Challenges Facing Humanity

Eighteen influential thinkers were recently gathered to identify the great technological challenges which face humanity today.

The list, which was announced at the meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science this weekend, consisted of fourteen points:

- Make solar energy affordable
- Provide energy from fusion
- Develop carbon sequestration
- Manage the nitrogen cycle
- Provide access to clean water
- Reverse engineer the brain
- Prevent nuclear terror
- Secure cyberspace
- Enhance virtual reality
- Improve urban infrastructure
- Advance health informatics
- Engineer better medicines
- Advance personalised learning
- Explore natural frontiers

One of these great thinkers, Ray Kurzweil, has also predicted that, by 2029, humans will be able to enhance characteristics such as their health, intelligence and memory using nanobots which interact with their biological neurons. Sounds like revision for exams is going to get a lot easier in the future!

(Found at BBC News)