AI at the core of a new technological convergence: NBIA

The term NBIC refers to the convergence of technologies in four key areas: Nanotechnology, Biotechnology, Infotechnology (information technologies) and Cognotechnology. These areas are fundamental for their ability to transform and improve various aspects of society, the economy and the environment.

Infotechnology encompasses a set of tools, systems and processes used to manage, process and transmit information. These technologies include both hardware and software, as well as networks and systems that enable communication and data exchange. Within this category we find everything from computers and servers to applications, databases, information management systems, communication networks, internet and cybersecurity.

Cognotechnology, on the other hand, is an interdisciplinary field that focuses on developing and using technologies both to improve or enhance human cognitive abilities and to advance the development of artificial brains. It combines elements of neuroscience, artificial intelligence, cognitive psychology and computer science, creating tools and systems that assist in memory, learning, decision-making and other mental processes.

In recent years, cognotechnology has experienced exponential growth, driven by its integration with infotechnology through a common substrate: artificial intelligence (AI). In this context, it is proposed to change the name of the convergence from NBIC to NBIA (Nanotechnology, Biotechnology and Artificial Intelligence). This change not only reflects current trends in science and technology, but also responds to the increasing centrality of AI in these fields. The new acronym NBIA is not merely a semantic adjustment, but a conceptual reconfiguration that recognizes the transformative impact of AI on technological convergence.

AI has advanced significantly, surpassing expectations by demonstrating its ability to improve cognitive processes through advanced algorithms, neural networks and deep learning techniques. Today, it not only replicates certain cognitive functions, but also extends and transforms them in ways that classical cognitive sciences had not anticipated. This is evidenced by its application in fields as varied as medicine, economics, education, robotics and security.

Furthermore, the integration of AI in NBIA emphasizes the practical and applied approach that characterizes emerging technologies. AI not only studies the workings of the human mind, as do cognitive sciences, but also creates and applies models capable of overcoming human limitations in specific tasks. This pragmatic approach is increasingly necessary in a world where the complexity and quantity of information exceeds human processing capacity.

The transition from NBIC to NBIA reflects the recognition of AI as an indispensable agent of change in today's technological and scientific evolution. This change does not imply the abandonment of NBICs, but rather a reconfiguration that places AI at the center of innovation, allowing it to empower and transform other technologies in ways that were unthinkable in the previous conceptual framework. Thus, NBIA represents not only a new acronym, but a new vision of the technological convergence of the future.

Complementary reading: 

El pensamiento complejo, la cuarta cultura y las NBIC. Biotecnología & Nanotecnología al Instante. 1 de junio 2013.

Viable the once unfeasible with bio and nanoeconomy.

There are areas on the planet that apparently have little benefit, they do not have minerals, fossil fuels, nor do their soils have the right characteristics to be cultivated. The lack of energy does not allow the establishment of industries and the generation of jobs. They are usually considered unviable areas by economists and abandoned to their fate. Young people emigrate in search of a better future and the existing towns languish. The picture described above is repeated across the entire surface of the planet. Now the bioeconomy and nanoeconomy based on the exponentially growing developments in biotechnology and nanotechnology seem to indicate that the once unfeasible is beginning to become viable. 

The following figure summarizes a series of possible, sustainable solutions, ranging from waste utilization and abundant energy generation to the production of advanced nanomaterials.    

Abundant energy production is based on the installation of solar panels, windmills, the generation of biogas from waste in biodigesters and thermoelectric power plants powered by biomass obtained from crops, microorganisms and microalgae, whether genetically modified or not, from which bioethanol, bio-oil and biodiesel can also be obtained.

Carbon dioxide from thermoelectric power plants and biogas generation can be used to obtain graphene, and to feed microalgae cultures capable of producing everything from medicines to omega-3 fatty acids. After extraction of the active principles, the rest of the microalgae can be used to obtain carbon nanotubes, a high value-added nanomaterial, by pyrolysis. In addition, new nanocatalysts also allow carbon dioxide to be converted into methane, increasing local energy production.

Energy self-sufficiency allows the installation of bioreactors to produce from “in vitro” meat to biopolymers and opens the door to multiple ventures, the installation of SMEs and businesses related to production and the general economic growth of the place. The economy of new technologies tends to horizontalize production in order to avoid the concentration of economic resources in a few. 

As an example, we will explain how from organic waste we can move on to the production of nanocomposite materials for 3D production in order to make products with high added value tending to make the area sustainable and with state-of-the-art technology. Biogas production generates methane and carbon dioxide. Both gases can be used to obtain nano-objects. 

