Nano-bio-info-cogno (NBIC) convergence

Interim paper from the National Science Foundation on info convergence. Says Jim Spohrer,

The basic idea is that information is encoded in atomic systems, molecular biological systems (DNA, cells), digital computer systems (bits), and cognitive systems (neurons, brains, people). Social systems (memes) are another way in which information is encoded. As these separate sciences advance, more interactions are occuring between them. And, here is the big speculation thought, an understanding of how information is encoded and recoded into each of these systems may allow for rapid improvement in human performance.

Perhaps the convergence is more than one hundred years away, since physicists since the late 1800's have been working to create a unified theory of the physical realm -- nevertheless, the speculations in this material (and most of this work is speculation) are good imagination-stretching exercises for thinking about how future generations may collaborate, interact with their world, learn, and evolve. Fascinating speculation, but not for the faint of heart, since much of this material from the National Science Foundation (NSF) reads more like science fiction than science fact.

Is my influence at work here? I told Jim I enjoyed reading his science fiction when the raw reports were coming out on the web a few months back.