< link rel =" stylesheet " href =" http : / / editor . daum . net / services / blog / css / contents 4 view . css ? ver = 1 . 1 . 114 " type =" text / css "/>< link rel =" stylesheet " href =" http : / / editor . daum . net / services / blog / css / theme 4 view . css ? ver = 1 . 1 . 114 " type =" text / css "/> 지난 3 월 우리나라 를 인터넷 을 감시 하 는 나라 ( Look Who ' s Censoring the Internet Now ) 에 포함 시킨 기사 를 내 보냈 던 미국 의 외교 전문 잡지 포린 폴리시 ( FP : Foreign Policy ) 를 들 어 본 적 이 있 는가 ? 포린 폴리시 가 ' The Next Big Thing : Why bad times lead to great ideas ' 라는 제목 의 글 로 눈길 을 끄 는 기사 를 게재 했 다 . 포린 폴리시 는 이번 위기 가 가져올 ' Next Big Thing ' 으로 다음 을 꼽 았 다 . 1 . A New You 2 . Personalized Education 3 . Anger Management 4 . Happiness 5 . Shrinkage 6 . America 7 . Neomedieval ! ism 8 . Africa 9 . Resilience 10 . Better Biofuels 11 . H 2012 . More of the Same 13 . A Bigger Big Bang ? 그 가운데 첫 번 째 글 인 A New You 에서 다음 과 같 은 글 로 마무리 를 하 고 있 다 . " we are gradually becoming a differentspecies ; we are moving from Homo sapiens into Homo evolutis , a human being that deliberately engineers its own evolution and that of other species . " 평소 내 가 가지 고 있 는 생각 과 닮 아 있 어 정말 맘 에 와 닿 고 공감 되 는 기사 라는 생각 을 했 다 . 글 가운데 로보트 공학 의 발전 이 미래 를 바꾸 는데 있 어 큰 역할 을 한다 하 니 로보트 공학 을 전공 하 는 나 로서 는 이 글 에 더 눈길 이 가 는 것 이 너무 속보 인 걸까 ? 번역 은 다음 기회 에 하 고 원문 은 다음 과 같 다 . ( http : / / www . foreignpolicy . com / story / cms . php ? story _ id = 4843 & page = 0 ) As countries and industries grow increasingly overwhelmed by wave after wave of bankruptcies , layoffs , restructurings , botched contracts , and embarrassing bonuses , they might lose sight of a second , much larger set of tsunamis gathering force over the horizon . While the economy is melting down , technology is moving forward at an even faster rate . The ability to adapt to the accelerating pace of change will determine who survives . To use the current bailout jargon , at least three major technologies are shovel - ready : the programming of tissues , the ability to engineer cells , and robots . As these breakthroughs and others converge , we are going to see a massive restructuring of global economic power . *** We can now program life . Several months ago , researchers at the J . Craig Venter Institute and Synthetic Genomics took a mycoplasma cell and inserted long strands of DNA into it , making the cell an entirely different species . In January 2008 , the same team built and inserted the world ’ s largest organic molecule into a cell — this is the equivalent of a complete software package to program cells . One year later they produced thousands of these programs in a single day . Taken together , these discoveries mean that one can write out a life code , manipulate a cell , and execute a specific desired function . It means we can convert cells into programmable manufacturing entities . But this software builds its own hardware , allowing companies to begin using bacteria to produce chemicals , fuels , medicines , textiles , data storage , or any series of organic products . These discoveries , and new applications , are spreading rapidly . Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have assembled a standard registry of biological parts . Think of this as a RadioShack for cells . You can get open - source proteins , RNA , DNA , regulators , and terminators . In 2008 , hundreds of students from 21 countries came together to make cool live stuff . Rice University ’ s team tried to engineer resveratrol ( the substance that makes red wine good for you ) into beer , leading one judge to exclaim , “ Wow , cancer - fighting beer . There is a God ! ” The Taiwanese team was just a little more ambitious . It attempted to engineer gut bacteria to act as a kidney . Over the next decade , hundreds of open - source and private designs will blossom into millions of projects and applications . Some of these products will fundamentally change how and where we produce most of what we consume . A second major tsunami is our increasing ability to grow complex organic structures , such as limbs , bladders , hearts , and tracheas . All complex organisms start out as undifferentiated , pluripotent cells , meaning these cells contain an entire genome and are able to produce all body parts . Mexico ’ s dinosaur - like axolotl salamanders naturally regrow body parts , including sections of their hearts and brains as well as whole limbs . A very young human can regrow parts of fingers . Taking this concept one step further , Cliff Tabin at Harvard Medical School is growing extra wings on chickens . And soon , it may be possible to do this without a full body , just some cells . Over the past year , researchers shocked human cells back to their pluripotent state . This means that rather than using embryonic stem cells , we can grow skin cells from our own tissue into other body parts . Wake Forest University ’ s Anthony Atala is growing human bladders and ears in glass containers . A Colombian woman dying of tuberculosis had her own trachea regrown . And Harald C . Ott , a researcher now at Massachusetts General Hospital , took all the cells off a rat heart , leaving only a framework behind . His team then put rat stem cells onto this scaffold , whereupon the cells self - organized and the heart began to beat . Turns out life happens , and we are just learning the rules on how to program it . Finally , a third tsunami , one we have gotten tired of waiting