The Economist has an interesting survey on the future of the phone.

I’m not an early adaptor, and unlike the younger generation, I don’t live with my cell phone–it’s not an intimate and essential part of my life. I often forget to take it when I leave the house. Of course, this may be less a generational thing than the fact that I work mostly from home. When I’m traveling, I’m much more careful to keep it handy. But I wonder how many of these new developments won’t be picked up by older generations unused to them?

It’s also going to be a strange world, when most people are walking around seemingly talking to themselves like schizophrenics. We can still tell today because of the earpieces, but once they get smaller, or embedded in the body, it’s going to be a lot harder for shrinks to tell the difference between people with imaginary voices in their head, and real ones.

[Update late morning]

I’m guessing from comments that my humor was a little too subtle today.

I haven’t bothered to download IE7, because I use Firefox 2.0 for the vast majority of my web browsing, and find IE6 acceptable for the rare occasions when a web site insists that I use Internet Explorer. Based on this article, it sounds like that was a good (non)move.

The scientific community is starting to believe in life extension. There’s still a lot of resistance, though, as the discussion about grant titling indicates. There’s an old saying (generated, I believe, in the wake of Kuhn’s Structure Of Scientific Revolutions) that “science advances, funeral by funeral.” Ironically, it may ultimately require the deaths of a generation of researchers to achieve indefinite lifespan.

Solar-powered electrolysis, using a bioengineered protein.

Cool. Brings a whole new meaning to the (stupid) phrase “no blood for oil.” In this case, it’s blood to replace oil.

This isn’t particularly profound, but it’s interesting to see a growing awareness of transhumanism and its implications among the non-technical commentariat. Mona Charen on life extension:

Let’s stipulate that for those wealthy enough to take advantage of it (i.e., most Americans), science will make it possible for people

Building a better nail.

Glenn writes about a new book on traffic congestion, and how it’s a bigger problem than people realize.

I’ve often thought that it is a massive economic waste. I also think that there are things that could be done about it that would be relatively low cost, and don’t involved construction of new highways or relaning the roads. As I’ve noted before, if I were king, I’d launch a massive public education campaign on lane discipline, and enforce it with tickets. I’d be harder on left lane hogs than on speeders.

Were nanotubes the secret of Damascus blades?

Phil Bowermaster (who’s not the man he once was) has a some musings on virtual children. His co-blogger responds.

Though he doesn’t say it explicitly, Randall Parker explains why we’ll have to eventually settle space.