Graphene and carbon nanotubes can be obtained from methane using the CVD (chemical vapor deposition) process. In parallel, organic waste can be used to produce polylactide (PLA), a biodegradable and recyclable polymer. Generally, fermentable waste is autoclaved at 121ºC for 20 minutes and then, by regulating the physicochemical conditions, a saccharification process is carried out with the enzyme glucosamylase and then Lactobacillus rhamnousus is added to convert the glucose produced into lactic acid. Finally, the lactic acid is used to synthesize PLA. Within nanostructured materials, nanocomposites of polymers with nano-objects present a high degree of current and future applications. In some nanocomposites, 1% graphene in the polymeric structure increases its strength by 100%. The possibility of being able to use PLA-graphene and PLA-carbon nanotube polymers obtained from waste in 3D printers allows the continuous or rotary production of a large number of products that can be used in the textile, food and automotive industries, among others.

A good example of the importance of the bioeconomy + nanoeconomy in the multidirectional society and its ability to make the once unfeasible viable.

Complementary reading:

Nanoeconomy and/or Bioeconomy

Nanoeconomy and/or Bioeconomy

Bioeconomy and nanoeconomy  emerged as a response to the problems raised by Physical Economics formulated by Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen (Vanderbilt University), through two publications: Analytical Economics (1966) and The Entropy Law and Economic Process (1971) in which the current economic and environmental problems are centered on the divorce between economic theories and the laws of nature.

Faced with the exponential and complex advance of these problems, close to his death, Nicolas Georgescu-Roegen has pointed out as the only possible solution to be able to respond to the growing demands of the nine primary human needs (health, energy, food, environmental care, clothing, housing, communication, transportation and defense), the emergence of integrated science-technologies capable of generating in time and form the necessary resources for all in order to restore the lost patterns and move towards a new equilibrium.

The answers have emerged from two integrated science-technologies capable of transforming nature: biotechnology and nanotechnology. Biotechnology, which uses living beings or parts of living beings, with its 65 million known genes and genetic engineering, and nanotechnology, with its capacity to innovate by building with atoms and molecules, provide the basis for new economies: The bioeconomy and the nanoeconomy, both included today under the denomination of economies of new technologies, tending to leave in the background the economy of globalization centered on the first technological convergence (information and communication technologies-ICTs) and incapable of responding to the economic and environmental needs of the 8 billion inhabitants of the planet.

The bioeconomy can provide answers to four primary human needs: health, food, energy and environmental care. Nanoeconomy, on the other hand, based on a technology with the capacity to innovate by building with atoms and molecules (of which the planet and human beings are made), is the only one with the real possibility of providing answers to all (the nine) primary human needs.

Let us take an example related to energy production. The generation of biomass consumes carbon dioxide. Then, when biomass is used as fuel, it generates carbon dioxide, which is reused by plants to generate biomass again, in an apparently neutral virtuous cycle of one of the main gases responsible for the greenhouse effect. However, the energy used in this cycle is only partially recovered, leaving a negative balance in the expenditure of usually non-renewable and polluting energies. On the other hand, the agricultural sector in general consumes the largest amount of fresh water on the planet (69%) which is contaminated with pesticides and fertilizers due to the extremely low and slow absorption of both products by plant roots. 95% of fertilizers and 99.9% of pesticides degrade before achieving their intended effects (Lowry et al. ACS Nano 2019, 13, 5, 5291-5305). In the case of nitrogen fertilizers dissolved in water they mostly end up as nitrogen oxides gases in the atmosphere, also contributing to the increase of the greenhouse effect.

Nanotechnology, on the other hand, with the appearance of nanopesticides and nanofertilizers for foliar application, makes it possible to reverse the slow absorption by plant roots, taking advantage of more than 90% of agrochemicals, reducing production costs and freshwater pollution. It also contributes to energy generation by improving the efficiency of solar panels through the use of some of its nanomaterials such as quantum dots. These allow, by regulating their diameter, to capture the infrared radiation (IR) that leaves the earth's surface at night and, when reflected in the clouds, produces global warming. In other words, they make it possible to create panels similar to solar panels but which generate photovoltaic energy at night using IR radiation. Other nanomaterials are making it possible to advance in the generation of energy in panels that work with ambient humidity and nanocatalysts capable of converting environmental carbon dioxide into methane (gas from stoves) among others and obtaining hydrogen fuel from water. New nanomaterials also improve the efficiency and durability of windmills. 

In short, the bio and nanoeconomy, with its technological bases, biotechnology that uses living beings or parts of living beings, with its 65 million known genes and genetic engineering, and nanotechnology with its capacity to innovate by building with atoms and molecules to provide answers to socioeconomic problems, are emerging as unique responses to the complexity of the needs of the earth with 8 billion inhabitants.

For a planet without direction, adrift in economic and environmental terms, an economy based on new technologies appears, capable of transforming nature to make life on earth possible.

