Nano bio info cognitive technologies. NBIC-technologies, or Russian scientist is more dangerous than bin Laden. The professor grew up in a trash heap

Figure "Map of the intersections of the latest technologies" from the article
Convergence of technologies as a factor of evolution

“The phenomenon of NBIC-convergence is
radically new stage scientific and technological progress.
According to its possible consequences, NBIC convergence
is the most important evolutionary determining factor
and marks the beginning of transhumanistic
transformations, when human evolution itself,
presumably, will come under his own reasonable control "
Valeria Pride, D.A. Medvedev

“Finally, the understanding came that nanotechnology is
an interdisciplinary field of science and technology, where
interests of chemistry, physics and biology converge. And, perhaps,
the main mission of nanotechnology is to
unite so widely divergent natural sciences
and return us a holistic picture of the world "
Heinrich Ehrlich

"According to the theory of technological orders, the most
the advanced countries of the world are now experiencing their sixth wave.
The main areas of development there are bio- and
nanotechnology, laser technology, energy saving
and robotics "

"Understanding the mind and brain will enable the creation of new species
intelligent machine systems that can generate
economic wealth on a scale still unimaginable.
This is an opportunity to eradicate poverty and join everything
humanity in the golden age "

“We are who we are, and our civilization is bad
or good - because we have such a brain.
All that we have done on this planet and that we
we will do it - because we have such a brain. We get to know the world
we see it like this, we have a picture of the world like this,
because we have such a brain "
T. Chernigovskaya, deputy. Director of the Kurchatov NBIC Center

NBIC-convergence means the acceleration of scientific and technological progress due to the mutual influence of various fields of science - nanotechnology, biotechnology, information and cognitive technologies (NBIC acronym: N -nano; B -bio; I -info; C-cognitive). Convergence (from the English convergence - convergence at one point) means not only mutual influence, but also the interpenetration of technologies, when the boundaries between individual technologies are blurred. The term was coined in 2002 by American nano-scientist Dr. Mihail C. Roco and American sociologist Dr. William Sims Bainbridge, authors of the report Converging Technologies for Improving Human Performance. The work was devoted to the disclosure of the features of NBIC convergence, its significance in the general course of technological development of world civilization, as well as its evolutionary significance.
Of the four described areas (nano-, bio-, info-, cognitive), the most developed (information and communication technologies), which is used in all other areas. In particular, for modeling various processes. Biotechnology is widely applied in nanotechnology and cognitive science, and development computer technology.
Cognitive science will become the basis for improving the mental activity of the brain, and for this, nanotechnology, biotechnology, and information technology will be used. Nanotechnology will play a special role. Manipulating atoms will make it possible to carry out a nanorevolution both in production and in society.
The features of NBIC convergence are:
1) intensive interaction between scientific and technological fields;
2) the breadth of consideration and influence - from the atomic level of matter to intelligent systems;
3) the technological perspective of the growth of human development opportunities.

The figure below shows the interpenetration of NBIC technologies.
As a result of convergence, new directions have already emerged: nanomedicine, nanodrugs, nanobiology, nano-society. Cognitive science (or cognitology) also emerged - this is the new science of the human mind. It combines the achievements of cognitive psychology, pedagogy, research in the field of artificial intelligence, neurobiology, neuropsychology, neurophysiology, linguistics, mathematical logic, neurology, philosophy, and other sciences. It should be emphasized that cognitology is now converging, like information technology, into many other sciences. One could even argue about the "cognitive explosion" that is happening in our time. Achievements in neuroscience and nanotechnology make it possible to put on scientific basis psychology, sociology, politics, pedagogy, economics, management, art, etc. (applied neurosciences).
At the Kurchatov Institute arose the new kind convergence - NBIKC-convergence, where "C" stands for social humanitarian technologies. There is also a NBIC Center, deputy. the director there was a Russian biologist, linguist and psychologist, professor at St. Petersburg University Tatiana Chernigovskaya, a world-renowned scientist.
P.s. Great attention is paid in developed countries to NBIC convergence, and considerable funds are invested in it, especially in the United States. Much, much has been written about her in science and journalism. It is important to just remember this abbreviation - it will come in handy. According to forecasts, the era of NBIC convergence will come in 2018. So far, no one can say for sure - a great blessing awaits us, or real destruction.

