Meeting notice: The 02.August.06 meeting will be held at 7:30 p.m. at the Royal East (782 Main St., Cambridge), a block down from the corner of Main St. and Mass Ave. If you're new and can't recognize us, ask the manager. He'll probably know where we are. More details below. <-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-> Suggested topic: World Governance in the NT era. When we think about the political context within which NT will develop we usually imagine either something like the present organization of nation states or a landscape dominated by one or more state- like international authorities (like the EU). As between the two most of us have divided sympathies. On the one hand, the nation-state is a generally unpleasant institution; on the other it is all too easy -- so much so as to be the stuff of countless SF novels - - to imagine a panicky world authority chasing NT underground. Whatever might be the downsides for free trade, etc., a world comprised of several hundred independent jurisdictions might at least be one in which the development of NT is assured in the not- too- long- run. Civic life is about compensating, comforting, or protecting persons or groups who are likely to be victimized in some fashion (parties which these days can include natural environments, cute animals, and distinguished architecture), while ignoring or even adding to the pain of those who do the victimizing, or benefit unjustly from it, or are just generally undeserving. There is a second category of institutions in this game (besides governments): the huge numbers of non- profits found in every corner and level of every issue we might think of as civic. These also comfort and protect the afflicted and vulnerable, and, with their armies of lawyers, lobbyists, and media campaigners, not to mention eco-mercenaries, do what they can to shift risk and financial loss onto the backs of those outside that circle. NPs, unlike nations, seem wonderfully compatible with the times. They need pay no attention to borders, a strength that some boast about in their very names (Medecins Sans Frontieres, Reporters Sans Frontières). They make wonderfully effective use of networking technologies. They can be targeted and re targeted on any aspect or level of any issue, are cheap to start, run, and fold, and can address all the actors and issues that matter in a given policy solution space with a very impressive tool set, ranging from boycotts to demonstrations, petitions, software, legislation, lobbying, media campaigns, and lawsuits. If the first chapter of our adjustment to globalization has been about buying from and selling in international companies, perhaps the second will be learning to channel our civic interests through our participation in international NPs. The speculation has the logic that the two chapters are homologous, both being stories about responding to increasing complexity by decreasing geographic while increasing functional specialization. They look like responses to the same world. However, the implication for NT is that you don't need a world government to chase NT underground. A loose coalition of well- financed NPs, richly endowed with thousands of volunteer researchers, lobbyists, and lawyers, not to mention eco-mercenaries, could make the global climate as inhospitable to the technology as any world government. Indeed, the atmosphere might be worse, since it is possible that NPs might be smarter and faster. Bottom line: Ultimately there may be no long run alternative to participating in the inevitable public debate over the technology. <-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-> In twenty years half the population of Europe will have visited the moon. -- Jules Verne, 1865 <-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-> Announcement Archive: http://www.pobox.com/~fhapgood/nsgpage.html. <-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-> Legend: "NSG" expands to Nanotechnology Study Group. The Group meets on the first and third Tuesdays of each month at the above address, which refers to a restaurant located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The NSG mailing list carries announcements of these meetings and little else. If you wish to subscribe to this list (perhaps having received a sample via a forward) send the string 'subscribe nsg' to majordomo@world.std.com. Unsubs follow the same model. Discussion should be sent to nsg- d@world.std.com, which must be subscribed to separately. You must be subscribed to nsg-d to post to it and must post from the address from which you subscribed (An anti- spam thing). Comments, petitions, and suggestions re list management to: nsg@pobox.com.