for : robots . Those of us of a certain age grew up expecting that by now we would have the Jetsons ’ robot maid , Rosie , simplifying our lives . Yet so far , all we have is the Roomba vacuum cleaner . We have waited so long and watched so much science fiction that our expectations are now very low . But change is coming fast . Boston Dynamics ’ s BigDog robot , for instance , is at the forefront of a paradigm shift in transportation , logistics , and perhaps warfare . It can carry nearly 350 pounds over complex terrain , including ice and steep , snowy forest ridges . Harvard University ’ s Robert Wood is working on the other end of the design scale , building robots the size of flies . All manner of surveillance , transport , and communication are about to be altered permanently by the coming robot age . When this development is tied to miniaturized , terabyte - scale processing , the engineering and data - processing breakthroughs will be extraordinary . Before we know it , robots will be everywhere . Robotics and materials design are already changing humans . In the 2008 Olympics , double - amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius attempted to compete against the “ able - bodied . ” Running on a pair of artificial legs made of carbon fiber , he missed the cutoff time by just under a second . One of Pistorius ’ s successors is going to qualify next time . Two or three Olympics after that , the “ disabled ” may well be unbeatable . And the materials and robotics revolution is coming together with brain mapping , imaging , and control . Already , artificial arms can be controlled with no muscle input , just brain commands . The possibilities go way beyond limbs . Our hard - of - hearing grandparents used big megaphones ; our parents had big boxes , above the ears , that would whistle at odd times . Now we use barely visible miniature earbuds , and cochlear implants provide the deaf with at least some sense of sound . In a few years , as machines continue to double in power and halve in cost , they will hear normally . Two or three years after that , they will do many things we cannot : focus hearing , increase or decrease sensitivity , and hear sounds that dogs , bats , or whales can hear . The same is happening with eyes . Implants may soon allow the blind to begin to see light and dark , and eventually shapes , colors , and details . Implanted eyes may someday be able to focus , see ultraviolet or infrared light , and record and transfer images externally . *** As innovators begin to read , reproduce , and program life , they will change almost every industry across the globe . Already , a majority of the grain we consume is genetically modified , and clothes , medicines , plastics , cars , fuels , and information companies use life - science technologies . Disposable food containers at Wal - Mart are made of biodegradable plastic grown in plants . Companies as diverse as L ’ Oréal , Procter & Gamble , Kaiser Permanente , and Intel are betting part of their future on life sciences . DuPont has invested more than $ 100 million in a fermentation plant that helps grow your breathable , water - repellent jogging suit from bacteria . Toyota ’ s life - sciences division is making car parts from plastics grown in plants . Google ’ s mapping software helps display and navigate bacterial genomes , and the company is backing a Harvard scientist in decoding the genomes of 100 , 000 people . Over the past few decades , the ability to code digits created an unprecedented burst of wealth , a large - scale restructuring of industries , and the rapid rise of once poor countries ( Ireland , Singapore , South Korea , Taiwan , and some regions of India come to mind ) . Something similar is occurring in life - literate countries . What began in the mid - 1990 s as an obscure subspecialty related to pharmaceuticals has become a key component of national development plans . Brazil leads the world in biofuels production thanks to life - science programs launched decades ago . South Korea invests in cloning and tissue engineering . Costa Rica is bridging medicine , ecotourism , and biomanufacturing . The next Bangalores will likely be powered by the life sciences . Life code and other applied technologies such as robotics are perhaps the most powerful levers humans have ever had . The ability to adopt and adapt to these technologies will eventually determine who gets , or remains , powerful and rich on an individual , national , and regional scale . It is the basis for the next Ford , Intel , Microsoft , and Google . Boston , San Diego , Rockville , and Silicon Valley , not to mention Beijing , Singapore , and Seoul , are continuing to invest in life - science stocks , which are outperforming stocks in other industries . But even the rise and fall of nations and regions may be relatively small compared with the eventual scale of the change . By beginning to read and write life code , we are gradually becoming a different species ; we are moving from Homo sapiens into Homo evolutis , a human being that deliberately engineers its own evolution and that of other species . And that is the ultimate tsunami . Juan Enriquez , author of As the Future Catches You , is managing director of Excel Medical Ventures , a venture capital company that invests in life - science technologies , and a cofounder and shareholder of Synthetic Genomics .