3 ms·

“The nexus of machine learning and medicine, biology, and materials science will be to the coming decades what Silicon Valley has been to the late 20th and earl

“The nexus of machine learning and medicine, biology, and materials science will be to the coming decades what Silicon Valley has been to the late 20th and early 21st century.” I've been hearing the trinity of information technology, life sciences and materials science for over a quarter of a century again and again. Since the first time and ever since it reminds me of these tests where you are presented a list of words that are related somehow and you have to find the one word that doesn't fit in the set. For me materials science seems to almost fit at first glance, but not really when you look at it. Both the other areas have already changed our life more than anything in the past decades and there is good reason they will continue to do so even more in the near and intermediate future. I don't see this to be true for materials science. At least there seem to be at least a dozen fields that are equally influential. Does anyone know why materials science is so often included?

Clewza313 6y ago
Superconductors, buckyballs, artificial diamonds etc are all quite sexy and easy to grasp, so they have a big profile in popular news despite their comparative lack of utility, much more so than (until recently) incomprehensible mumbo-jumbo about mRNA, convoluted neural networks and whatnot. That said, materials science is vital for incremental improvements like modern composite airplanes or SpaceX rockets etc, and if we ever do get to space elevators or room-temperature superconductors, the potential is life-changing.
- webmaven 6y ago
  > That said, materials science is vital for incremental improvements like modern composite airplanes or SpaceX rockets etc, and if we ever do get to space elevators or room-temperature superconductors, the potential is life-changing. There are a lot of other directions that materials science is exploring that might turn out to be transformative. Higher energy densities and power densities in batteries and capacitors, weldable ceramics, thin film thermal insulators, electroactive polymers, tunable optical refraction and reflection, biocompatible materials for implants, etcetera, etc.
bsenftner 6y ago
It sounds crackpot, but in the merger of ML enhanced medicine and bio-generics, we're gonna see attempts to push genetic manipulating cosmetic plastic surgeries into the mainstream - like tattoos, these medical enhancements will be sold like apps, and they will create novelty capabilities or novel appearance transformations for the customers. Some artist gets sparrow wings on their feet (like the Greek God Mercury) or an artist has a living hydra-snake-wig created that accompanies her with backup vocals, who the hell knows? with this tech, bizarre combinations are possible and will driven by pop culture excess curiosity. Not "if" but "when" a popular music artist embraces such technology, we'll see a whole generation of Transhumanists Entertainers flooding society.

Clewza313 6y ago

Superconductors, buckyballs, artificial diamonds etc are all quite sexy and easy to grasp, so they have a big profile in popular news despite their comparative lack of utility, much more so than (until recently) incomprehensible mumbo-jumbo about mRNA, convoluted neural networks and whatnot. That said, materials science is vital for incremental improvements like modern composite airplanes or SpaceX rockets etc, and if we ever do get to space elevators or room-temperature superconductors, the potential is life-changing.

webmaven 6y ago
> That said, materials science is vital for incremental improvements like modern composite airplanes or SpaceX rockets etc, and if we ever do get to space elevators or room-temperature superconductors, the potential is life-changing. There are a lot of other directions that materials science is exploring that might turn out to be transformative. Higher energy densities and power densities in batteries and capacitors, weldable ceramics, thin film thermal insulators, electroactive polymers, tunable optical refraction and reflection, biocompatible materials for implants, etcetera, etc.

bsenftner 6y ago

It sounds crackpot, but in the merger of ML enhanced medicine and bio-generics, we're gonna see attempts to push genetic manipulating cosmetic plastic surgeries into the mainstream - like tattoos, these medical enhancements will be sold like apps, and they will create novelty capabilities or novel appearance transformations for the customers. Some artist gets sparrow wings on their feet (like the Greek God Mercury) or an artist has a living hydra-snake-wig created that accompanies her with backup vocals, who the hell knows? with this tech, bizarre combinations are possible and will driven by pop culture excess curiosity. Not "if" but "when" a popular music artist embraces such technology, we'll see a whole generation of Transhumanists Entertainers flooding society.