See also:
1. NBIC - Convergence of technologies as a methodological basis for forecasting and evaluating future projects (lecture)
http://www.slideshare.net/danila/nbic
2. Lecture 5. NBIC convergence
3. Convergence of science and technology - the basis of a new technological order. (lecture)
(http://expert.ru/2010/12/2/ril_021210/)
4. NBIC convergence
(http://www.t-generation.ru/117_nbic.html)
5. Convergence of technologies as a factor of evolution
6. Nanosociety
7. Nanodrugs
8. Convergence of science and technology - a breakthrough in the future of BN!
9. Phenomenon of NBIC Convergence: Reality and Expectations
(http://www.transhumanism-russia.ru/content/view/498/116/)
10. NBIK-Healthcare
http://www.nanonewsnet.ru/taxonomy/term/241/all
11. Kovalchuk interferes in the affairs of the creator 2009-06-24
(http://www.ng.ru/science/2009-06-24/10_Kovalchyk.html)
Director of the National Research Center "Kurchatov Institute", Corresponding Member RAS Mikhail Kovalchuk at a press conference at the ITAR-TASS news agency spoke about the opening of a new faculty of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology - the NBIK faculty.
12. Kurchatnik will teach nanobioinfokognotechnologists
Interdisciplinary "scientists of the future" will be trained by the newly created NBIK faculty of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology together with the "Kurchatov Institute". The faculty has five departments: physics, mathematics, NBIK, computer science and humanities
The task of the faculty is to bring up interdisciplinary educations of scientists of the future who are proficient in nano-, bio-, information technologies and cognitive sciences - the sciences of consciousness.
NBIK technologies are based on the principle of combining technological capabilities with the knowledge of wildlife. "The product of NBIK technologies will increase the share of science in the final product up to 70%," said the Kurchatov Institute RRC.
13. A laboratory of the XXI century was opened at the Kurchatov Institute. (Http://www.izvestia.ru/science/article3130998)
14. Faculty of nano-, bio-, information and cognitive technologies (FNBIK) MIPT
(http://www.fnti.kiae.ru/)
15.O.V. Rudensky, O.P. Fisherman. Innovative Civilization of the XXI Century: Convergence and Synergy of NBIC Technologies. Trends and Forecasts 2015–2030
(http://www.csrs.ru/inform/IAB/inf3_2010.pdf)
16. Mikhail Kovalchuk. "Nanotechnology gives our country a chance to become a leader"
The nanotechnological revolution is developing on the basis of synergy and mutual enrichment of various technologies, which gives rise to many new discoveries and concepts.
The development of nanotechnolonies will also have serious economic consequences. For example, this can lead to an increase in unemployment.
17. Quotes from the Genome, or Genetic Constructor
American geneticist Craig Venter wrote quotes from the works of world famous authors into the bacterial genome he created. DNA is now beginning to be seen as a carrier of information outside biological systems. Advantages: Accuracy of recording and rewriting, molecular size and corresponding information density and durability. The genome is long strings of DNA made up of a sequence of four different elements. They are usually designated A, T, G, C. Genes are those parts of DNA that encode proteins. They usually occupy only a small part of the genome, and its main part consists of sequences, the function of which is not entirely clear at the moment. The Venter Institute is engaged in the creation of artificial organisms in which the genome is a human-assembled structure. Purpose: the genome of such an organism could be designed in computer programs, and the operation itself would resemble the assembly of a constructor.

18. Heinrich Ehrlich. Strength through destruction // "Chemistry and Life" №7, 2011
Finally, the understanding came that nanotechnology is an interdisciplinary field of science and technology, where the interests of chemistry, physics and biology converge. And perhaps the main mission of nanotechnology is to unite such widely diverged natural sciences and return us a holistic picture of the world.

19. M.V. Kovalchuk. Convergence of science and technology - a breakthrough into the future
In pursuit of comfort, humanity has turned on an industrial machine for the destruction of resources, which is gaining momentum from year to year. Provided that this machine will serve the golden billion "of earthly civilization, it will last for a long time. But as soon as at least one giant third world country, for example, India or China, reaches the level of energy consumption that was in the United States in 1960, in fact, there will be a resource collapse, which we already see today.
Technologically, we must become a part of nature, live at the expense of fundamentally new, inexhaustible resources and technologies, created on the model of living nature, but using the most advanced technological achievements.
In the face of information technologies, a technology of OVER industry character appeared for the first time. Today it is obvious that in none of the well-known industries there is no progress without the use of information technology - this is telemedicine, and distance learning, and numerical controlled machine tools, automatic piloting system for cars, airplanes, ships, etc. Thus, information technology has become a kind of "hoop" that has united all sciences and technologies (Fig. 4). Information technologies have become fundamentally new from a methodological point of view - they did not add another link to the existing number of disciplines, but united them, becoming their common methodological base.
Nanotechnology is a fundamental modernization of all existing disciplines and technologies at the atomic level (Fig. 5). Nanotechnology changes the principle of creating materials, their properties, that is, the foundation for the development of all sectors of the economy of a post-industrial society without exception.
Today we have come to technological solutions based on the basic principles of living nature - a new stage of development begins, when from technical, model copying of the "human device" based on relatively simple inorganic materials, we are ready to move to the reproduction of living nature systems based on nanobiotechnologies ( fig. 11).
NBIK: N is nano, new approach to the design of materials "to order" by atomic-molecular design, B is bio, which will allow the biological part to be introduced into the design of inorganic materials and thus obtain hybrid materials, And - information technologies that will make it possible to add »An integrated circuit and, as a result, get a fundamentally new intellectual system, and K are cognitive technologies based on the study of consciousness, cognition, thought process, behavior of living beings, and humans, in the first place, both from the neurophysiological and molecular biological points of view, and and through humanitarian approaches. The addition of cognitive technologies will make it possible, based on the study of brain functions, mechanisms of consciousness, behavior of living beings, to develop algorithms that will actually "animate" the systems we create, endowing them with a kind of mental functions.
The involvement of humanitarian technologies gives us the right to talk about the creation of a new convergent NBIKS-technology, where "C" is social humanitarian technologies.
Wildlife in itself is a very "economical" user of energy, it is properly self-organized, and it is more than enough "low-power photosynthetic energy". In our modern life, we use artificially created machines and mechanisms that consume a tremendous amount of energy. For their energy supply, in principle, there cannot be enough opportunities for economical, "nature-like" energy technologies.
Along with the development and improvement of existing technologies, humanity faces a complex and ambitious task - the creation of fundamentally new technologies and systems for the use of energy, that is, the replacement of today's final energy consumer with systems that reproduce objects of living nature.
20. Toys with artificial intelligence According to the theory of technological orders, the most advanced countries in the world are now experiencing their sixth wave. The main areas of development there are bio- and nanotechnology, laser technology, energy saving and robotics.

