In identical polls conducted simultaneously during April 2011, readers at the two sites gave different answers regarding the potentially most powerful emerging technologies.

At the beginning of April, we posted a poll question for IEET readers that asked, “Which technology will have the biggest impact on human life in the next 30 years?” We presented the exact same choices that were offered in a poll being conducted at the same time by New Scientist, because we thought it would be interesting to compare the results.

Both polls are now concluded, and the selections preferred by their readers and by our readers are indeed different.

In the New Scientist poll, the #1 answer, chosen by 35% of respondents, was “Nanorobots fight the medical battles of the future.”

In the IEET poll, the #1 answer, chosen by 45% of respondents, was “Synthetic biology: Genomic tweaking and global change.”

The “Nanorobots” choice came in #2 in the IEET poll, garnering 25%. On the New Scientist poll, the #2 choice, with 30%, was “Soul mates” (conscious artificial intelligence), an answer that finished third in the IEET poll, at 14%.