NaNo Time To Lose
If the decimation of the Earth's ecology and the irreversible manipulation of the genetic basis of life weren't enough scientists are designing machines that may one day replace the human species and wipe out large swathes of vegetation. Nanotechnology research and application continues to grow and yet most of us have not even heard of this new 'science' let alone had an opportunity to analyse and discuss it. We've yet to hear of any resistance to this frightening technology. Given this we present a very brief summary of what nanotechnology is, it's expected uses, the possible risks and sources of further information.
What Is Nanotech?
There seems to be some dispute about the scale on which nanotech actually functions but a fair definition would seem to be "the manufacture of materials and structures with dimensions that measure up to 100 nanometres (billionths of a metre)". The key is to 'be able to snap together the fundamental building blocks of nature easily, inexpensively and in almost any arrangement that we desire.'
This applies to a range of disciplines, from conventional synthetic chemistry to techniques that manipulate individual atoms with tiny probe elements. In the course of a few hours, nanotechnology could produce anything from a rocket ship to minute disease-fighting submarines that roam the bloodstream. Like biological cells, the robots that populate a nano-factory could even make copies of themselves. Finished goods could be had for little more than the design costs plus raw materials - such as air, beet sugar or an inexpensive hydrocarbon.
Are There Risks To Nanotechnology?
Scientists developing nanotechnology are keen to promote the possible benefits. Billions of dollars have been invested in nano research, particularly in Japan.
But what about the risks and does the well being of humanity really rest on microscopic robots completely out of our control? Perhaps the most frightening and serious risk is that of building a device about the size of a bacterium but tougher and more omnivorous. Such runaways might disperse like pollen and reproduce like bacteria, eating a wide range of organic materials: an ecological disaster of unprecedented magnitude indeed, one that could destroy the biosphere as we know it.
However optimists claim such events would probably(!) never happen because there is not the incentive to build such a robot, that nanotechnology will only be used for beneficial applications in a cautious manner. They feel the biggest threats are from malevolent forces seeking to abuse the technology.
To avoid such threats they look to the regulatory systems that have saved us from nuclear contamination, GMO escapes, asbestos, environmental carcinogens, climate change, deforestation. Exactly! For these experts there is no turning back. For them nanotechnology is here to stay and it is better to proceed with caution than to try and stop it.
But there are important questions to be asked: who is setting the limits for this technology? On what basis should we trust unaccountable, centralised bureaucracies to regulate this technology? Why are we being forced to adopt nanotech over simple, human-led technologies that we have control over and that work with nature rather than trying to replace it?
The human race might easily permit itself to drift into a position of such dependence on the machines that it would have no practical choice but to accept all of the machines' decisions. People won't be able to just turn the machines off, because they will be so dependent on them that turning them off would amount to suicide.
Some Expected Applications
Military
Thirty-five years from now, ... small, lethal, sensing, emitting, flying, crawling, exploding and thinking objects may make the battlefield [or sea] highly lethal to any life that finds itself there. Precision-guided munitions; enormous quantities and varieties of sensors (some the size of bottle-caps) able to collect and disseminate a vast amount of tactical intelligence. Advanced automation (including robots) may increasingly reduce the number of people actually within the war zone. For urban combat and surveillance in peacekeeping missions, many of the sensors will be incorporated into the human system in order to enhance performance. It may be possible by about 2025 to implant enhancements to deal with biological warfare, enhance visibility, increase strength of the soldier, and do a variety of other things. Certain genes and cells could be pulled out of the human brain and loaded into a computer chip in the same way that you create a neural network. This could lead to an artificial 'brain' with neural capacity.
Medicine
Naontech may allow the building of fleets of computer controlled molecular tools much smaller than a human cell and with the accuracy and precision of drug molecules. They could remove obstructions in the circulatory system, kill cancer cells or take over the function of sub-cellular organelles. Programmable and controllable micro-robots fabricated to nanometre precision may enable medical doctors to execute curative and reconstructive procedures in the human body at the cellular and molecular levels. In Cryonics (freezing dead people) it may be possible to have a fleet of small computer-controlled devices circulated through the body to identify and correct damage caused by ice crystals.
Further Reading And Information
- Apparently Engines of Creation by Eric Drexler is one of the originals on the wonders of nanotechnology,
- SchNEWS issue249 (www.schnews.org.uk).
- Ecologist, Vol 30 No. 7
- www.research.ibm.com/ for the website of IBM, a massive investor in nanotech.
- www.zyvex.com/ - the first molecular nanotechnology company.
- http://dmoz.org/Society/Issues/Science_and_Technology/Nanotechnology/ for a range of sites to look at.
- www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.04/joy.html article by Bill Joy - on how our most powerful 21st-century technologies, robotics, genetic engineering, and nanotech are threatening to make humans an endangered species.