Foresight Update 32
page 3
A publication of the Foresight Institute
Book Review
Nanotechnology: Molecular Speculations on Global
Abundance. Edited by BC Crandall. The MIT
Press: Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, England. 1996.
by James B. Lewis
This very readable compilation presents to a nontechnical
audience the basic principles of molecular nanotechnology (also
called molecular engineering), along with a diverse and
entertaining collection of proposals and speculations on some of
the applications of molecular nanotechnology.
The introductory chapter on molecular engineering, written by
Crandall, covers an impressive range of ideas and facts and
introduces some novel perspectives. He begins by explaining
measurement systems and physical scales, and then introduces
atoms and molecules, giving both scientific basics and historical
perspective, and segueing into the most relevant facts from
biochemistry and molecular biology.
A section on "A Genealogy of Nanotechnology"
presents the novel (and debatable) perspective that "The
companion fields of nanotechnology and artificial-life studies
can be usefully thought of as being the inside-out of
each other. Each is dependent on and implicates the other; each
is essentially useless and meaningless without the other."
From this view, Crandall begins his treatment of the roots of
nanotechnology with Schrödinger's 1944 essay, "What is
Life?" and with von Neumann's work on automata.
Paralleling descriptions of the contributions of Feynman and
Drexler, and the progress in diverse "top down" and
"bottom up" fabrication technologies, are descriptions
of progress in artificial life. A final section on "Research
Frontiers" includes brief synopses of recent (circa 1995)
work with scanning probe microscopes, nanotubes, biomolecules as
motors and computational elements, rational design and directed
evolution of molecules, evolution of software and genetic
algorithms, self-replication, reversible logic and other
computational architectures, and artificial membranes to
encapsulate reacting molecules.
These summaries are not meant to provide sufficient depth to
satisfy the technically inclined, but they give an excellent
overview of the sorts of research currently leading, more or less
directly, towards molecular nanotechnology. Indeed, Crandall's
introduction achieves remarkable breadth of coverage in
relatively few pages and, like the rest of the chapters in the
book, is supplemented by copious notes and references. An
interesting point for further consideration is the inherent
tension between Crandall's view that the development of
nanotechnology will require the evolution of a form of artificial
life, beyond the direct control of human designers, and the
position that Ralph Merkle has taken that, for the sake of
safety, it is imperative that we not design self-replicating
systems with any capacity to evolve.
The remaining chapters cover a fascinating range of potential
applications of nanotechnology in everyday life. A chapter by Ted
Kaehler begins by describing a laboratory-scale "in vivo
nanoscope" capable of providing atomic resolution, real time
movies of happenings inside living cells in intact living
animals. This nanoscope is a hybrid of conventional technology
and early (pre-assembler) nanotechnology, yet provides an
enormous leap in the ability of biologists to understand the
workings of cells and develop medical therapies. Kaehler uses
this description of pre-assembler nanotechnology as a springboard
to attack the idea of the "two-week
revolution"—the proposal that once the first assembler
is built, generations of nanomachines of increasingly powerful
capabilities will be built increasingly faster, radically
altering all human existence within a matter of weeks. Using
complex technologies we already know as examples, Kaehler argues
that "design ahead" is severely limited without the
opportunity to test and debug: "Two weeks after the first
assembler works, it will be in the shop for repairs."
Continuing with the theme of early applications of
nanotechnology to the human body, Richard Crawford describes how
cosmetic nanosurgery done with simple nanomachines (no on-board
computers, for example) could change hair color, cause hair to
grow or not to grow in specific locations, keep teeth clean and
skin smooth, etc., all far more effectively than with current day
treatments. Looking somewhat further in the future at more
radical modifications of the human body through nanotechnology,
Edward Reifman describes dentistry with assembler-fabricated
teeth, and even with teeth and jaws made of diamond.
