of a billion of a meter and how infinitesimal it is, it is obvious you cannot see anything , in a nanometer, with your naturally eyes which made Lynn Charles Rathbun, in his article “How Big is a Nanometer?” said that “…unless you use very powerful microscopes like atomic force microscopes.” Now you see how extremely small
Science told us that if you can reduce structures so small that they assume the size of nanometer scale, they (inadvertently) possess a more enhanced behaviour that we can find surprisingly useful. It is so import this size can be?
that man can achieve a lot with it. Take for instance the fact that with nanoparticle, it can reach a particular cell that needs it and medicine will have a great breakthrough among many other advantages. This American, Richard Phillips Feynman, is known as the father of nanoscience. This, his, idea started with a talk, titled “There’s plenty of rooms at the Bottom” at the American Physical Society meeting in California Institute of Technology on December 29, 1959, where he described a certain process in which scientists would have the ability to manipulate individual atoms and molecules and even control them.
Nanotechnology is the use of nanoscience to invent things in the nanoscale. If you want to make it
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named Norio Taniguchi. He, in 1974, coined that word to describe the precision invention of materials in nanometer sizes. It was Kim Eric Drexler who unknowingly used a related term in his 1986 book “Engines of Creation” making the term popular.
HUMAN PROVOCATION AND NANOTECHNOLOGY. With the slightest provocation of a normal human being, he goes to an almost extreme violence. This is the normal human and a lot of things will be blamed upon which could be biological, sociological or psychological. According to Jude I. D., he tried to express the pedigree of human nature biblically, that God originally wanted man to have science (the tree of knowledge of good and evil) but not so earlier, at least not earlier than eternal life (the tree of life) but man disobeyed God and took science first, which he exhibited by “manufacturing” a vesture made out of animal skin, knowing that with eternal life man will become an eternal nuisance on earth, God protected them from the tree of life. In his own words “And it was discovered that his inclination was twisting towards the first tree (tree of knowledge of good and evil) not the second (tree of life)when he was given the first opportunity of choice making. He wanted us to know science but not before receiving the eternal nature. And that's why today, that eternal nature (born again) is basic to everything you have to do.” However, Robin Fox, in his paper titled “The human nature of violence,” a pictorial illustration, he gave as seen below in fig 1, exposes the real human attitude.
simpler you can easily say it is the process of creating things in the tiniest of nature. The term "Nano-technology" was coined by a Japanese Professor of the Tokyo Science University Author: Oji Chukwudimma C.
Nanotechnology and human extinction
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Michigan over football rivalry, the British and New Zealand natives over erection of British flag in Kororareka etc. We always have difficulty compartmentalizing our temperament, hence posing dangerous for our own existence.
GETTING READY TO DIE
Figure 2; Escalation sequence
He mentioned, trying to explain the above diagram, “…the hormones involved in propelling the sequence, starting with adrenaline, getting a boost from testosterone and serotonin, and ending with a flood of endorphins if successful.” This exposes the gradual agitation of man and the extent it can take him to – bloodshed. If man was given special powers to cause things to happen at a distance or just by imagination man would have exterminated himself long ago, because every time we get angry we wish a lot of deadly things at that moment. I was robbed some years ago, they told me to leave my car and lay on the floor and they took everything belonging to me in the car. After cleaning me dry I managed to escape but I had a second thought of driving back at them and killing them. This is a provocation that would have gotten too far. Well I didn’t but I realised that if I had that special power the rest would have been history. This is man, this is his nature. During the last US election in November, 2016 between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, Hilary said that if Trump cannot control his anger over an ordinary tweet how can the electorate entrust him with the nuclear code? The United States presumably invaded Afghanistan because of Bin Laden, Iraq because of Hussein and was advancing at Iran because of the sixth president of Iran, Ahmadinejad till whatchamacallit stopped them. This is synonymous to the reasons Greek and Bulgaria, hilariously, went into war because of a stray dog in 1925, the same reason Ohio and
I will not be too elaborate in this section but I will generally illuminate us to the impending danger that we are brewing and about to let loose. Nanotechnology has gotten man to the stage in his existence where it feels like peak. He sees that this is the era of controlling things in its atomic state, making science look like magic. Now the question is – How can we protect the usage of this technology from the hands of some unscrupulous elements who will harness it negatively? It was recorded by some writers that nanotechnology has never spelt more good than evil. Our future lie in the hands of these evolutions and what they will do to us is what Bill Joy will describe in his article “Why future doesn’t need us” as human being an endangered species. We are developing machines and literally handing powers over to these machines.
Humans are losing jobs and making machines more powerful. Well for now we might not worry so much about that because as my little niece will say “computer is an idiot machine” gives some relief as to taking instructions from humans is comforting at the moment. With nanotechnology there will be improvement (either ways of the direction) in all aspect of our lives. I ask; does it seem like these machines might revolt against man in the future, owing to the fact that it has gotten improved intelligence?
Author: Oji Chukwudimma C.
Nanotechnology and human extinction My problem is not the advantages of this technology but that we will make this a killing machine for and this is possible seeing what is going on around the world; people just killing others for reason known only to their “skull” and even the proliferation of arms not to be for the good of man’s existence but for the danger of neighbours and relatives. It is very evident that at the slightest provocation we can go the
We are consciously getting ready for the worse; building shelters that shield us from nuclear explosion fallout (caused by us) and storing foods that will keep us for as long as the radioactive debris decays to a less harmful one. extreme
to
respond
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be compartmentalized into a suitcase and made in such a miniature nature, we should know that evil looms. I will not exhaust, completely, the dangers this nanoscience will bring in the future, but subsequently I might come up with more, so to do justice to this phenomenon. It is simple, very simple to understand that we are the evil we should avoid. Question is how do we avoid this?
deadly.
REFERENCE
Amanda M.: 2014, Nine Nations Have NukesHere's How Many Each Country Has.
Lynn C. R.: 2013, How big is a nanometer
Texas Material Institute, what is nanoscience?
Finagle’s law of Dynamic Negatives states that “Anything that can go wrong, will at the worst possible moment.” If nanoscience is a good idea how come most writers and researchers decry the dangers of the future? Nanotechnology is bound to be misused, in fact it has a great potential of being used for the very worst reason and this is what Finagle’s law wants us to understand. This is well understood in the above subhead where I talked about human provocation and how we get easily hurt and react. This will make the sound of nuclear war and misuse of nanotechnology dreadful.
Richard P. F.: 1959, Plenty of Room at the Bottom Bill J.: 2000, Why future doesn’t need us
CONCLUSION It is true that nanoscience charted the course for nanotechnology and we have a promising future scientifically. But it is also true that this comes with its dangers and for this the danger is colossal. It gets worst and it is becoming more evident than before. The more we discover the more we destroy or plan to destroy. If the, dreaded, nuclear war heads is now produced to Author: Oji Chukwudimma C.