Oh Ho. Here comes trouble. Eric Drexler and the nanobot gang are back in town and this time they are hopping mad. Responding to stinging accusations from mainstream science that nobody on the Drexlerian wing has done any science, they have produced.. A cartoon! The National Science Foundation must be quaking in their boots at this latest fatwah.
While none of these little nanofactories contravene any if the laws of physics, at least when taken singly, we have to wonder what the point is. It reminds us of a man stubbornly trying to get a Victorian steam powered mechanical calculating engine to work while ignoring the world of microelectronics, or in this case, nature, which has some elegant solutions designed especially for working on the nanoscale.
No, no, no, comes the reply, we want to do better than nature. We humbly suggest that doing the science to understand nature before anyone starts trying to leapfrog it may be a productive strategy.
One transatlantic observation that may resonate with the likes of the ETC group, who often wonder what is in nanotech for the developing world, is this. Just about every devotee of molecular nanotechnology justifies the devotional belief and refusal to face up to any alternative approach on the grounds that because my mother/wife/brother died of … or in other words because the human lifespan is too short for me.
While there are many religions around that claim to offer eternal life, it is usually in return for some form of humility. Could molecular nanotechnology be the new Kabbalah for the me, me, my meme and nobody but me and I want it right now! generation? It’s no wonder there is a backlash against nanotechnology if people stupidly promote its benefits to rich Californians while ignoring the effects that improved healthcare, access to clean water and energy would have on the whole world.
Lets call them Generation D (with apologies to Phillip K. Dick).