Listing dozens of early applications of nanotechnology, Harry
Chesley covers the gamut from "full-wall video screens"
with micrometer resolution, to "always clean, nonslip
bathtubs", to "fully encased virtual reality [that]
completely surrounds the user, providing full-bandwidth, visual,
auditory, and tactile stimulation..." He then discusses
plausible designs for general purpose nanomachines (machines that
have nanometer-scale parts but the entire machine is micrometer
in scale) that could be programmed for different uses, how such
machines could be manufactured, and the properties of the
materials they could produce. An alternate approach to building
such general purpose machines is provided by J. Storrs Hall in
the chapter on "utility fog." The nanomachines here are
"foglets", each spanning about 10 micrometers and
containing about five trillion atoms. Mostly empty air would
contain many trillions of foglets linked together in a network
that could simulate the existence of almost any physical object.
Hall describes a city, for example, in which fog substitutes for
permanent buildings, vehicles, and household objects, and
speculates how social interactions would be regulated by the
fog's programming. The physical and computational capabilities of
the fog are described in some detail.
In a chapter on "The Companion-A Very Personal
Computer", John Papiewski focuses on a very specific device
that would use the enormous increases in computer power and
storage density expected from molecular nanotechnology. Looking
very much like ordinary eyeglasses, the companion will provide
audio and visual input, indistinguishable from reality, generated
by prodigious on-board computation and high bandwidth optical
communication links. Hundreds of channels could be simultaneously
monitored by on-board neural net computers for items of interest
to be recorded and presented to the user. The user interface,
provided by speech recognition and eye-tracking sensors, would
give access to books, movies, music, databases and knowledge
bases, etc., stored in the device's library. An important
component of the visual display system of the Companion is Phase
Array Optics, the topic of a chapter by Brian Wowk. He explains
in some detail how nanotechnology will allow PAO to create
whatever scenery can be imagined by using only two-dimensional
displays constructed from light sources 0.2 micrometers apart to
produce light with phase and amplitude calculated to form perfect
three-dimensional images. An amazing feature of such images is
that they would continue to be realistic even if magnified many
times by viewing them through a large telescope. A suit covered
by PAO could even render the wearer invisible, as in the movie Predator.
A room with all interior surfaces covered by PAO would be the
visual equivalent of the holodeck in Star Trek.
Rounding out the book with everyday applications are chapters
on "trivial" uses of nanotechnology, by Keith Henson,
and "Nanotech Hobbies" by Tom McKendree. Henson's
trivial uses range from tree-like objects that "grow"
gasoline and roofing tiles that convert solar light to household
electricity, to reinforced, self-repairing houses immune to all
natural disasters "short of a large incoming meteor,"
to a nanotechnology-provided Valhalla, where participants can be
hacked apart in Conan-style blood combat, and then be stitched
back together again by medical nanomachines. McKendree expects
hobbies to become more important as replicating assemblers
provide material abundance sufficient to eliminate the need to
work for a living. His suggestions range from model
railroad-scale human figurines that move and act realistically,
to creating atomically perfect copies of collectibles, such as
comic books, so many people could become collectors (perhaps with
some authentication scheme for the originals), to nanotech
"garden protectors" to aid gardening by killing pests,
to jumping out of airplanes without parachutes.
A common feature of the contributed chapters is that they
provide optimistic prospects for benevolent applications of
nanotechnology; none consider the disasters that could result
from abusive applications. In a postscript, Crandall hints at the
danger of human extinction and speculates that nanotechnology
will enable the dispersal of self-contained human ecosystems into
space so that all of our eggs would no longer be in one basket.
This book provides an excellent introduction to
nanotechnology. For those already familiar with the concepts, it
makes more concrete the possible early stages of implementation
and the effects upon everyday human life.
James B. Lewis, PhD., is a molecular biologist,
consultant, and Webmaster for Foresight Institute and the
Institute for Molecular Manufacturing.
