J. Storrs Hall

Where Is My Flying Car?

creating the conscience of the machine

Beyond AI

From an engineer and futurist, an impassioned account of technological stagnation since the 1970s and an imaginative blueprint for a richer, more abundant future. The science fiction of the 1960s promised us a future remade by technological innovation. We’d vacation in geodesic domes on Mars, have meaningful conversations with computers, and drop our children off at school in flying cars. Fast-forward 60 years, and we’re still stuck in traffic in gas-guzzling sedans and boarding the same types of planes we flew in over half a century ago. What happened to the future we were promised? In Where Is My Flying Car?, J. Storrs Hall sets out to answer this deceptively simple question. What starts as an examination of the technical limitations of building flying cars evolves into an investigation of the scientific, technological, and social roots of the economic stagnation that started in the 1970s. From the failure to adopt nuclear energy and the suppression of cold fusion technology to the rise of a counterculture hostile to progress, Hall recounts how our collective ambitions for the future were derailed, with devastating consequences for global wealth creation and distribution. He then outlines a framework for a future powered by exponential progress—one in which we build as much in the world of atoms as we do in the world of bits, one rich in abundance and wonder. Drawing on years of original research and personal engineering experience, Where Is My Flying Car?, originally published in 2018, is an urgent, timely analysis of technological progress over the last 50 years and a bold vision for a better future.

With a 30-year career in artificial intelligence (AI) and computer science, Hall reviews the history of AI, predicting the probable achievements in the near future and provides an intriguing glimpse into the astonishing possibilities and dilemmas on the horizon.

Creating the Conscience of the Machine

Artificial intelligence (AI) is now advancing at such a rapid clip that it has the potential to transform our world in ways both exciting and disturbing. Computers have already been designed that are capable of driving cars, playing soccer, and finding and organizing information on the Web in ways that no human could. With each new gain in processing power, will scientists soon be able to create supercomputers that can read a newspaper with understanding, or write a news story, or create novels, or even formulate laws? And if machine intelligence advances beyond human intelligence, will we need to start talking about a computer's intentions?These are some of the questions discussed by computer scientist J. Storrs Hall in this fascinating layperson's guide to the latest developments in artificial intelligence. Drawing on a thirty-year career in artificial intelligence and computer science, Hall reviews the history of AI, discussing some of the major roadblocks that the field has recently overcome, and predicting the probable achievements in the near future. There is new excitement in the field over the amazing capabilities of the latest robots and renewed optimism that achieving human-level intelligence is a reachable goal.But what will this mean for society and the relations between technology and human beings? Soon ethical concerns will arise and programmers will need to begin thinking about the computer counterparts of moral codes and how ethical interactions between humans and their machines will eventually affect society as a whole. Weaving disparate threads together in an enlightening manner from cybernetics, computer science, psychology, philosophy of mind, neurophysiology, game theory, and economics, Hall provides an intriguing glimpse into the astonishing possibilities and dilemmas on the horizon.J. Storrs Hall. Ph.D. (Laporte, PA), the founding chief scientist of Nanorex, Inc., is a research fellow for the Institute for Molecular Manufacturing and the author of Nanofuture, the Nanotechnologies section for The Macmillan Encyclopedia of Energy, and numerous scientific articles. He has designed technology for NASA and was a computer systems architect at the Laboratory for Computer Science Research at Rutgers University from 1985 to 1997.

Flying cars, space travel for everyone, the elimination of poverty and hunger, and powerful new tools to combat disease, and even aging. These are some of the amazing predicted developments of nanotechnology, the coming science of designing and building machines at the molecular and atomic levels. Will this new scientific revolution be for better or worse? Some commentators have described utopias; others have prophesied disaster. Find out the likely reality from an expert, Dr. J. Storrs Hall, in this absorbing insider's guide to the near future.Dr. Hall-a leading researcher on the frontiers of nanotechnology who has designed for NASA-describes nanotechnology in a very accessible way, so that anyone can understand what it's about, what it could do, and what it can't do. He puts it into historical context, explaining how previous technological developments have affected us, how nanotechnology fits into the historical trends for technologies ranging from motors to medicine, and how the continuation of these trends, with nanotechnology as a strong determining factor, will have a profound impact on the future.In addition to describing his famous invention utility fog, Hall explains how nanotechnology will make possible many of the science fiction dreams of the past. But what hurdles, technological, political, or social, stand in the way? What dangers will this powerful new technology pose? How will it impact the environment? Can we afford to develop it? Can we afford not to? The true dangers are not what you may think, and are far different from the fears of today's alarmists. In a straightforward, balanced manner, Dr. Hall analyzes the benefits as well as the potential risks.Together with its sister science of biotechnology, nanotechnology has the potential to alter the very human race, change who we are. Can this possibly be good? Should it be encouraged or opposed? No one knows for sure, but the basis for informed thought can be found in these exciting, stimulating pages, which will open the doors of the future to you.J. Storrs Hall, Ph.D. (Laporte, PA), is Chief Scientist of Nanorex, Inc. and a Fellow of the Molecular Engineering Research Institute. He served as a Computer Systems Architect at the Laboratory for Computer Science Research at Rutgers University from 1985 to 1997. He is the author of the Nanotechnologies section for The Macmillan Encyclopedia of Energy, among many scientific articles, and has been cited in numerous books.

J. Storrs Hall

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