Crystal Ball Gazing With an Unabashed Geek

- Oscar Goldman, "The Six-Million Dollar Man"

Here's a revelation: I'm a geek . . . unrepentant and unapologetic. I think geek, I speak geek, and I seek geek. That's not a bad thing, and those of us in the club know that this is a golden age of geekdom -- today's technology is amazing, our gadgets mesmerizing, and our science fiction rich with inspiring possibilities.

As a graying-in-the-beard representative of the movement, however, I must caution my youthful geek comrades that the climate has not always been so vibrant.

All the Man $6M Can Buy

When I was a 1970s teenager, it was the dark ages for the geekily inclined. Brace yourself: Disco was big, and there were no Web sites, no laptops, no smartphones, no instant messengers, and little science fiction on prime time television. In the United States, all TV sci-fi during the period was, without exception, stiff, uncreative, and intellectually vapid.

The best show was probably "The Six-Million Dollar Man." Blah! I was generally bored and occasionally embarrassed by it -- especially when Steve Austin tussled with Bigfoot. It makes me retch just to type it.

Still, I watched because it was all that there was. I couldn't survive on "Star Trek" reruns alone. Plus, I had to admit that "The Six-Million Dollar Man" did have an intriguing concept to squander: the story of a man made extraordinary via enhancement with biotechnology, having an arm, legs, and eye replaced with implants.

Farfetched at the time, it was better than nothing. And I have to confess a certain crush on Lindsay Wagner's "Bionic Woman," but that's another column.

Anyway, I've been reminiscing about "The Six-Million Dollar Man" since the March issue of JOM presents a suite of articles on "the materials frontier." For this issue's purposes, the frontier comprises biomaterials, materials informatics and nanotechnology.

What's Next in the Material World?

These fields in particular underscore that today's reality has easily trumped 1970s fantasy. Getting this far wasn't easy, and forward progress will be immensely challenging. How challenging? You tell me. (Registration required.) What is the biggest challenge that affects the introduction of a new materials technology?

Here are the polling choices that I've devised:

• Environmental health and safety concerns: Remember when asbestos seemed like a good idea? Nanonaysayers do.
• Lack of existing case law and precedent: No one wants a civil court and jury to hear the six-million-dollar law suit about their product.
• Capital risk and expense: It is tough to capitalize a new venture in an established field; rolling out a new technology exponentializes the risk.
• Public opinion: Don't let your work become a politician's cause célèbre.
• Fundamental technological challenges: There's a lot of brilliant and innovative work to do before the marketing department builds Web sites.
• Inadequate workforce: Working with new technology requires skilled personnel. The question on everyone's lips: "Where will they come from?"
• Ethical concerns: This is the hot-button that lurks for every biotechnology.
• Other: Because I certainly didn't think of everything.

If you have a moment, I encourage you to take the poll, and maybe even leave a comment or two -- that's when discussion boards really come alive. Best of all, participation in the JOM Reader Zone is free.

Save your money for some other geeky need, like buying "The Six-Million Dollar Man" on DVD. For the compulsive completist like me, I recommend the "Bionic Woman" as well.