Order a
copy of Nanotechnology: Molecular
Speculations on Global Abundance from our
Online Nanotechnology Bookstore
IMM
Report: NIST Holds
Microsystems/Nanosystems Meeting
Dr. John Storrs
Hall, a computer scientist most recently from
Rutgers University, who has lectured and written on
nanotechnology and served as moderator of the sci.nanotech news
group for the past decade, has been appointed as a Research
Fellow at the Institute of
Molecular Manufacturing. Besides his work as
moderator of the most widely used forum on nanotechnology,
sci.nano, Dr. Hall is perhaps best known within the
nanotechnology community for his proposal for "Utility
Fog", and for his work on reversible logic. He
can be reached at josh@imm.org.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) held
a meeting in Albuquerque, NM on January 21 to define a new
Advanced Technology Program (ATP) focus on microsystems and
nanosystems. Approximately 100 representatives of industry,
academia, and research labs participated. The ATP is a funding
activity by NIST that is intended to spur the commercialization
of advanced technologies by cost-sharing their development where
this would be too risky for the private sector alone.
The one-day meeting consisted of a series of white-paper
presentations, followed by a breakdown into eight working groups
by areas of interest. The purpose of the meeting overall was to
define the areas where a focussed program within the ATP would be
most promising. White papers had been solicited to propose cases
where a moderate research or development effort lay between
current practice and useful application. The workshop organizer
and facilitator, Jack Boudreaux of NIST, broke the white papers
down into categories of commercialization, packaging,
nanosystems, infrastructure, optics, and devices; the working
groups slightly rearranged this, primarily by way of adding a
materials group.
The nanosystems group in the breakout included representatives
of the Michigan Molecular Institute, Dendritech, the Air Force,
Sandia National Labs, Boeing, and Kodak, as well as its chairman,
Ken Smith of Rice University, and myself, representing the
Institute for Molecular Manufacturing. All of the other groups
were fairly strongly focussed on MEMS (micro- electronic and
mechanical systems), and our group was challenged to find
specifics where existing or near-term nanotechnology could either
enhance MEMS or be commercialized on its own.
The clearest case for enhancement was in the area of sensors;
this forms a major portion of present-day MEMS applications. An
example was given in Smith's white paper, which showed the use of
a fullerene nanotube as a scanning probe microscope tip
extension. A significantly clearer and more accurate picture is
obtained with the nanotube. Another existing enhancement is the
addition of molecular constructions with chemical reactivity or
specificity for detection, analysis, and filtering.
Nanoelectronics received a fair amount of discussion;
advantages and applications are fairly straightforward,
especially in conjunction with micromachines. Another area seen
as promising was the application of micromachined scanning probe
technology to mass storage in computers. The provision of a
writable substrate for such a device would be an application of
near-term nanotechnology.
The other main area considered by the nanosystems working
group was surface physics and similar cases where macroscopic
engineering approximations begin to break down with decreasing
scale. A major problem in existing micromachines is the
phenomenon of "stiction", wherein adhesive and
frictional forces between touching parts becomes much more
significant than in macroscopic machines. Another phenomenon is
that at small scales, turbulence in fluid flow disappears and all
flow is laminar; this makes it easier to simulate but also means
that shapes that would cause fluids to mix at larger scales do
not work. It was proposed that nanoscience could help to analyze,
and nanostructures to ameliorate, these and similar problems.
Most of the working groups, not just the nanosystems one,
pointed to the development of software for analysis and design as
both an immediate need and opportunity.
The Microsystem and Nanosystem focus now faces a standard
review process within NIST. If successful, it is projected to
come "on-line" in 1999. The technical contact is Jack
Boudreaux, boudreaux@nist.gov.
He points out that proposals for the area need not wait for the
focus program, but can be entered in the general ATP competition
immediately. For more information on the ATP in general, see http://www.atp.nist.gov, email
at p@nist.gov, or phone
800-ATP-FUND.
From Foresight Update 32, originally
published 15 March 1998.
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