ABSTRACT
Advances in and convergence of:
nanoscience and nanotechnology,
biotechnology and biomedicine,
information technology,
cognitive science, and
synthetic biology (which can be described as the design and construction of new biological parts, devices and systems, and the redesign of existing, natural biological systems for useful purposes; Wolbring, 2006a),
otherwise known as ‘NBICS’ (for nano-bio-info-cogno-synbio), are envisioned to lead to applications in areas such as the environment, energy, water, weapons and other military applications, globalization, agriculture, security (Institute of Nanotechnology, 2005; Kostoff et al, 2006) and the global problems of disease and ill health (Roco and Bainbridge, 2002). Others perceive NBICS as an enabler for the pursuit of extreme lifespan extension, if not immortality, in other words to ‘defeat the disease death’, and of ‘morphological freedom’ (Sandberg, 2001).