Paul Hsieh over at Geek Press seems shocked to learn that Newt Gingrich is a nanotech fan.

He shouldn’t be. Though you’d never know it from the libelous screeds put out by the liberal press after the Republicans won the Congress, from which you’d assume that he lived in a cave, and had the nightly chore (like me) of clawing grit out of his knuckles, Newt is actually a futurist and an idealist.

In the early eighties, he was on the board of the L-5 Society, a non-profit organization that promoted the colonization of space. He is familiar with, and has promoted the concept of solar power satellites. But when he became speaker, he probably decided that it would be wise to avoid such issues, and stick to those that were more politically crucial and realistic.

Anyway, people who only think of him as a neanderthal will be shocked to read this interview. He was one of the most technologically-savvy politicians to have ever held office.