21. Converging Technologies for Improving Human Performance
NANOTECHNOLOGY, BIOTECHNOLOGY, INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND COGNITIVE SCIENCE
Understanding the mind and brain will enable the creation of new kinds of intelligent machine systems that can generate economic wealth on a scale hitherto unimaginable. Within half a century, intelligent machines could create the wealth needed to provide food, clothing, housing, education, health care, clean environment, and physical and financial security for the entire population of the world. Intelligent machines can ultimately create manufacturing facilities to support shared prosperity and financial security for all human beings. Thus, the engineering mind is much more than the pursuit of scientific curiosity. It is even more than a monumental technological challenge; it is an opportunity to eradicate poverty and join everything.
of humanity in the golden age.

22. Converging Technologies for Improving Human Performance en. WIKI

23. How will brain research change life in the 21st century?
Lecture by Professor Tatiana Chernigovskaya in Washington
NBIC-center was opened at the Kurchatov Institute in Moscow. NBIC (NanoBioInfoCogno) is an abbreviation that means the combination in one chain of nano and bioengineering technologies, information and computer technologies, as well as cognitive resources aimed at artificial intelligence. Russian biologist, linguist and psychologist, professor at St. Petersburg University Tatiana Chernigovskaya became the deputy director of the center.
Cognitive science is an interdisciplinary scientific direction, which combines psychology, linguistics, theory of knowledge, theory of artificial intelligence, neurophysiology. The goal of cognitive science is to unravel and describe how a person thinks, why he speaks, how he understands what others are saying, and what is happening in the brain at that time.
“We are who we are, and our civilization - good or bad - is because we have such a brain. Everything we have done on this planet, and what we will do - because we have such a brain. We get to know the world, we see it this way, we have such a picture of the world, because we have such a brain ”T. Chernigovskaya, Deputy. Director of the NBIC Center. Italian scientist Giacomo Risolatti made a discovery (1996) - he discovered "mirror" neurons. Mirror systems are the ability to mentally take the position of another person. Mental ability to stand on the position of another person This is the basis of society. Music has the same structure as the syntax of the language. The brain is a very complex musical instrument. The child has genetic bases, special mechanisms that allow the child to learn the language, bypassing teachers, rules and textbooks.

24. The Great Cognitive Revolution
(http://expert.ru/russian_reporter/2010/41/mozg_pc/)
Now with "nano", "bio", "info" and "cogno" they associate the future. Moreover, all four directions should develop in a tight bundle. “Nano- and biotechnologies create a body, and info- and cognitive animate it,” explains Mikhail Kovalchuk, director of the Kurchatov Institute.
Nano- and biotechnologies create a body, and info- and cognitive animate it, ”explains Mikhail Kovalchuk, director of the Kurchatov Institute. At the institute, which traditionally created nuclear submarines and reactors, a humanitarian department is being established, which brings together "specialists in animation" - structural linguists, sociologists, psychologists. The Institute for Cognitive Research appears within the Kurchatnik.

25. Applied neurosciences
()

1. Neurobiology (Neuroscience) (Neurobiology)
2. Neuro psychology
3. Neuropsychotherapy
4. Neurocoaching -
5. Neuropedagogy
6. Neuromanagement
7. Neuromarketing
8. Neuroeconomics
9. Neurosociology
10. Neurophilosophy
11. Neurodemocracy
12. Neuroaesthetics
13. Neurofilm
14. Neural computing
15. Cognitive neuroscience
16. Neuroculture
17. Neuroethics en.
18. Neurotheology en.
19. Neuropolitics
20. Neurolaw
21. Neuromedicine
22. Neurophilosophy

26. Emerging technologies en. WIKI
Acronyms
NBIC, an acronym for Nanotechnology, Biotechnology, Information technology and Cognitive science, is currently the most popular term for emerging and converging technologies, and was introduced into public discourse through the publication of Converging Technologies for Improving Human Performance, a report sponsored in part by the US National Science Foundation.
Emerging technologies en. WIKI
Acronyms
New technological fields may be associated with the technological convergence of different systems evolving towards similar goals. Convergence brings previously distinct technologies such as voice (and telephony features), data (and office applications) and video so that they share resources and interact with each other, creating new efficiencies.
New technologies are those technical innovations that represent progressive developments in the field for a competitive advantage; converging technologies represent previously different fields, which are in some way moving towards strong goals between communication and similar ones. However, perceptions about the impact, status and economic viability of several emerging and converging technologies are changing.
Abbreviations [edit]
NBIC is an acronym. It is currently the most popular term for emerging and converged technologies, and has been introduced into public discourse through the publication of Converging Technologies to Improve Human Performance, a report sponsored in part by the US National Science Foundation.

27. Synthetic Biology
Synthetic Biology (synbio) is an emerging field of natural science, which, however, is based on the principles of engineering. At its core, synthetic biology is concerned with the construction or reconstruction of biological systems or their components and their creation by encoding the DNA of the desired system or component. Synthetic biology provides effective technologies for the reproduction of natural organisms and the creation of "synthetic" biological material that does not exist in nature. Synthetic biology can be used to transform life sciences and their applications in health, energy and many other sectors, but this context also raises a number of serious ethical and biosecurity issues.

