No sooner do we mention the debate over moecular nanotech, then a note from Philip Moriarty at the University of Nottingham informs us about a new debate.
The debate entitled “Nanotechnology: Radical New Science or Plus Ca Change..?”
will be held in the University of Nottingham, UK on August 24th. Panel members include nanotechnology’s answer to J.K. Rowling, Richard Jones and Josh Hall of the Institute of Molecular Manufacturing, who are responsible for some of the fancy pictures of gear wheels made out of billiard ball atoms.
This differs slightly from other debates on the subject in the UK in that Josh Hall (Foresight/Nanorex and a key proponent of Drexler’s nanotech vision) will be a member of the panel, as will Richard Jones. So, someone from the Foresight camp will debate with a scientist who is, let’s say, rather more sceptical.
We’d still like to see someone from the Foresight gang with a background including some physics or chemistry though, as computer scientists such as Hall tend to have a somewhat shaky grasp of many of the key principles behind nanotechnologies.
Further details on the debate are available here. To make the debate even more fun, an online
facility has been set up whereby questions and comments can be submitted to
the panel in advance of the debate. Here’s one from us:
Nanoscience has progressed at an incredible rate over the past five years, whereas molecular manufacturing is still very much at the theoretical stage, and made little progress even after ten years. Why?