This technology will have tremendous potential if it can be developed; simple applications involve the creation of new and powerful materials, perfect diamond in bulk quantities and a tool to manipulate objects on any scale. More advanced applications would involve massively parallel nanocomputers, self-replication and more or less bright nanodevices able to interact with their surroundings.
Since there are tremendous amounts of material on nanotechnology and its possibilities, implementation and limitations, I will concentrate mainly on its applications in transhumanism and some technical aspects.
Introduction
Other Websites
Organizations
Technology
Systems
Parts
Modelling
Applications
Medicine
Computing
Engineering and Daily Life
Social and Economic Aspects
Survival
Books
The Memetics of Nanotechnology
Other Sites
Books
See Also
What
is Nanotechnology?
Nanotechnology page by Ralph
Merkle, one of the foremost nanotechnologists. Explains what Nanotechnology
is about and contains many useful links to various documents.
Engines of Creation:
The Coming Era of Nanotechnology by Eric
K. Drexler. The entire text of the book, which deals with nanotechnology
and its possibilities. A must read for everybody!
NanoTechnology Magazine.
A very enthusiastic page for a popular science magazine about nanotechnology.
The
Written Testimony of Dr. Eric Drexler to the Senate Hearing on "New
Technologies for a Sustainable World".
Thinking
Small by Mark Pesce.
Wired
reality check about nanotechnology. When can we expect to see nanotechnology?
Jim's Molecular Nanotechnology
Web. A very good overview of nanotechnology and web resources.
Sean Morgan's Nanotechnology
Page
Nanotechnology Page at Xerox
Brad
Hein's Nanotechnology Page. A very good overview of net resources
on nanotechnology.
NanoSource. A public domain website
for the collaboration, storage and evolution of information related to
nanotechnology.
NanoLink -
Key Nanotechnology Sites on the Web
Atoma:
Matter will become software. Has a very good link
collection.
Nanotechnology in
Yahoo
The Foresight Institute. The foremost
organization for education about nanotechnology.
L.A. Nanotech Study
Group Home Page
Nanotechnology Journal A
journal on nanoscale science and technology.
Nanocomputer Dream Team. An
attempt to use the internet for collaborative work on a nanocomputer design.
Institute of Atomic-Scale
Engineering. An organization devoted to the promotion and development
of Molecular Nanotechnology. Includes many papers about mesoscale
devices.
Institute for Molecular Manufacturing
Center for Nanoscale Science And Technology
ar Rice University
The NAS Computational
Molecular Nanotechnology Group
Zyvex. The first molecular nanotechnology
development company.
Molecular
Manufacturing Enterprises Incorporated (MMEI). Provides seed capital,
advice, contacts, and other support services to researchers and business
people developing key advances towards nanotechnology.
It's
a Small, Small, Small, Small World by Ralph C. Merkle. A very complete
overview of nanotechnology.
Nanotechnology Timeline.
An overview of the technical steps that have to be solved to reach a nanoscale
replicator.
Molecular Manufacturing:
Adding Positional Control to Chemical Synthesis by Ralph
C. Merkle.
Systems
Theoretical
studies of a hydrogen abstraction tool for nanotechnology by Charles
B. Musgrave, Jason K. Perry, Ralph C. Merkle and William A. Goddard
III (published in Nanotechnology
2 (1991) 187-195).
Fullerene Tinker Toys
by Daniel T. Colbert and Richard E. Smalley. Fullerene structures might
be assembled into versatile "tinker toy" structures.
Atomically Precise,
3D Organic Nanofabrication: Reactive Lattice Subunit Design for Inverse
AFM/STM Positioning.
Molecular
Dynamics Simulation of Carbon Nanotube Based Gears.
Biomolecular
Self-Assembling Materials
Nanomodels
by David Bradley.
Distributed Molecular
Modeling over Very-Low-Bandwidth Computer Networks by Will
Ware
NanoCAD in Java.