28. Revolution in the field of synthetic biology: prospects and risks (http://ria.ru/science/20131126/979860591.html)
John Craig Venter, along with specialists from his company, started with DNA and built a genetic sequence of nucleotides, the volume of which exceeds one million bits of information. Seven years ago, Venter became the first scientist in the world who managed to create a biological object based on the available genetic information.
Venter's group created an artificial bacterial cell by inserting artificially synthesized DNA into it, after which scientists began to observe how the bacterial cells move, feed, and reproduce themselves. Venter called his new technology "synthetic genomics", which "will first appear in the digital computer world based on digital biology, and then learn to create new DNA modifications for very specific purposes. ... This may mean that as the knowledge of the laws of existence different forms life, a person will be able to create self-learning robotic and computing systems.
Synthetic genomics, combined with another breakthrough trend in biology - the so-called research of neomorphic mutations (or as they are also called acquisition of function mutations or GOF studies) - not only opens up a huge number of new prospects, but at the same time asks many difficult questions and poses threats for national security.

Some are already calling Venter's work to create new artificial bacteria "4-D printing." Let me remind you that 2-D printing is the most common printing process, which begins after pressing the "Print" key on the keyboard, as a result of which the most ordinary printer gives you a printed article, etc. However, industrial companies, design bureaus and other consumers are already switching to 3-D printing - in this case, the signal is sent to devices containing all kinds of materials such as plastics, graphite and even food, and the output is three-dimensional products. In the case of 4-D printing, two important operations are added: self-assembly and self-reproduction. First, the idea is formalized and gets into a computer, then it is sent to a 3-D printer, and at the output we get a final product that can copy and transform itself. Venter and several hundred other specialists in synthetic biology argue that 4D printing is especially suitable for constructing living objects using the building blocks of which living objects themselves, that is, DNA, are made.
Synthetic genomics, combined with another breakthrough trend in biology - the so-called research of neomorphic mutations (or as they are also called acquisition of function mutations or GOF studies) - not only opens up a huge number of new prospects, but at the same time asks many difficult questions and poses threats for national security.
Now the biologist has become an engineer who programs new life forms as he pleases. Biologists are now more and more able to manipulate evolution, i.e. we are witnessing the “end of Darwinism”. Once informational macromolecules are able to inherit beneficial mutations through self-sustaining Darwinian evolution, they can begin to spawn new life forms. ”
Synthetic biology in the near future will generate an economic and technological boom, as did the Internet and social media technologies at the very beginning of this century.
Genetic engineering of existing life forms and creating new ones is the cutting edge of biology.

Venter had no doubt that synthetic biology, a "very powerful toolbox", would lead to a vaccine against influenza, and possibly AIDS. And the day is not far off when microorganisms capable of consuming carbon dioxide and releasing energy will create a safe alternative to traditional fossil fuels. Now that synthetic biology is starting to take root, our challenge is to be seen as a blessing rather than a curse by future generations.

What is synthetic biology?
Synthetic biology is a new direction in genetic engineering. The term Synthetic Biology has long been used to describe approaches in biology that seek to integrate different fields of research in order to create a more holistic approach to understanding the concept of life. Recently, the term "synthetic biology" has been used in a different sense, signaling a new field of research that combines science and engineering with the goal of designing and constructing new (non-existent in nature) biological functions and systems.

The term "NBIC convergence" is often used in forecasts of the technological development of mankind. Moreover, to a certain extent, it began to determine not tomorrow, but the present day of our civilization. And by virtue of this it deserves our attention.

It owes its origin to the path followed by scientific and technological development in recent decades. For centuries, scientific knowledge gravitated towards specialization: as it developed, individual sections of the scientific discipline became independent sciences, such as hydrodynamics, nuclear physics, petrochemistry, cytology, etc. But technologies, on the contrary, often arose interconnected and contributed to the development of each other, vivid example- the discovery of electricity, which served as an impetus for the development of several industries at once, from energy and mechanical engineering to transport and construction.

Therefore, the development of technology has become a stimulus for interdisciplinary connections in science. And today, most experts agree that the lion's share of innovations and breakthrough results are born precisely at the intersection of sciences. Particularly interesting and significant results are provided by the mutual influence of information technology, biotechnology, nanotechnology and cognitive science. Hence the term "NBIC-convergence" arose (by the first letters of the regions: N -nano; B -bio; I -info; C -cogno). Its authors are Michael Roco and William Bainbridge, who first described this interaction back in 2002.

It should be noted that today not all elements of NBIC convergence are equal. The most developed part is information and communication technologies. ... In particular, it is the possibility of computer modeling of various processes and work with large amounts of data (for example, when sequencing the genome).

Biotechnology also provides tools for nanotechnology and cognitive science, and even for the development of computer technology (in particular, in the field of interaction of computers directly with the human brain). Biological systems have provided a number of tools for the construction of nanostructures. For example, special DNA sequences have been created that make the synthesized DNA molecule fold into two-dimensional and three-dimensional structures of any configuration. Such structures can be used, for example, as "forests" for the construction of nanoobjects.

Nanotechnology, in turn, contributes to the emergence of nanomedicine: a set of technologies that allow you to manage biological processes at the molecular level.

In general, the relationship between nano- and biotechnology is fundamental. When considering living (biological) structures at the molecular level, their chemical nature, and we can say that at the micro level, the difference between living and non-living is not obvious. The hybrid systems currently being developed (a microrobot with a bacterial flagellum as an engine) do not fundamentally differ from natural (virus) or artificial systems.

The interaction between nanotechnology and information technology is two-way. Information technology is used for computer simulation of nanodevices. And at the same time, nanotechnology is being used to create more powerful computing and communication devices.

But the most important thing in this interaction is its synergistic nature, when interaction in one of the planes accelerates the development of the others. More powerful computers created with nanomaterials enable more sophisticated simulations leading to the creation of new bio- and nanotechnologies, etc.