Plan NanoBio (NB)

I’ve presented a plan B at a TED Rosario ( Argentina) in 2013. It was B by Biotechnology, B by Bioeconomy and B by transgenic Biofactory ( it was subtitled in Spanish, English, German and Korean). It was an alternative to the current environmental an economic problems of a planet going adrift and with a plan A that had lost its way long time ago. After seven years it is clearly emerging that Biotechnology is not enough to solve all the current and future challenges in purpose to satisfy primary human necessities, as to know: food, health, energy, housing, clothing, transport, care of environment, communication and defense. Biotechnology, for example, provide biogas, bioethanol and biodiesel within the energy area. Meanwhile the Nanotechnology can provide a quantum dot solar cell, nanocatalysts to turn carbon dioxide into methane and better batteries for electric cars.

In the area of ​​health, biotechnology gives rise to biopharmaceuticals (eg, monoclonal antibodies) and biotechnological therapies (cell therapies and gene therapies), while nanotechnology revolutionizes the entry of drugs into the body with nasal entry nanoaerosols capable of replacing injections, nanoparticles to destroy cancer by localized surface plasmon resonance, nanorrobots for diagnosis and treatment and, biomimetics, to produce plastic antibodies and alternative antivirals. Nanotechnology responds to nine of the human needs identified and shares four of them with biotechnological developments: food, health, energy and care for the environment. Based on the foregoing and trying to understand the constant advancement of converging technologies, I believe that it is necessary to complement Plan B to save the world (planet) presented in 2013, today I have no doubt that we must advance in the context with a NanoBio (NB) plan coinciding in the initial letters with the technologies of the 21st century: the NBIC (Nano-Bio-Info and Cognotechnologies).

Additional information:

A Plan B (Bioeconomics, Biotechnology, Transgenic Biofactory) to save the world.    
Nanoeconomy Time

La convergencia de las tecnologías exponenciales y la singularidad tecnológica. Alberto L. D’Andrea (coordinador). 2017. Ed. Temas. Buenos Aires. Argentina.

After the pandemic, the economy of new technologies.

The single idea of economy in which the economic prevails over the political and the market solves all the problems of the system in concurrence with competitiveness and free exchange, it cannot currently give answers to the demands of a planetary society of 7,500 million population. The most recent historical attempt to break with the current inconvenience of the economy came from Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen, one of the most notable and profound thinkers of modern economy. He launched two critical torpedoes to the current economy in his books Analytical Economics (1966) and The Entropy Law and Economic Process (1971), in which he focuses current economic problems on the divorce between economic theories and the enforcement of the laws of nature. 

For single-minded economists everything is a cycle of production and consumption, but for nature it does not constitute a cycle, it is only a one-way waste of energy and non-renewable natural resources in the time they are consumed. Ultimately, he envisioned a globalized world in which both, the economy and the environment would drift and only with the emergence of technologies capable of transforming nature lost patterns could be restored and life on earth possible. This is how in 1973 modern biotechnology emerged and in 1974 nanotechnology. The responses of both in areas such as food, energy, health and the environment, gradually gave rise to their respective economies, the bioeconomy and the nanoeconomy.  Today we can define the real bioeconomy as an economy based on biotechnology, capable of generating renewable natural resources in time and form with its collection of 65 million genes, and genetic engineering to respond to socioeconomic needs, such as demand for energy, food, decrease in health and environmental care expenses, in turn generating work and income in a sustainable way. The logic of the word economy seems to indicate a succession, after macro and microeconomics, towards a nanoeconomy; that is to say, to the study of the economy from the smallest link, from the daily small, an economy centered on the individual and on the needs of daily economic events. Summarizing. We can present the nanoeconomy as an economy built on the needs of the daily activities of the 7.5 billion people in the world, instead of the result of the actions of countries or companies. Nothing is as heterogeneous as providing answers to the daily economy of 7.5 billion people, nothing more complex than the number of possible combinations of existing atoms and molecules. Bioeconomy is capable of subordinating the economy to laws of nature, the nanoeconomy subordinates the construction of the economic world to the needs of each individual on the planet. It is a difficult construction, even more when no attempt was ever made to “visualize everyone” from the single thought economy, but it is possible and no more difficult than the nanotechnological constructions that are feasible  and in continuous development today. The bioeconomy and nanoeconomy from their productive capacity have originated the economy of new technologies; from the atom and the gene towards an economy conditioned only by nature and the needs of living beings. This leads to do the unfeasible viable and each area of ​​the planet can develop and live harmoniously without the need for large natural resources.

The recent pandemic put a stop to globalization and also to the increase in pollution. Countries closed, mass production stopped, energy consumption fell and even less pollution is noted. The recent pandemic put a stop to globalization and also to the increase in pollution. It is time for local, not global, development. The tools are in , it is the right time to change from the economy of globalization to the economy of new technologies centered on the person and nature.

Additional information:

Hacer viable lo inviable I., Hacer viable lo inviable II , Hemisferios. Ambiente y Sociedad.