Just when we thought there was some positive movement in the media battle to wean popular press off nanobots and get down to the real businesses of nanotech, along comes another swarm of nanobots – more idle speculation sold as science.
A new volume in the Nanomedicine book series by Robert A. Freitas Jr. describes the many possible mechanical, physiological, immunological, cytological, and biochemical responses of the human body to the in vivo introduction of medical nanodevices, especially medical nanorobots.
And we thought that we had enough issues to grapple with concerning humble nanoparticles and fullerenes.
While there is a lot of good information in the Nanomedicine series, it is well researched and thought out, albeit with a rather odd focus, we cannot help wondering whether the immense amount of effort put into determining the effects of accidentally ingesting diamondoid flying nanorobots and other decices yet to be invented may have been put to better use?
Understanding the products that are currently on, or coming to, the market, as the scientific community is curently engaged in, may have been a good place to start. After all, the Martian nanobots from Olaf Stapledons SciFi classic “Last and First Men”, published in 1930, may have similar effects on the human body, and are equally feasible.
While books of this ilk do reference scientific results, that does not make them any more credible than any other forms of fiction. We would be far more interested to hear the views of scientists, the Center for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology (CBEN) for example, or even a someone with some medical training.
While there is a place for these types of works, and we will leave readers to speculate as to where that place may be, attempting to pass off a hobby pursuit as real science is dangerous, counter productive and merely confuses people. It also propagates the myth that nanotechnology is something dreamt up by a handful of Star Trek fanatics, and provides yet more ammunition to the critics of MNT.
At TNTlog we like to take an open minded approach to the future possibilities of nanotechnology, but this work belongs firmly at the speculative end of the spectrum.