Die Zukunft der Technologien (The Future of Technologies)

Cover Zukunft der Technologien

by Karlheinz Steinmüller with collaboration of Angela Steinmüller
Murmann Publishers Hamburg 2006

The 21st century is going to an age of innovations. In all fields - from health via energy to construction - radical changes are under way: ambient intelligence and health biotech, collaborating robots and new materials, applied neurosciences and new space initiatives. Perhaps it is not too farfetched to dream of NBIC - of a grand convergence of nano- and biotechnologies, of information technologies and cognitive sciences. The impacts on the way we live, on production, on the natural environment and on the human being itself will be tremendous. But which of the many visionary technologies really have a chance of realization, which ones will remain utopian - at least for this century? Where are the large commercial prospects? Which ethical questions will have to be discussed?

The book aims at a sober assessment of developments in 16 fields of application. Emergieng technologies are described within three time horizons: 2010 - 2020 - 2050. But always a "plus ultra" is added: What else could be possible?

An overview of the content is given here.