The rapid development of cognitive technologies began somewhat later than that of the other components of NBIC convergence, but it is their interaction with the IT sector that a number of analysts consider the most promising in the medium term. Actually, the very development of the cognitive direction became possible due to the emergence of this convergence: information technologies have made possible a significantly higher quality study of the brain than before. Today we are talking about brain simulation. The Blue Brain project was launched to create complete computer models of individual neocortex columns, which are the basic building blocks of the new cerebral cortex - the neocortex. Scientists claim that by 2030 - 2040. full computer simulation of the human brain will become possible. And this is a necessary condition for creating a full-fledged artificial intelligence. It is believed that the creation of "strong AI" will be one of the two main technological advances of the 21st century, along with molecular nanotechnology.

The reverse influence of IT technologies will be manifested in the use of their tools to enhance human intelligence (which will become possible, in particular, thanks to the development of "neuro-silicone" interfaces - the unification of nerve cells and electronic devices into a single system). Today, a number of works on this topic even talk about the formation of the “external cortex” (“exocortex”) of the brain, that is, a system of programs that complement and expand human thought processes.

As a result of the ever closer interaction of these components, by the middle of the century one can expect their complete merger into a single scientific and technological area of ​​knowledge. It will include in the subject of its study almost all levels of organization of matter: from the molecular nature of matter (nano), to the nature of life (bio), the nature of mind (cogno) and information exchange processes (info).

As noted by J. Horgan, the emergence of such a meta-area of ​​knowledge will mean the "beginning of the end" of science, approaching its final stages. This is the essence of the NBIC convergence phenomenon: when the division of science into separate disciplines ultimately leads to a new unification, but at a qualitatively different level.

But in addition to fundamental technological shifts, NBIC convergence brings to mankind a number of significant changes in the world outlook, and our civilization has yet to find answers to these challenges.

First of all, it is the question of the difference between the living and the inanimate. In fact, this problem began to form relatively long ago, when it became necessary to determine the nature of viruses. After the discovery of prions - complex organic molecules capable of reproduction - the border between living and non-living has become even more blurred. The development of bio- and nanotechnology threatens to completely erase this line.

Also, the distinction between a thinking system, which has reason and free will, and a hard-coded one, is gradually being erased. Neurophysiologists already view the human brain as a biological machine: flexible but programmable. It has already been shown that human abilities (such as face recognition, goal setting, etc.) are localized and can be turned on or off due to organic damage to certain parts of the brain or the introduction of certain substances into the body.

Cloning and advances in the creation of living things by methods of genetic engineering, coupled with the possible "digitization" of human memory, threaten to radically change the interpretation of life and death. This allows us to talk about the so-called "digital immortality": the restoration of living intelligent beings from the information that has been preserved about them. Until recently, this possibility was only considered by science fiction writers. But, in 2005, the Hanson Robotics company created a robot-twin of the writer Philip Dick, reproducing the appearance of the writer, with all the writer's works loaded into a primitive brain-computer. With the robot, you can talk about Dick's work.

And that's not all, we will have to give new interpretations of the terms "man", "nature" and many others. All this will change our civilization no less than the technologies themselves generated by NBIC convergence. And this is the second component of its phenomenon.

Source: Vedomosti, Mikhail Kovalchuk, Director of the Russian Research Center "Kurchatov Institute"

Sustainable development of the world is directly related to sufficient energy supply

Today we have become contemporaries of the resource crisis started 60 years ago, when mankind embarked on the path of active consumption and destruction of resources. At the same time, technical progress developed linearly, by modifying what had already been invented.

Nanotechnology gives a chance to get out of the resource collapse. They involve the solution of two different tasks, which are also the main features of the development of the scientific and technical sphere today. The first is the introduction of a new technological culture based on the design of fundamentally new materials with specified parameters using atomic-molecular design. Already today we can thus create various structures and materials with qualitatively new, improved characteristics for a wide variety of industries, qualitatively new alloys for pipelines, nuclear reactor vessels, new materials for construction and paving. It is on the basis of nanotechnology that the transition from traditional incandescent lamps to LED lamps is already being carried out all over the world.

The second task is to switch to fundamentally new, inexhaustible resources and technologies, created on the model of living nature, using the most advanced technological advances, primarily in the field of solid-state microelectronics. But this is not just a combination of one technology with another, but convergence, the interpenetration of knowledge and technological advances in the study of wildlife and humans as higher form its development. Once artificially dividing a single natural science into specialties, individual sciences for in-depth study, humanity today is ready to unite them again already at the level of new knowledge and technological advances. This is the so-called "launch of the future" - convergence, the crossing of nano-, bio-, information and cognitive (NBIC) technologies, which will become the basis for the development of science and technology in the 21st century.

What does NBIK technologies include? Nanotechnology is a methodology for creating custom-made material of any type, for any application. By incorporating biotechnology, we “connect” bioorganic material and structures and, as a result, we obtain hybrid material and systems. Using information technology, we make an intelligent system of them. And the last component is cognitive sciences that study the processes and mechanisms of consciousness and cognition. In the future, it is the addition of cognitive technologies that will make it possible to introduce algorithms that will actually "animate" the device and systems we are creating.

NBIK technologies require a fundamentally new interdisciplinary organization scientific research, uniting under one roof a powerful experimental, instrumental, personnel base. At the Kurchatov Institute, the NBIK Center has been created, within which today the unique equipment of the modernized and reconstructed Kurchatov synchrotron center, the IR-8 research neutron reactor, clean room zones, as well as the most modern instruments for interdisciplinary research, by the way, often from our domestic manufacturers, are concentrated. Of course, such a concentration of unique equipment, including sources of synchrotron and neutron radiation, serves as a good incentive for the influx of young people here, including after work abroad.