An applet that allows you to experiment with molecular structures. An
implementation of NanoCAD,
a Freeware CAD System for Nanotechnology by Will Ware.
Molecular Assembly Sequence
Software (MASS) Release 1.0. Macintosh software for nanotechnological
modelling.
AccuModel.
A molecular modelling program using the MM3 force model with a lot of
features. A demo can be downloaded.
Medicine
This is one of the most promising and dramatic applications of nanotechnology, closely related to research in life extension and cryonics.
Nanomedicine in NanoThinc.
The Molecular Repair of the Brain by Ralph C. Merkle. Discusses the feasibility of repairing damage from cryonic suspension using nanotechnology.Computing
One of the most dramatic abilities of nanotechnology would be the production of extremely small and powerful computers in unlimited quantities.Drexler's mechanical "rod logic" demonstrates that it is possible to devise general purpose processors with a volume less than 105 cubic nanometers, and if electrochemical processes are used they can become much faster.
Nanoelectronics and Nanocomputing Home Page
Ultimate Theoretical Models of Nanocomputers by Michael P. Frank. How powerful can a nanocomputer structure become?See also: Advanced Computing
Engineering and Daily Life
Molecular Nanotechnology
and the World System by Thomas McCarthy. A look into some of the
consequences of nanotechnology.
Social Implications
of Nanotechnology Page
Nanotechnology is extremely powerful, and if developed will play a central role in the survival of humanity - or its extinction.
Nanotechnology and the
Next 50 Years by R. E. Smalley. A presentation explaining what nanotechnology
is and why we need it to survive.
The Nanotech Future:
A Digital Conversation with BC Crandall by Arthur and Marilouise Kroker.
How to reap the benefits from nanotechnology without accidentally (or
deliberately) ending all DNA-based life? Memetic engineering might be
an answer.
Nanotechnology
and Global Security by admiral David E. Jeremiah (Ret).
Engines of Creation:
The Coming Era of Nanotechnology by Eric K. Drexler. The entire text
of the book, which deals with nanotechnology and its possibilities.
Unbounding
the Future: the Nanotechnology Revolution by Eric Drexler and Chris
Peterson, with Gayle Pergamit.
Review of
Unbounding the Future by John Murray.
Nanosystems:
molecular machinery, manufacturing, and computation. The first published
purely technical study of nanotechnology.
Becoming Immortal:
Nanotechnology, You, and the Demise of Death by Wesley M. Du Charme,
Ph.D. Book about nanotechnology and how it might make life extension,
cryonics and immortalism possible.
Kadath in the Cold
Waste by Edward Keyes. Short story covering many transhuman questions.
The idea of nanotechnology has one big problem: it is so radical, so powerful that it is hard for many people to accept ("Molecule sized robots in my blood curing cancer, stopping aging and removing bad breath? Yeah, right."), and once one has accepted the basic premise it is easy to become a devout believer that sees it as the salvation from all problems ("It will end scarcity, give peace and immortality!"). Neither view is rational, but they tend to be loud from time to time, which hurts the development of real nanotechnology.
The Problem
of Nonsense in Nanotechnology by K. Eric Drexler. How to avoid nonsense?
The
Foresight Institute vs Scientific American Debate on nanotechnology.
In April 1996 Scientific American published an inaccurate and biased news
story on nanotechnology, which led to a debate between the journal and
proponents of nanotechnology (chronicled here). The most interesting aspect
in this case is the use of the web as a scientific forum, which turned
out to be very useful.
K. Eric Drexler, Engines of Creation: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology , Anchor Books 1986.
Eric Drexler and Chris Peterson, with Gayle Pergamit, Unbounding the Future: the Nanotechnology Revolution , William Morrow and Company, Inc. 1991
K. Eric Drexler: Nanosystems (Wiley, 1992) 0-471-57518-6
Robert Freitas, Nanomedicine, Landes Bioscience 1999
Journal of Molecular ModellingRelevant Newsgroup: sci.nanotech.