What Can Nanotechnology Do
for Poor Women in
Developing Countries?
Martine Rothblatt, Ph.D., J.D., M.B.A.
Chairman & CEO,
Unither Telemedicine Services Corp.
Quick Answer
• HELP Them,
• More Ably In Conjunction with
Economic Growth
• And Social Solidarity Policies.
– Tantalizingly…
• If the HELP = f[MNT/(IT+BIO)], It Could
Transform Society As Handsomely as
MNT Promises to Transform Economy.
Why?
• MNT is a theoretical subset of technology
– Most closely related to mechanization & IT
• The forms of technology that have helped the
world’s poorest women are similar to MNT
– Experts agree that agricultural, transportation,
biomedical & information technology help women
• Hence, it is reasonable to conclude that MNT
is likely to help the world’s poorest women.
Diagrammed What MNT Can
Do for World’s Poor Women
1=technology
10
8
5
1
2
4
3
6
7
2=MNT, 9=Solidarity
Policies,
10=Economic
Growth
Policies
6=MNT
supported by
Solidarity & Economic
Growth policies; 4=MNT
Supported by Only
Solidarity Policies; 5=MNT
Supported by Only
Economic Growth Policies
9
Help to Poor Women: 7>3>8>16>4>5>2
My Goal is Provide Global Health
Care Via Telemed Nanotech From
Our US Telemed Care Seeds Today
Today We (Unither Telemed) Already
Monitor All Orbiting Heart Rhythms
• MIR Cosmonauts and
Astronauts
• Selected by ESA
• International Space
Station Astronauts and
Cosmonauts
• Why Not Monitor All the
World’s Heart Rhythms?
• Why Not Telemedical
Nanotechnology (TNT)?
The Wireless Heart Monitor
CardioPAL Wireless
Wireless transfer of ECG
abnormalities, both triggered
and symptom-driven--from
anywhere at anytime
CARDIAC MONITORING CENTER
TNT Technology Platform
TNT Completes the Picture
• Local medics cannot
see as much of the
picture as an Expert
System
• TNT cost-effectively
leverages expertise
worldwide
• Even today, Unither
Telemed leverages
ECG expertise
nationwide
Unither Telemed Vision: Grow It Vertically
to Telemedical Nanotech (TNT) &
Horizontally to the World
• $1.2B/yr$6B/yr$12B
/yr$18B/yr
• Extend reimbursed
cardiac telemed
services to consumers
• Extend US and orbital
telecardiology services
to ROW
• Extend telecardiology
platform to TNT for all
• 10 Million people @
$10.00/mo for TNT
(telemed nanotech
services)
• 100 Million people @
$5.00/mo for TNT
• 1 Billion people @
$1.00/mo for TNT
• 6 Billion people @
$0.25/mo for TNT
What Defines TNT Services?
• Molecular Serum Assay Capability
– Initially May Simply Measure Key Parameters
• Tele-connected to Ultra-Level Biomedical
Diagnostic and Treatment Decision-Making
– Initially May Target Select Morbidities
• Molecular Assembly of Bio Active Agents
–
–
–
–
–
Phase 1: May Simply Advise Re: Nutriceuticals
Phase 2: Empowered to Prescribe (Rx)
Phase 3: Capable of Dispensing Pharmaceuticals
Phase 4: Synthesize Unique Nano-scale Meds
Phase 5: Program/Deliver Unique Biobots
What Assurance TNT Will
Help Poor Women
• Biotechnology and
Information technology
have track record of
helping poorest women
– Elimination of smallpox;
polio progress
– Family planning information;
contraception
• Nanotechnology
Guidelines have focused
on this from the beginning
Why Are There Still Horrible
Problems Among Women?
• Basic Human Needs
Satisfaction = f(
– Social Solidarity x
– Economic Growth x
– Technology Solutions)
• Any One Factor Can
Undermine Progress
• Technology is a
Necessary, But Not a
Sufficient, Basis for
Robust Development
MNT Can Provide Abundance,
and this Helps
• But Oppressed Women
And Poor Are Even in
Wealthy Countries
• Technology Gains Can
Be Decimated By SocioEconomic Fiats
• Without “S” & “E”, “T”
is No Talisman, Not
Even MNT (socioeconomic management
bots, such as policing,
are beyond this report)
Doyal’s & Gough’s
Theory of Human Needs
• Food & Water, then
• Housing, then
• Safe Work, then
• Safe Environment &
• Health Care.
• Six Other Needs
Follow in Priority.
Drexler & Mulhall Have Shown
That MNT Can
• Provide Abundant
Food, Water & Housing
at Low Recurring Costs
w/Molecular Assembly
Techniques
• Clean & Secure Work &
Living Environments via
Nano-Surveillance &
Nanobot Molecular
Reclamation
For Example, Water
“Manufacture Water”
• “Initially, water synthesis
might occur by drawing
vapor from the
atmosphere….”
• “as things progressed,
we’d have the means to
combine two hydrogen
atoms from a cheap
source with one oxygen
atom -- to build our own
water molecules.”
Source: D. Mulhall, Our Molecular
Future, 2002 p. 210
And “Fabricating Food”
• “primitive stages of
molecular assembly” allows
millions to have own
nanobot-run greenhouse
[e.g., one per village or
family]
• “At the next stage of [MNT],
food synthesis could occur
directly, without growing
crops or livestock.”