A hot issue with preparation interdisciplinary specialists new type. Today, the foundations of learning are just beginning to be laid. The Department of Physics of Nanosystems at the Faculty of Physics of Moscow State University has been successfully working since 2007. M.V. Lomonosov. Students of the department have the opportunity to work on unique equipment both at Moscow State University and at the Kurchatov Institute. Our fundamentally new educational project is the Faculty of Nano-, Bio-, Information and Cognitive Technologies (FNBIK), created in May 2009 at MIPT on the basis of the Faculty of Nanotechnology and Informatics. The educational and scientific base of the FNBIK is the Kurchatov Institute. Now the faculty is developing and implementing an innovative educational program“Convergent nano-, bio-, informational and cognitive technologies”. I am sure that the basis for interdisciplinary education that we have laid down today will bring tangible results both in science and technology in a few years.

NBIC is an abbreviation that means the combination in one chain of nano- and bioengineering, that is, genetic technologies, information and computer technologies, as well as cognitive resources aimed at artificial intelligence.

In a polite society, a sign of intellectual enlightenment is awareness of the importance of nanotechnology. One may not understand too much what it is, call the Old Testament manipulations nanotechnology, but it is necessary to reason with a clever air about their revolutionary essence. They are important, but NBIC technologies are gradually and inevitably coming to the fore, promising to turn the world upside down in such a way that all previous scientific revolutions seem like a trip to the hardware store for a chisel and a broom.

In other words, NBIC technologies are the creation of self-developing, essentially living, intelligent systems from inanimate matter that can be used everywhere - from medicine to industry. One can argue endlessly about the dangers of the event, but it is an undoubted fact that NBIC technologies bring a person closer to the Supreme Creator, who created the world in time immemorial. If someone does not like the hypothesis of the Supreme Creator, this does not change the essence of the matter.

One of the first breakthrough points on planet Earth is the NBIC Center, which has just begun work at the Kurchatov Institute. There are no laboratories in Europe that would be equipped with equipment of this level and in such quantity. There are powerful laboratories in the United States, but they are not collected into a single center, which would set itself such ambitious tasks as the NBIC center of the Kurchatov Institute.

Professor Alexei Marchenkov worked in America, but found scientific happiness in Russia (photo: Izvestia) - I worked in America for 17 years, - says the head of the department of applied nanobiotechnologies Alexei Marchenkov, who looks impressively like a quarterback from American football. - Rose to full professor at Georgia State University. And yet, on common sense, he decided to return to Russia. In the West, there is a ceiling even for the lucky foreigner. The Americans only entrust the really complex and important projects to the Americans. In the Russian NBIC center, I solve major problems that remained inaccessible to me in the USA. In addition, we have such talented young people that they will give the Americans a hundred points a head start. We are building and will soon create a nanobiotechnological complex, which is not found anywhere else in the world.

It is impossible for an outsider to enter this laboratory, just as a camel cannot seep through the eye of a needle. The room is fenced with thick glass, the 6th class of air cleanliness is maintained inside, the atmosphere is completely renewed 20 times per hour, that is, every 3 minutes. Scientists are dressed in sterile robes, like surgeons in an operating room. One misfortune - due to air circulation, scientists become infected from each other, like toddlers in kindergarten.

In the department of nanobiotechnology, projects of a wide range are carried out - from growing superpure semiconductors, producing materials with new properties to creating new generation medical and biological materials, applying neurons on an inorganic substrate to create hybrids of living and nonliving structures, which is essential when working on artificial intelligence. Most of the laboratory equipment is manufactured in Russia.

- I'm much more interested in Russia than in America. - Professor Marchenkov reflects. - The biggest minus in Russia is our bureaucracy, lies across the road.

- Did you take the children from America? - I ask the patriotic professor at last.

“No, the children stayed in America,” the scientist replies with a sigh. - Children have become Americanized.

Should we not aim at William Shakespeare?

The synchrotron source promises a breakthrough in the holy of holies of Nature. It is impossible to maintain secrecy in full, "Pavel Kashkarov, deputy director of the Kurchatov Institute, jokes caustically. His entire scientific life was spent at Moscow State University, but now he acquired a special relationship with skyscrapers. - From the high-rise buildings around, millionaires can look at our reactors without a telescope. At the time of Kurchatov, people would rather believe in life on Mars than in such an immodest dwelling.

When the Hero of Socialist Labor Marshal Lavrenty Beria decided to create laboratory No. 2 on the outskirts of Moscow, which was instructed to come up with atomic bomb, century-old pines grew around. Now the houses where the brilliant academics lived, who created the nuclear shield, look like prisoners of war barracks. The gaze is caressed by the elite complexes "Severnaya Zvezda" and "Elsinore", which have encircled the Kurchatov Institute. People live there, whose incomes far exceed the state of Prince Hamlet, who also lived in Elsinore, but without a view of nuclear reactors. The people know much less about the contribution of the owners of the new Elsinore to the country's heritage than Prince Hamlet knew about the secret of the death of his father.

The regime in the Kurchatov Institute is no longer the same as in the era of the atomic project. As usual in Western laboratories, a guesthouse for scientists who came from other laboratories is being built on the territory of the NBIC center. Scientists all over the world are not very rich, and it is expensive to spend money on hotels. Low mobility of scientists in Russia is one of the problems of our science, and it rests precisely on the lack of affordable housing. The guesthouse is almost ready - the conditions are immeasurably better than in hotels where business travelers are accommodated throughout Russia.

A computer case is being completed for storing data obtained in the NBIC center. Now we have a power of 100 teraflops. In a year, the strength of the NBIC center will grow to 300 teraflops. There are no limits to such capacities in Russia. The project includes a business incubator, a metrological building ...

