[FRIAM] Any non-biological complex systems?

[Steven A Smith]

I just looked up "Topological Insulator" (thanks Carl) and was blown 
away (once again) about things discovered/developed during my 
professional career that I had not heard of before but find 
relevant/fascinating to some of my work.  I wonder if the boys (and 
girls?) of the Enlightenment felt the same as the scientific progress of 
that era unfolded so fully inside one lifetime?

By coincidence I was just at my nephew's graduation from UofA with a BS 
in Materials Science.  I met his dept. chair and another researcher who 
are leading him forward to a PhD in Material Science, working in the 
area of quantum phononics.  The project(s) were fascinating.

They are already building standing acoustic waves with quantum 
properties and expect to be doing quantum computing with them soon...

None of this is unanticipated, the only thing I have a hard time 
accepting is that it is happening (it would seem) in my lifetime.

My PhD Molecular Biologist daughter was arguing against targeted gene 
splicing as a practicality until CRISPR happened and now, just a couple 
of years later, it is key to her own work!  The social implications 
would seem to be staggering?

I don't believe in a Kurzweilian style singularity exactly, but the 
exponential growth (by what measure?) of tech seems to be happening 
quite clearly...  the impact on everyday life, of course is another matter.

Technological optimists (like Marcus?) probably only see the upside of 
this, while neo-retro-luddites (like myself) have a hard time staying 
away from the grey-goo/dystopian futures...    I am also somewhat of a 
fatalist and expect that it will all happen one way or another with or 
without me fretting.   A couple of years ago, you may have heard me 
asking Schlitz about living in Ecuador as I was looking at withdrawing 
to the hills of Panama, not exactly for these reasons but with that in 
mind.   The folks with a beachhead there turned out to be nuttier than 
fruitcakes (why would that not surpise us) so it wasn't a real option 
anyway.

Enough wandering I suppose...

Carry on!
  - Steve


On 5/25/17 12:01 PM, Carl Tollander wrote:
> Metamaterials.   Topological insulators.
>
>
> On May 24, 2017 6:59 PM, "Russ Abbott" <russ.abbott at gmail.com 
> <mailto:russ.abbott at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>     Are there any good examples of a complex system that doesn't
>     involve biological organisms (including human beings)?
>
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