Fatuzzo Books Blog

TECHNOLOGY LAUNCHING PADS – AN INTRODUCTION by Carol L. Fatuzzo and Ennio Fatuzzo

Yes, our book “Creating New Superstars” is a guide for achieving extreme business growth. And yes it addresses topics such as business creativity and brilliant leadership. But it focuses on explosively developing new technologies and their power. Why? A superstar company’s exponential growth requires exponential change in the technology on which the business is based. And today, for the first time in history, the explosion of advances in Microelectronics, the Internet, and Biogenetics offer this possibility. We call these technologies “Launching Pads.”

These three technology Launching Pads, alone and/or in combination, are changing our world and creating new high growth business opportunities at unprecedented rates. Thus, in our fast-paced, technology-rich environment, it is impossible to ignore these technology-based forces that are shaping the future for business and for humanity.

MICROELECTRONICS

Consider Microelectronics. Is Microelectronics-based technology (integrated circuits) THE basic Launching Pad? It has given birth to or at least enabled our other two Launching Pads, so at the very least it is a basic building block for them. Think about it. The Internet wouldn’t have the enormous impact on the world it does today without the rapid increases in speed and data handling enabled by advances in Microelectronics. And Biogenetics would not be making its radical breakthroughs without the advanced computers and digital equipment based on Microelectronics that it uses as tools.

However you look at it, Microelectronics has created an ongoing revolution. It is pervasive and changing the world as we know it due to rapid advances in the technology. But the advances in Microelectronics are not just rapid. They are being made at exponentially increasing rates as the doubling of microprocessor capabilities roughly every two years for the past several decades show. The resulting rapidly shrinking size of integrated circuits and the increased number of these tiny devices fitting on smaller and smaller chips has resulted in dramatic increases in computer processing speeds, data storage capacities, and more—much more. These radical improvements in digital electronics have irreversibly changed nearly every segment of the global economy.

However, keep in mind that nothing is forever. If we had to make a prediction, we would pick the younger and more embryonic Biogenetics Launching Pad to be the successor to Microelectronics in the not-too-distant future.

BIOGENETICS

What is Biogenetics? Today, the process commonly used in Medical Biotechnology is genetic engineering. Genetic engineering refers to scientific procedures that allow the direct manipulation of genetic material to alter the hereditary traits of a cell, organism, or population. Hence the name Biogenetics. Today’s blockbuster drugs and the superstar businesses that have commercialized them are the basis of this newest technology Launching Pad.

But this is just the beginning. Breakthrough advances in Biogenetics are being made at an ever-increasing pace. Four of these emerging and rapidly developing areas—cloning of genes and organisms, stem cell research, and the genome editing technologies of TALENs and CRISPR—appear to us to be the most promising. Clearly, although still in its infancy, Biogenetics is a technologically rich area with perhaps an even greater potential than Microelectronics.

NANOMEDICINE

But what about new Launching Pads? As an example, we turn to a rapidly advancing area of science and engineering—the field of Nanotechnology. Nanotechnology is a very broad area of research involving dimensions less than 100 nanometers, but much of its promise is in the future. However, we believe that Nanomedicine, the rapidly advancing Life Science-based segment of Nanotechnology, has the potential to be a new Launching Pad on its own in the near term.

Simply stated, Nanomedicine is the application of Nanotechnology to medicine. It involves the monitoring, repair, construction and control of human biological systems at the molecular level, using engineered nanodevices and nanostructures. It ranges from the medical applications of nanomaterials to nanoscale biosensors and even to possible applications of programmable nanomachines and nanorobots—devices that would allow medical doctors to execute procedures in the human body at the cellular and molecular levels.

Nanobiosensors for measuring glucose, heart rate, blood pressure, etc. Injectable, wireless nanobots that carry out medical tasks, gather diagnostics and even deliver drugs into the bloodstream. Self-assembled, DNA based nanodevices for molecular scale diagnostics and smart drug delivery. Quantum wires for real-time sensing of biomarker proteins for cancer. Nanorobots for repairing damaged tissue, unblocking arteries, and replacing damaged organs. And the list goes on and on. Nanomedicine technology possibilities are endless and world-changing.

NEW SCIENCE FOR NEW LAUNCHING PADS

And what about technology Launching Pads in the longer term? There are many possibilities, including current areas of research such as Complexity Science, Subatomic Particles, the Makeup of the Universe, and the Search for Life beyond Earth. However, the path from a scientific discovery to a Launching Pad is long. So, the only certainty is that there will be new technology Launching Pads, and they will change the world.

A CAUTION

We are rapidly approaching a technology treasure room with many doors. Beyond each door, there is the potential for both great good and great harm. Only two things are certain. Which doors we open and when will determine the future of humankind and life as we know it. And once a door is opened, it can never be closed. Everything will change forever.

Should we open these doors? Will we?  The answer to the last question is simple: Yes, because humans always have and always will.

For more detailed and easy-to-understand information on the technologies highlighted above and their impacts, see “Creating New Superstars” by Carol L. Fatuzzo and Ennio Fatuzzo, available from amazon: http://amzn.to/2hAn6dy