Nanotechnology and Society? 134
VoiceOfZule writes "Bringing advanced sci-tech and humanities grad students to teach undergrads about nanotech and its implications is a great idea. I was in this class on Nanotechnology and Society at the University of Wisconsin-Madison this spring, and a lot of the course materials were just put online along with a preprint paper about the new course, and some of the student research projects. The class was a lot of fun (some nano, some scitech studies, some scifi/future stuff), I learned a lot (about the reality of nanotech and its societal implications beyond the B.S. hype out there), and the world of nano now seems like a good career path to me. Are similar experiences going on across the country? In light of recent worries concerning science and engineering in the US, I hope so."
Recent descent to third world status you mean... (Score:2, Interesting)
You just said a mouthful there... Nothing is going to pull things out of this nose-dive but a radical restructuring of the US's political and social structures. Not even nanotechnology:
July 15, 2005
America's Descent Into The Third World [vdare.com]
By Paul Craig Roberts
The June payroll jobs report did not receive much attention due to the July 4 holiday, but the depressing 21st century job performance of the US economy continues unabated.
Only 144,000 private sector jobs were created, each one of which was in domestic services.
56,000 jobs were created in professional and business services, about half of which are in administrative and waste services.
38,000 jobs were created in education and health services, almost all of which are in health care and social assistance.
19,000 jobs were created in leisure and hospitality, almost all of which are waitresses and bartenders.
Membership associations and organizations created 10,000 jobs and repair and maintenance created 4,000 jobs.
Financial activities created 16,000 jobs.
This most certainly is not the labor market profile of a first world country, much less a superpower.
Where are the jobs for this year's crop of engineering and science graduates?
US manufacturing lost another 24,000 jobs in June.
A country that doesn't manufacture doesn't need many engineers. And the few engineering jobs [vdare.com] available go to foreigners.
Readers have sent me employment listings from US software development firms. The listings are discriminatory against American citizens. One ad from a company in New Jersey that is a developer for many companies, including Oracle [vdare.com], specifies that the applicant must have a TN visa.
A TN or Trade Nafta [vdare.com] visa is what is given to Mexicans and Canadians, who are willing to work in the US at below prevailing wages.
Another ad from a software consulting company based in Omaha, Nebraska, specifies it wants software engineers who are H-1B transferees [vdare.com]. What this means is that the firm is advertising for foreigners already in the US who have H-1B work visas.
The reason the US firms specify that they have employment opportunities only for foreigners who hold work visas is because the foreigners will work for less than the prevailing US salary. [vdare.com]
Gentle reader, when you read allegations that there is a shortage of engineers [vdare.com] in America, necessitating the importation of foreigners to do the work, you are reading a bald faced lie. If there were a shortage of American engineers, employers would not word their job listings to read that no American need apply and that they are offering jobs only to foreigners holding work visas.
What kind of country gives preference to foreigners over its own engineering graduates? [vdare.com]
What kind of country destroys the job market for its own citizens?
How much longer will parents shell out $100,000 for a college education [vdare.com] for a son or daughter who end up employed as a bartender, waitress, or temp?
Dr. Roberts, [email [mailto] him] a former Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal and a former Contributing Editor of National Review, was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury during the Reagan administration. He is
i hope hendrik schoen isnt giving the lectures (Score:2, Interesting)
Pales to transhumanism (Score:1, Interesting)
But it's easy to see how transhumanism is the greater of the two. When we are posthumanism, we'll be able to analyze nanotechnology much better.
EH&S issues? (Score:4, Interesting)
By virtue of their size, nanoparticles can cross the blood/brain barrier. For some materials this new route of entry could be the difference between toxic and nontoxic. Materials that previously were thought of as nontoxic in the micron and above particle range could now have toxic effects. - Material data safety sheets generally don't consider a material's particle size, except to state "dusty" type warnings.
That the nanoparticles can have this new route of entry is proven - that this results in new toxic effects for previously nontoxic compounds is not (at least not that I've seen in the lit) - so there may be no issue - or there may be a big issue. Hopefully we don't find out the asbestos way where we make the material ubiquitous then be stuck with huge remediation and civil lawsuit issues!