Brain Wang (writer, speaker and noted futurist) is today's featured guest.
Biases remain strong, Brian says, within government and the scientific community that have prevented the funding of some nanotechnology projects while promoting others. Brian explains how these biases are misused to secure funding for projects which have nothing to do with nanotechnology, at the cost of those that do.
Brian also talks about: Bussard Fusion (not to be confused with the interstellar ramjet also invented by Doctor Robert Bussard); types of nanotechnology and how each would change our lives and our civilization; the military's attitude toward nanotechnology; the need to quit keeping all our eggs in one basket and spread a meaningful portion of our species throughout the solar system;
Nanotech is not the only place science biases exist.
Engineering is the art of making what you want from what you can get at a profit.
So long as government is a major provider of money for science, biases, to play to the politics of those in power or play up urgency in a field of study, are rewarded and unavoidable.
Biasses or not, if you are talking about science - as opposed to technology - nobody can be unbiassed. No-one can know from where comes the serendipitous breakthrough, and what we need is intelligent curiosity untrammelled by funding panels with short-term consensus goals.
Polywell counts as technology, and really should be funded on a high risk cost-benefit basis... It is one unusual case where the goal is clear at the outset.