Historians still cannot answer the question of whether Marshal Beria stepped into the territory of laboratory No. 2, which grew into the Kurchatov Institute. If there have been, then for sure with the aim of inspecting the first Soviet reactor F-1, which was launched in 1946 and still operates next to the newest NBIC center. In Chicago, the first American reactor was dismantled, and ours is plowing like a perpetuum mobile, the loading of uranium will last for another 200-300 years. However, the inhabitants of Elsinore, if not burdened by conscience, can, unlike Hamlet, sleep peacefully. The power of the F-1 reactor is only 20 kW, is vanishingly small, suitable only for metrology and calibration.

Russian scientist is more dangerous than bin Laden

- Why should I go to the West? - Deputy Director of the Synchrotron Center 30-year-old Roman Senin feels uncomfortable in a business suit, but obviously he is a rare example of the success of a young Russian scientist. - What can they offer me? Research, position, salary - in Russia it is more and more interesting. Two years ago, the institute offered young scientists to go to Germany for a long time. Nobody went, they didn't want to waste time. Some expressed themselves in a spirit of black humor: you can go to the West only on vacation or in a tank. This, of course, is a joke ...

I strongly suspect that there are no such young bosses on any accelerator in the world. How much should a young scientist be paid so that he does not look to the West, and if he deserted earlier, then he returned home? Not so long ago, the Academy of Sciences provided a minimum salary of 30 thousand rubles. This, as it turned out, is not enough - the brain drain continues, and if the pressure has weakened, it is only because everyone who wanted to have already left. At the NBIC center, I established that if there is no need to spend money on housing, a scientist from the West returns to Russia for 50 thousand rubles. Provided, of course, world-class equipment and an interesting project. In the West, as Professor Alexei Marchenkov found out on his own experience, "as research approaches the world level, the Russian physicist becomes more dangerous for the authorities than bin Laden."

Half of the new employees at the NBIC center came back from the West. The heads of almost all leading laboratories and key employees worked at the best universities, including the famous Edinburgh, where the first Dolly the sheep was cloned. In Russia, these scientists saw the best prospects for a scientific career. One can recall the paradoxical conclusion of the director of the Kurchatov Institute, Mikhail Kovalchuk: Russia should be grateful to the West for the brain drain, because Russian scientists in difficult times have preserved themselves in science, and now they can return home, gaining more useful experience.

Of course, there is no need to cast a shadow over the wattle fence: the level of funding that the Kurchatov Institute received for the national nanotechnology project makes it possible to implement ambitious projects and create tempting conditions. Russia has allocated no less funds for nanotechnology than the leading countries. This is the first in the new Russia experience of large-scale support not for a separate scientific organization, but for a large - on a national scale - scientific project. The Kurchatov Institute and the nanotechnological project cause widespread envy in the scientific community for the fact that its leaders managed to squeeze large funds from the budget. But isn't it better to beat yourself up for not being able to promote your own ideas? Korolev, Kurchatov, Keldysh were not only outstanding scientists, but also knew how to prove the prospects of their projects to not always literate, what to hide, leaders. Therefore, it seems to me that nanotechnology is not only the first time that a lot of money has been allocated for science. This is the first time, and this is more important, when scientists did not wait for the weather by the sea, but managed to interest the authorities with their ideas.

“In my experience, motivation is very important for a young scientist,” says Pavel Kashkarov, head of the general physics department of Moscow State University and deputy director of the Kurchatov Institute. - This is how a person is, especially a Russian, that his creative motivation in his native country is higher than abroad. If conditions are created for doing science, the scientist will not leave Russia anywhere. This year, the Faculty of Nanotechnology at MIPT was transformed into the first NBIC faculty in Russia. Teaching will be conducted on the basis of the Kurchatov Institute, our director Mikhail Kovalchuk became the dean of the faculty. This is an incredibly interesting direction, and I am sorry that I cannot become a student again.

The professor grew up in a trash heap

The core from which the NBIC center grew is a specialized source of synchrotron radiation. This is one of the most promising tools not only for basic research, but also for the creation of fundamentally new technologies. There are only 16 such accelerators in Europe, Eastern Europe ours is the only one. "They're running around, poor people," Professor Kashkarov expressed sympathy for the electrons. They rush about in a ring with a diameter of 30 meters at light speed and, due to acceleration, like an overripe cherry, they splatter electromagnetic radiation in the entire spectrum - from infrared to X-ray. The radiation is collected by dozens of sensitive stations arranged like watchtowers along the perimeter of the ring. At a synchrotron source, a thousand times better than on other equipment, you can study the atomic composition of matter, the finest structure of any, including biological objects, create nanostructures and conduct medical diagnostics.

The synchrotron source is the only large scientific complex launched in our country in 30 years. In the 1990s, construction stalled, and when Mikhail Kovalchuk became the director of the accelerator, complete devastation reigned here. In 1999, the synchrotron source was launched, but since then it has been significantly expanded and modernized. Over the past 2 years, the working areas around the accelerator have been expanded 4 times, and a place has appeared for new laboratories. The importance of the synchrotron source is such that Vladimir Putin came here twice, both as prime minister and as president. “The synchrotron source is a living thing,” said Roman Senin importantly. "Just as a girl needs to be looked after, so the accelerator needs to be constantly rebuilt."

