J. Storrs (Josh) Hall is an independent scientist and author. His most recent book, Beyond AI: Creating the Conscience of the Machine, published by Prometheus Books, details the (possibly) imminent development of strong AI, and the desirability, if and when that happens, that such AIs be equipped with a moral sense and conscience.
His previous book is Nanofuture, also published by Prometheus, dealing with real nanotechnology, i.e. molecular machines (as opposed to films and powders re-branded “nanotech” as a buzzword.)
Josh was the founding Chief Scientist of Nanorex, Inc, which is developing a CAD system for nanomechanical engineering. He remains a member of Nanorex’ Scientific Advisory Board, and well as a Research Fellow of the Institute for Molecular Manufacturing.
His research interests include molecular nanotechnology and the design of useful macroscopic machines using the capabilities of molecular manufacturing. His background is in computer science, particularly parallel processor architectures, artificial intelligence, particularly agoric and genetic algorithms as used in design, and reversible computing.
He was the founder and moderator of the sci.nanotech newsgroup for a decade.
He is known as the originator of the Utility Fog concept.
He is a proponent of replacing roads and internal combustion vehicles with flying cars. They are some of the milder innovations that he believes nanotechnology could make not only possible, but economical (not to mention safe) as well. Another is space travel.