Foresight Institute

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This article is about the nanotechnology policy organization. For the similar-sounding craniofacial research institute, see The Forsyth Institute.
Foresight Institute
Websiteforesight.org/our-history/

The Foresight Institute (Foresight) is a San Francisco-based research

biotech and longevity.[1][2][3]

Foresight runs four cross-disciplinary program tracks to research, advance, and govern maturing technologies for the long-term benefit of life and the biosphere: Molecular machines nanotechnology for building better materials, biotechnology for health extension, and computer science and crypto commerce for intelligent global cooperation.[4]

Foresight also runs a program on "existential hope",[5][6][7] pushing forward the concept coined by Toby Ord and Owen Cotton-Barrett in their 2015 paper "Existential risk and Existential hope: Definitions", in which they wrote

we want to be able to refer to the chance of an existential eucatastrophe; upside risk on a large scale. We could call such a chance an existential hope. ... Some people are trying to identify and avert specific threats to our future – reducing existential risk. Others are trying to steer us towards a world where we are robustly well-prepared to face whatever obstacles come – they are seeking to increase existential hope.[8]

Foresight's stated strategy is to focus on creating a community that promotes beneficial uses of new technologies and reduce misuse and accidents potentially associated with them.[9]

Foresight runs a one-year Fellowship program aimed at giving researchers and innovators the support and mentorship to accelerate their projects while they continue to work in their existing career.[10][11]

Since 2021, Foresight has hosted a podcast about grand futures called "The Foresight Institute Podcast" and shares all their material as open source via YouTube with lectures from scientists and other relevant actors within their fields of interest.[12]

In addition, Foresight hosts Vision Weekend, an annual conferences focused on envisioning positive, long-term futures enabled by science and technology.[13] The institute holds conferences on molecular nanotechnology and awards yearly prizes for developments in the field.[14][15]

One of Foresight's founders,

Eric Drexler was criticized for his position on nanotechnology. Critics asserted that Drexler's view ignored quantum effects in nanotechnology design, lacking practical output and technical obsolescence.[16]

History

The Foresight Institute was founded in 1986 by

Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology, named after physicist Richard Feynman.[19] In May 2005, the Foresight Institute changed its name to "Foresight Nanotech Institute",[15]
though it reverted to its original name in June 2009.

In 2020, following the COVID-19 pandemic, the institute moved its programs online.

Prizes

Main article:
Foresight Institute Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology

The Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology is an award given by the Foresight Institute for significant advances in nanotechnology. Between 1993 and 1997, one prize was given biennially. Since 1997, two prizes have been given each year, divided into the categories of theory and experimentation.[20][21][22][23] The prize is named in honor of physicist Richard Feynman, whose 1959 talk "There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom" is considered to have inspired and informed the start of the field of nanotechnology.[20] Author Colin Milburn refers to the prize as an example of "fetishizing" its namesake Feynman, due to his "prestige as a scientist and his fame among the broader public."[15]

The Foresight Institute also offers the Feynman Grand Prize, a $250,000 award to the first persons to create both a nanoscale robotic arm capable of precise positional control and a nanoscale 8-bit adder, with both conditions conforming to given specifications. The Feynman Grand Prize is intended to emulate historical prizes such as the

X-Prize Foundation founder Peter Diamandis was selected to chair the Feynman Grand Prize committee.[24]

See also

References

  1. ISBN 978-1452266176
    . Retrieved 13 July 2017.
  2. ^ "Biotech & Health Extension". Foresight Institute.
  3. ^ "Computation: Intelligent Computation". Foresight Institute.
  4. ^ "The Foresight Institute Podcast". Foresight Institute.
  5. ^ "Foresight: Existential Hope Program". Foresight Institute.
  6. ^ Cotton-Baratt, Owen; Ord, Toby (2015). Existential Risk and Existential Hope: Definitions (PDF) (Report). Future of Humanity Institute. Technical Report #2015-1.
  7. ^ ""Existential Hope" is the website the world needs". 30 May 2018.
  8. ^ Owen Cotton-Barratt; Toby Ord (2015). "Existential Risk and Existential Hope: Definitions" (PDF). Foresight Institute.
  9. ^ "Foresight Institute Launches Podcast on Technology and Science for Long Term Flourishing Futures". Archived from the original on 2021-07-15.
  10. ^ "Senior Research Fellows - Foresight Institute". Archived from the original on 2019-07-08.
  11. ^ "Foresight Institute is Accelerating High Risk High Rewards Projects to Heal the Planet".
  12. ^ "The Foresight Institute Podcast".
  13. ^ "At the Foresight Vision Weekend – Soft Machines".
  14. ^
    ISBN 978-0071414890
    . Retrieved 13 July 2017.
  15. ^
    ISBN 978-0822391487
    .
  16. ^ Byrne (December 8, 1999). "Sidebar: Looking at Foresight". SF Weekly. Archived from the original on 27 May 2022. Retrieved 14 December 2016.
  17. ^
    ISBN 978-0691139838
    .
  18. ISBN 9781615922369
    .
  19. ISBN 978-0198714613
    .
  20. ^
    S2CID 145573876
    .
  21. ^ Feynman Prize: Dr Amanda Barnard, ABC (Australia), 2015-04-30, retrieved 2018-05-12
  22. ^ Finkel, Elizabeth (2016-09-26). "Michelle Simmons: a quantum queen". Cosmos Magazine. Archived from the original on 2018-05-08. Retrieved 2018-05-08.
  23. S2CID 10150814
    .
  24. ^ a b "Diamandis to chair Feynman Grand Prize committee | Solid State Technology". electroiq.com. Retrieved 2018-05-01.
  25. ISSN 0026-2692
    .
  26. ^ Davidian, Ken (2005). "Prize Competitions and NASA's Centennial Challenges Program" (PDF). International Lunar Conference. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2016-03-12. Retrieved 2018-05-18.

Further reading

  • Smith, Richard Hewlett. "A Policy Framework for Developing a National Nanotechnology Program", Master of Science thesis, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1998, available at VTechWorks

External links

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