Ecuadorian Conference Talk
Today I addressed a conference now underway in Guayaquil, Ecuador, ESPOLCiencia 2008: A Vision of Long-Term Challenges in Science and Technology. Compared to my previous South American speaking experience, travel was very easy. When I spoke at universities in Brazil last May, this which took a week and many hours in the air. For the ESPOLCiencia meeting, I declined the offer of travel expenses (sweetened with a bonus side-trip to the Galapagos), and instead participated by video through a teleconference facility just 20 minutes drive from home. The loss, of course, is missing the opportunity to meet the people and get a real sense of the place.
The content of my Ecuadorian talk closely followed the non-technical presentations I gave in Brazil: I outlined the basic concepts and physical principles of advanced productive nanosystems, described some of their potential products and applications, and sketched some of the intermediate levels of technology that must be mastered on the path to their implementation. I closed with a description of how productive nanosystems change the prospects for achieving the eight Millennium Development Goals selected by the United Nations.
