Avons nous encore le temps ?

Le Nouvel Observateur. — Notre civilisation de l'urgence s'est donné comme principal objectif, et à tous les niveaux de l'activité humaine, de gagner du temps sur le temps. Comment peut-on apprécier cette ambition ? Joël de Rosnay. — Le siècle qui commence est celui de la vitesse, c'est bien certain,. Mais de quelle vitesse s'agit-il ? La vitesse n'est-elle pas relative ? A titre personnel, la vitesse intervient dans ma vie à la fois comme nécessité et comme plaisir. Dans nos sociétés industrialisées, informatisées, connectées aux autoroutes de l'information, la vitesse peut apparaître comme un dangereux catalyseur de fracture sociale. N.O. — Est-ce qu'il y a lieu, selon vous, de parler d'une accélération de nos modes de vies ; autrement dit, peut-on considérer que l'histoire s'accélère ? Nos structures sociopolitiques intègrent-elles cette accélération ? N.O. — Comment le futurologue appréhende-t-il la suite de l'histoire ? N.O. — Qu'entendez-vous par " habiter le temps " ?

From Molecular Biology to Biotics Joël De ROSNAY, Docteur ès Sciences and scientific writer, is presently Director of Forecasting and Assessment of the Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie at La Villette, Paris, France. From 1975 to 1985 he was Director of Research Applications at l’Institut Pasteur in Paris. Former research associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the field of biology and computer graphics, he was successively Scientific Attaché to the French Embassy in the United States, and Scientific Director of European Enterprises Development Company (a venture capital group) from 1971 to 1975. He is particularly interested in advanced technologies and the applications of system theory. On these subjects, he wrote: "Le Macroscope" (1975), "Les Chemins de la Vie" (The paths of life) (1983) and "Le Cerveau Planétaire" (The planetary brain) (1986). Abstract - Important scientific and technological developments have been achieved in biology during the last few years.

Global Brain conference The convergence of biology and computers New interfaces between man and computers are developed. They result from the marriage of biology and computers. A new fundamental and applied discipline is being born of this convergence and, more generally, of the hybridization and coevolution of the methodologies and techniques used in computers and of those used in biology and supramolecular chemistry. Biotics comprises two complementary areas of application: that of analog signals (in this case, bioelectronics) and that of digital signals (molecular electronics). Molecular electronic components are currently considered the potential successors to semiconductors. New interfaces between the human brain and computers Direct neurons to machines interfaces have been developed during the last years. Another step on the road to creating biocomputers was achieved by Jerry Pine, a biophysicist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Bibliography Kolata, Gina. Maher, M.