Natalia Gruzdeva also worked in America - at Cornwell University, the world leader in genetic engineering. In the NBIC-center, the equipment is not worse - sequencers for determining DNA sequences, protein factories for the production of proteins for pharmaceuticals and medicine, devices for embedding foreign DNA into cells. In front of my eyes, in an intricate reservoir, there was a stormy decoding of the genome of a patient with kidney cancer - to make a medicine, it is necessary to collect an impressive database. Natalya Gruzdeva started her career in biology in a peculiar way - as a school teacher - and believes that the experience of building relationships with difficult adolescents is extremely useful in research teams. At Cornwell University, Natasha met a pandemonium of all languages ​​and races and came to the conclusion that Russians have the best brains. “Asians are hardworking, but they have little creativity, Americans are buying up talents from all over the world and squeezing out ideas,” the former teacher concluded. And in Russia, bureaucracy hinders scientific progress: in the West, it takes several hours to get the required reagent, while in our country it takes weeks for elementary work. These complaints are repeated by every scientist with experience in the West. It will be a shame and stupid if the idea of ​​a NBIC center, which is intended to be brought to the world level, is ruined by the eternal Russian problems. The devil, as you know, is in the details - even in those projects where a person is trying to rise to divine heights.

“I have been wandering abroad almost since childhood,” says Aleksey Lipkin, director of the protein factory, whose luxurious mustache would have been the envy of Pesnyary. - When I left, scientists collected equipment from garbage dumps. No matter how much they boiled, all the same, because of the dirt, the discharges fired. I even hired a physics student to figure it out. By the way, he has long been a professor in England. We ought to find him. Let him come back too. He won't be electrocuted anymore.

Pyotr Kapitsa said that science should be done by cheerful people. The Kurchatov Center is so far the only place in Russia where scientists have returned to an optimistic mood and the Hamlet question of whether or not to be science has been resolved positively. Time will tell whether this issue will be resolved on an all-Russian scale.

At the moment, scientific and technological progress has accelerated dramatically and we are able to observe whole waves of discoveries that are superimposed on each other in time. Since the 80s, the scientific and technological revolution in the field of information technology and communications began, followed by an explosion of discoveries in the field of biotechnology, and recently everyone is talking about the beginning of a revolution in the field of nanotechnology. Cognitive science has also developed rapidly over the past decade.

The mutual influence of all these sciences on each other is of utmost interest. This phenomenon has received its own name - NBIC-convergence (according to the first letters of the regions: N -nano; B -bio; I -info; C -cogno). It was introduced by William Benbridge and Michael Roco, who wrote the very significant report Converging Technologies for Improving Human Performance in 2002. The report highlighted the importance and specificity of NBIC convergence, its importance in the development of civilization and the formation of modern culture. Of the four described areas (nano-, bio-, info-, cognitive), the most developed (information and communication technologies), which is used in all other areas. In particular, for modeling various processes. Biotechnology is widely used in nanotechnology and cognitive science, and in the development of computer technology.

The interaction of nano- and biotechnology is two-way. Biological systems have provided a number of tools for the construction of nanostructures (for example, special DNA sequences are created that make the synthesized DNA molecule fold into two-dimensional and three-dimensional structures of any configuration).

Nanotechnology will lead to the emergence and development of a new industry, nanomedicine: a set of technologies that allow you to control biological processes at the molecular level.

In general, the relationship between nano- and bio-fields of science and technology is fundamental. When considering living (biological) structures at the molecular level, their chemical nature becomes obvious, and we can say that at the micro level, the difference between living and nonliving is not obvious.

Nanotechnology and cognitive science are the most distant from each other, since at this stage of the development of science, the possibilities for interaction between them are limited, in addition, these areas began to actively develop later than others. But from the perspectives currently being viewed, first of all, the use of nanoinstruments for studying the brain, as well as its computer modeling, should be highlighted. Existing external brain scanning methods do not provide sufficient depth and resolution. Of course, there is a huge potential for improving their characteristics, but robots up to 100 nm in size (nanorobots) being developed in many leading laboratories seem to be the most technically simple way to study the activity of individual neurons and even their intracellular structures. Cognitive science will become the basis for improving the mental activity of the brain, and for this, nanotechnology, biotechnology, and information technology will be used. Nanotechnology will play a special role. Manipulating atoms will make it possible to carry out a nanorevolution both in production and in society.

Taking into account the interconnections as well as the generally interdisciplinary nature modern science, we can even talk about the expected future merger of NBIC areas into a single scientific and technological area of ​​knowledge.

Such a field will include in the subject of its study and actions almost all levels of organization of matter: from the molecular nature of matter (nano), to the nature of life (bio), the nature of mind (cogno) and information exchange processes (info). As noted by J. Horgan, in the context of the history of science, the emergence of such a meta-area of ​​knowledge will mean the “beginning of the end” of science, the approach to its final stages.

In general, we can say that the NBIC-convergence phenomenon developing before our eyes represents a radically new stage of scientific and technological progress. In terms of its possible consequences, NBIC-convergence is the most important evolutionary determining factor and marks the beginning of transhumanistic transformations, when the evolution of a person itself, presumably, will pass under his own rational control. The features of NBIC convergence are: 1) intense interaction between scientific and technological fields; 2) the breadth of consideration and influence - from the atomic level of matter to intelligent systems; 3) the technological perspective of the growth of human development opportunities.

4) - significant synergistic effect;

As a result of convergence, new directions have already emerged: nanomedicine, nanodrugs, nanobiology, nano-society. Cognitive science (or cognitology) also emerged - this is the new science of the human mind. It combines the achievements of cognitive psychology, pedagogy, research in the field of artificial intelligence, neurobiology, neuropsychology, neurophysiology, linguistics, mathematical logic, neurology, philosophy, and other sciences. It should be emphasized that cognitology is now converging, like information technology, into many other sciences.