Preamble

Ye

Mining the Common Heritage of Our DNA: Lessons Learned From Grotius and Pardo

The Human Genome Project generated oceans of DNA sequence data and spurred a multinational race to grab the bounties of these oceans. In response to these DNA property grabs, UNESCO, drawing upon international law precedents addressing analogous grabs in the past, declared the Human Genome the heritage of humanity. The UNESCO Declaration provided, first, that the heritage shall not, in its natural state, give rise to financial gains and, second, that countries establish an international framework to make the benefits from genome research available to all. This iBrief will first examine Grotius’s Mare Liberum to determine whether international law precedent indeed bars the private appropriation of a common heritage. Second, the iBrief will revisit the framework developed by Pardo for the exploitation of the mineral resources of the ocean floor and analyze whether it could serve as a model for an international framework for sharing the benefits of current genome research

Technology and Culture: Humans Inventing Themselves

Since the ancient Greek myth of Prometheus who stole fire from the god, Zeus, humans have been befuddled by their own cleverness. We make useful tools and devices which seem to free humans for higher pursuits only to discover that the unintended consequences demand that newer and even more clever devices be invented. Sooner or later we find out that the instruments of our technologies are shaping our destiny rather than the other way around. Throughout history this struggle has gone on till the present when the consequences of technological progress seem to many to be overwhelming. If culture is the cultivation of the best in mankind, a new kind of challenge faces us

Efficient allocation of property rights on the planet Mars

This paper examines the need to foster competition in the exploration of the solar system through the motivation of private profit, in contrast to the concepts of communal ownership of space resources as expressed in international treaty law. This paper draws upon recent US governmental policy outlining the objective of exploring and ultimately colonizing the planet Mars. This paper suggests a principle of geographically limited ownership on the Mars based on the historic concept of first possession

CHI and the future robot enslavement of humankind: a retrospective

As robots from the future, we are compelled to present this important historical document which discusses how the systematic investigation of interactive technology facilitated and hastened the enslavement of mankind by robots during the 21st Century. We describe how the CHI community, in general, was largely responsible for this eventuality, as well as how specific strands of interaction design work were key to the enslavement. We also mention the futility of some reactionary work emergent in your time that sought to challenge the inevitable subjugation. We conclude by congratulating the CHI community for your tireless work in promoting and supporting our evil robot agenda

Disarmament in the context of the international economic order

This paper focuses on an economic aspect of the disarmament question: the international market of armaments. I shall explore the thesis that arms trade is an increasingly important factor in North-South economic relations, that it affects not only international trade patterns, but also through trade, domestic patterns of economic development. Research assistance for this work was provided by Michael de Mello at Columbia University. In addition to the statistical sources in the references I shall be drawing as well on the results of a UNITAR study on technology, domestic distribution and North-South relations. (1)disarmament; armament; international market; international disarmament; arms trade; arms market; north; south; North-South; international trade; international trade patterns; domestic patterns of economic development; development; domestic economy; economic development; UNITAR; domestic distribution; technology; economic order; international economic order; export; import; commodity trade; trade patterns;

The future of space exploration and human development

This repository item contains a single issue of The Pardee Papers, a series papers that began publishing in 2008 by the Boston University Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future. The Pardee Papers series features working papers by Pardee Center Fellows and other invited authors. Papers in this series explore current and future challenges by anticipating the pathways to human progress, human development, and human well-being. This series includes papers on a wide range of topics, with a special emphasis on interdisciplinary perspectives and a development orientation.This paper – the first in a new series of research and foresight papers, titled “The Pardee Papers”, is based on the keynote address by the then President of India, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, at the 2007 Pardee Center conference on The Future of Space Exploration. The paper concludes that: “Our space vision for the next 50 years has to consolidate these benefits [of the past] and expand them further to address crucial issues faced by humanity in energy, environment, water, and minerals. Above all, we have to keep upper most in our mind the need for an alternate habitat for the human race in our solar system. The crucial mission for the global space community is to realize a dramatic reduction in the cost of access to space.” Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam is one of the world’s leading space scientists, the moving force behind India’s nuclear program, and former President of India

Ecological foresight in the nuclear power of XXI century

The access to reliable sources of energy is the key to sustainable development of mankind. The major part of the energy consumed by people is generated with a chemical reaction of fossil fuel burning. This leads to quick depletion of natural resources and progressing environmental pollution. The contribution of the renewable energy sources to the general energy production remains insignificant. A modern 1,000 MW coal-fired thermal power plant (TPP) burns 2.5 million tons of coal per year and produces significant amount of solid and gaseous waste. TPPs are the largest consumers of atmospheric oxygen and sources of carbon dioxide. A nuclear power plant (NPP) of the same power consumes less than 50 tons of fuel per year. Environmentally significant NPP’s waste (liquid, solid and gaseous) is carefully collected, reduced in volume (evaporation, filtering, compaction, incineration, etc.) and securely isolated from the environment at the plant. The annual volume of waste for storage is less than 100 m3. The waste is under the control of a special NPP’s service and regulatory authorities. The energy of fission reaction millions of times exceeding the energy of burning has an enormous potential that mankind can receive. Four hundred and thirty-three nuclear power units with a total capacity of about 400 GW exist in the world. The accident at the Fukushima Daiichi NPP in Japan in March 2011 caused anxiety about nuclear safety throughout the world and raised questions about the future of nuclear power. Now, it is clear that the use of nuclear power will continue to grow in the coming decades, although the growth will be slower than was anticipated before the accident. Many countries with existing nuclear power programmes plan to expand them. Many new countries, both developed and developing, plan to introduce nuclear power. Some countries, such as Germany, plan to abandon nuclear energy. The IAEA’s latest projections show a steady rise in the number of NPPs in the world in the next 20 years. They project a growth in nuclear power capacity by 23% by 2030 in the low projection and by 100% in the high projection [1,2]. The basis of modern nuclear power comprises water-cooled nuclear reactors which use the energy potential of natural uranium inefficiently (thermal reactors). The thermal reactors use isotope U-235 in which the content of natural uranium is <1%. Breeder reactors are capable of using the significant part of energy potential, which is unavailable to thermal light water reactors. As a result, the same starting quantity of uranium can produce 50 times more energy. These reactors can transform U-238 into fissile Pu-239 in larger amounts than they consume fissile material. This feature is called ‘breeding’ [3]. The key problem of using the basic benefitsv of nuclear power is to ensure the safety of its use, as well as decommissioning and reliable isolation of process waste from the biosphere. The long-term large-scale nuclear power should possess guaranteed safety, economic stability and competitiveness, absence of the raw material base restrictions for a long period of time and environmental sustainability (low waste). The nuclear power systems with fast neutron reactors and liquid metal coolant can satisfy these conditions. More than 40 years of Russian experience in the field of construction and operation of sodium fast reactors makes it possible to summarize and analyze the ecological features of reactors of this type, the possibility of their use for sustainable energy supply of mankind and solving environmental problems