Intelligence cites terror robots among 'disruptive' new technologies
Monday, June 23, 2008 Free Headline Alerts
Geostrategy-Direct.com
U.S. intelligence analysts have identified six technologies that will likely impact U.S. interests between now and 2025, including terrorists use of robots, according to a report by the National Intelligence Council.
The report warned that the development of robots was one of six major emerging disruptive technologies. “The use of unmanned systems for terrorist activities could emerge because the availability of commercial civil robot platforms will increase significantly,” the report said.
Other technologies in the report relate to life-extension “biogerontechnology,” advanced energy storage materials, biofuels and bio-based chemicals, clean coal technology, “The Internet of Things.”
The report by the National Intelligence Council, the analysis arm of the office of the director of national intelligence, stated that the civil and dual military-civilian technologies have the potential to cause “a noticeable – even if temporary – degradation or enhancement in one of the elements of U.S. national power (geopolitical, military, economic, or social cohesion).”
Biogerontechnology is know-how linked to the means to accomplish control over and improvement in the human condition, and improvements in lifespan.
“Nations will be challenged as a result of changing demographic structures, new psychologies, activity patterns of aging yet healthy citizens, and the resulting requirement to formulate new national economic and social policies,” the report said.
Energy storage technology will affect use of transportation and portable devices, like batteries, ultracapacitors and hydrogen fuel cells, that could lead to a disrupting paradigm shift away from fossil fuels.