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R

RAPTURE OF THE FUTURE: Naive optimism that everything will be all right in the future and that future technology can solve every concievable problem. [Tom Morrow]

RED GOO: Deliberately designed and released destructive nanotechnology, as opposed to accidentally created grey goo.

RED QUEEN PRINCIPLE: (after Beyond the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carrol, where the Red Queen points out "in this place it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place.") In evolution the principle says that for an evolutionary system, continuing development is needed just in order to maintain its (relative) fitness. (See the red queen principle in Principia Cybernetica) [L. van Valen 1973]

RED QUEENED: to be outrun by evolution or change (see the red queen principle). [Damien Broderic, June 1997]

REMEMBRANCE AGENT: A software agent that augments human memory by watching the current context (for example what is written in an editor) and displays a list of documents which may be relevant. This is a simple but workable form of intelligence amplification, likely suited for wearable computers. (See Remembrance Agent: A continuously running automated information retrieval system) [Thad Starner 1995]

REVERSIBLE: A process that can occur in both directions, i.e. A->B and B->A. Reversible processes do not produce any entropy.

RIF: A Rifkinite, or supporter of Jeremy Rifkin and his anti-genetic engineering, anti-nanotech crusade; against any and all research or implementation in these areas. [Glenn Grant, 1990]


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Anders Sandberg / asa@nada.kth.se
2000-03-11