[desktop replicators]
Source: D. Mulhall, Our Molecular
Future,2002, p. 211
And Who’ll Pay for This Stuff if
We Don’t Pay for Less Now?
• Kurzweil has shown that
exponentiating infotech will
yield super-computing
nanotubes for pennies
• Per Mulhall these will
design “food fabrication
software so quickly that
patent legislation can’t
keep up”
• Hughes’ BIG will thus
affordably encompass
food-water sufficiency
So MNT Is a Genie,
But Will It Move GINI?
• Inequality measure • Income/consumption
deviation from a perfectly
equal distribution.
• 0-100 = perfect equalityinequality
• Japan = 25; Nigeria = 50.
Because of better
technology? Brazil = 59
• By itself, T has not
effected greater income
equality. Might MNT be
different?
Dev’t = S*E*T Examples
Source: UNDP 2002
3 States
w/100M+
Social
Solidarity
Economic
Growth
Technology
Available
Japan
High
(HDI=.94)
Low
(HDI=.47)
Medium
(HDI=.78)
High
$29K/cap
Low
$1K/cap
Medium
$8K/cap
High
637 cell/kp
Low
92 cell/kp
Medium
201 cell/kp
FLE=85 yrs
Nigeria
FLE=52 yrs
Brazil
FLE=72 yrs
Japan HDI Trends
Nigeria HDI Trends
Brazil HDI Trends
So Which Comes First, the
Chicken or the Egg?
• “There is no absolute link
between economic
growth and human
progress.” …
• “Conversely, if human
progress is to be durable,
it must be continuously
nourished by economic
growth.”
Source: Human Development Report
1990, Chapters 2, 3: UNDP
% Contribution to Mortality Reduction for
Income, Education & Technology Availability
Sources: World Bank, Human Development Report 1990, Chapters 2, 3: UNDP
• “North-South gaps in human
development narrowed
considerably during [19601990] even though income
gaps widened.”
50
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Infant
•
FeAdMo
FeLiEx
Inc
Tech
“Technical progress accounted
for 40-50% of reductions in
mortality between 1960-1990,
making technology a more
important source of gains than
higher incomes or education
levels for women.”
Cell+Landlines Per KP,
1990-2002
Source: Human Development Report 2002, Chapter 2, UNDP
1200
1000
800
Japan
Brazil
Nigeria
600
400
200
0
1990
2002
• “Technology is like education - it is a tool to let people lift
themselves out of poverty.
Thus technology is a tool for,
not just a reward of, growth
and development.”
• “Human development and
technological advance can be
mutually reinforcing, creating a
virtuous circle.”
• 12 Year Growth: Japan 200%,
Brazil 550%, Nigeria 3130%!
Technology Achievement
Index (TAI)
• TAI (= IP, tech exports,
old+new tech diffusion,
& training) correlates
better with HDI than
does income.
• Bottom Line of Past
Slides: You Don’t
Need to Be Rich to Get
MNT, But You Do Need
to
– Focus on It Socially
– Conducive Economics
UNDP Recommendations for Optimizing
New Technology’s Contribution, Including
MNT, to HDI & GI (2002)
• International Private &
Public - Academic
TechDev Partnerships
• Balancing IP Rights
• Investing in Tropical
Technology
• Institutional Support for
Developing Country
Initiatives
What MNT Can Do For Poor
Women in Developing World
• BASED ON OTHER
TECHNOLOGY, MNT:
• Empower “durable
human progress” via
“virtuous circle” with
economic growth
• Contribute to reducing
mortality independent of
other factors
• Tool to lift selves out of
poverty.
Unique to MNT, Though
Women Can Expect
Acceleration of Progress
– Machine intelligence can
transcend misogynist
gatekeepers
– Possibly only available
with self-replicating MNT
Final Equalization of
Status; No Poverty
– MNT could offer de
minimis cost to practically
satisfy basic human
needs
Sound Too Good to Be True?
• So Were Leaps in Life
Expectancy, Literacy &
Well-Being…But True!
• The Future Is In Our
Hands By Effecting the
UNDP Policies
• Bring ROW Women Into
MNT R&D Process
• Good Place to Start is
With TNT for Basic Health
Care
Women’s Molecular
Nanotechnology Initiative
• FOOD: Pilot
Program in Africa to
Cheaply Increase
Food Supply at
Family Level
• WATER: Pilot
Program in Asia to
Nanobotically
Obtain Clean Water
• SHELTER: Pilot
Program in Brazil to
Manufacture Cheap
Weather-Resistant
Building Materials
• HEALTH: Pilot
Program to TeleDx
& TeleDispense (eg
ATM) Generic Meds
How Pay for Nanotech for the
World’s Poorest Women?
• X-Prize Approach, With
Much Bigger Numbers
• Double IP yrs for AntiPoverty Nanotech
• Gov’t Contracts (WPA+)
• World Nanotech Lotto
(“For Our Women”)
• Tax Holiday Until 2050 On
MNT-Produced Basic
Human Needs (Food,
Water, Shelter, Medicines)
3 Reasons Geoethical MNT is
3rdWorld Womens’ Best Friend
1. Failsafe Poverty Ender
2. Greatest Potential to
End Apartheid of Sex
3. Only Way to Realize
Our Full Life Potential
1. Ending Poverty Is The
Easy Problem, Even
Without MNT
2. 3rdW Women Will Next
Want Life Extension
3. We Must Do MNT Now
For It To Be Ready
When 3W Women Are