Not a new sci-fi book, but the big molecular nanotechnology shindig, 2004 Foresight Institute Conference on Advanced Nanotechnology which is in full swing in Washington DC. Unfortunately other comittments preventwed us from attending, but you can follow all the fun at the New Atlantis live blog of the conference.
A lot of it is the usual variations on the usual themes, sometimes all at once, of
a) Molecular nanotechnology will happen because despite having no scientific background I am convinced of my own scientific infallibility;
b) Richard Smalley is the Devil/Pope/Darth Vadar/inset you own choice of villain, and
c) Molecular nanotechnology is theoretically possible so it will happen (a bit like nuclear fusion which we remember being theoretically possible forty years ago, and twenty years from happening ever since) and it will be sooner than you think so youd better all get ready now or you’ll be sorry and dont come crying to us when your economy goes belly up because you ignored our warnings.
But there is some good stuff and some things that made us chuckle such as the attempts to understand Sean Murdoch’s econobabble (all the numbers on the slide on global funding are way out BTW), and the assertion that transhumanism and cryonics, [are] two fields intimately connected to nanotechnology.
That being said, the Foresight Institute has recognised that it is now viewed by many in government and business as being nuttier than a fruitcake, and more than a few molecules short of a nanobot, and is taking steps to engage mainstream science. We have had our disagreements with some of the Drexlerian disciples in the past, but we need to see something more than conviction.
One leading nanoscientist neatly illustrated height of the mountain that Foresight have to scale when we raised the issue of a study of the scientific feasibility of molecular nanotechnology, His comment, well, that wont take very long to complete!
Ironically, the Foresight crew seem to have cottoned on to Richard Smalley’s focus on energy (Smalley has been talking about this for several years) as a killer application for nanotech. Not surprisingly, the solutions proposed are somewhat different.